Douze.de

Lately I could indulge in my affinity for vinyl because DIE ART wanted me to design a second vinyl cover and finally also wanted me to handprint it in a very limited edition.

The record grooves of Arcane were cut in gorgeous red vinyl. These pics as well as new ones from the printing process and other nice details are in the gallery.

Arcane is already the second cover which will shortly find its place in a limited collector’s box. Those who are interested should quickly grab this record, it’ll be out of stock soon. The strict limitation forbids as well a refilling of empty record shelves. Take this way to the shop…

My new colour palette

goes from ochre over olive green to deep black, exhales the sweet scent of roses and is biodegradable. At least, that’s the kind of colours I can get cheap right now, because my little saviour was born and he delights me several times per day with always new colour creations… – somewhat earthy, I have to admit, but always very inventive. I don’t really know why but for now, for my new posters, I have made recourse to my approved colours.

Two new posters for The Black Keys wanted to be designed and printed this week. So, between changing and dandling the newborn and looking for the dummy, I somehow managed to make one poster for the Berlin show and another one for the Eindhoven show. The friendly parking inspector was printed with 5 screens on solid sandy cardboard. As I heard after the show, the Berlin police was so happy about this that all parking violators got a discount on their tickets.

The red or the blue cable? This question doesn’t even arise with my neatly tied up package of dynamite – here you only have to decide per switch: black or … Theposter for the Eindhoven show was printed with two screens on “dark white” cardboard in an edition of 136. Some exemplars of both posters are still available in the shop….

Hat, beard and sunglasses,

maybe still turn one’s collar up, and the possibility to be identified in the crowd drops enormously – indirectly proportional, the possibility to be pushed on stage by the security staff raises… Very shortly after Kid Rock, the second Blues Brother came under my screen: Jan Delay. He filled the concert halls on his tour with his Disco No. 1. The poster was printed with five screens, with day glow colors and lucent silver on very fine, cream white cardboard. And as it has to be for disco, the poster goes up to No. 1 under ultraviolet light! Already the second time, Conor Oberst was served in our house: Right now, Bright Eyes are touring around the world to convince as many people as possible of the quality of their new album “The People’s Key”. And, different from the Blues Brothers, eyes can definitely be seen on the poster for the Bright Eyes concert in Berlin. But these aren’t Mr. Oberst’s eyes glowing here, but the ones that decorate the peak of the pyramid which makes the back of the dollar note a mystery for many conspiracy theorists. A small edition of these was printed with three screens – in ochre with a gold note, in copper and a glazing grey on cream white cardboard. The metalliferous colors reflect the light always differently from different viewing angles. The last posters can be bought here in the shop. In March, I will take a close look at the back of dollar notes again: The Douze Studio will take part in the Flatstock at theSXSW-Festival in Austin. From April on, there will be lots of new surprises here…

Music is a Form of Art…

under this name, the indigenous usual suspects will know this, a small but nice concert series takes place here in Dresden, and it brought us a very special goody in the last days of last year. Those who made it through the winter wonderland to the mountain shelter „Altes Wettbuero“, were rewarded by Mahjongg with a real form of art. Four fucked up Chicagoans performed stirring synth-punk melodies out of their worn away suitcases and made an audience which is normally hard to inspire move ecstatically.
                     
On the way to get a decent beer for the Douze booth at Flatstock 14 at the Pitchfork Festival in Chicago, besides known sounds and looks of Public Enemy or Vampire Weekend, this lively bunch of band caught our eyes and ears pretty much in the same time. So it was only consistent to print a Mahjongg poster at the first opportunity offered…                          

…so it happened and I printed the poster with four screens and special lucent colors (cyan, magenta, two different shades of grey) approximately 80 times on magnificient, natural white cardboard.                                                                                                                              

A cowboy’s boot full of schnapps

wouldn’t have been enough to make me believe that I will ever print a poster for the Kid Rockrowdy. But punctually for his resurrection as a now matured folk-rocker, a request of an old good friend landed on my drawing table. The only promo-show in Germany for his new album „Born Free“ took place in Cologne where he presented his latest notes and words which were compacted on a disc. It was organised – and this is not new – by an American Schnapps brand and Warner Europe. The poster is limited to 100 exemplars and shouldn’t be easy to get on the free market – except for, of course, a few artist proofs here in the shop. I put a lot of effort in the drawing of the poster and printed it with 6 different screens on an extremely thick cardboard carton with glazing or top-dressing colours and gold. Mr Rock liked his juvenile image on the poster so much that he spontaneously held it into the camera for the press photo. Seven differences can be found….

When I lately undertook a small promotion tour for Saxon screen printing gig-posters through London’s record shops and similar rock shops and galleries, I only looked at sceptic faces after having told my story of concert posters which are elaborately designed, printed by hand-craft and limited in number. (Now, I’m thinking that it was perhaps due to my creative vocabulary that they didn’t know?) In any case, not a single retailer was able to imagine that there exists a market for such a kind of art, and I thus I dismissed the idea of London as a further poster hot spot. That was 6 years ago.

In the meantime, my Anglo-Saxon colleagues have moved on a lot and gig-posters are no longer unknown on the island neither, even the contrary: English bands have a great interest in the colourful and imaginative announcements of concerts which don’t disappear in the nowhere after the gig, but get exclusive permanent places in clubs or living rooms of fans and collectors. The Coral made a tour through Europe during the last weeks and especially for the final concert in London’s Royal Albert Hall, a screen printing was crafted in the Douze Studio. Four glazing tones of blue describe a naive underwater world and a glaring red sets some emphasises and the inscription “The Coral”. And as the band is at home near Liverpool, there is also a small colourless submarine which passes…

In the weeks until the turn of the year, further exciting posters are going to be designed and printed. In the shop, the 3 for 2 offer, enjoying great popularity, continues. All purchase orders which are made until the 22nd of December at 6 o’clock pm, will be posted at the same day and should thus still arrive on time, before the public holidays (that is of course only possible within Germany).