Monday, November 8, 2010

Baltimore City Municipal Poster Design, as viewed in Jurors' Waiting Room, City Courthouse

note: technically it is illegal to take photographs in the courthouse. this was done surreptitiously with a webcam, because these posters are the most interesting part of the waiting room for jurors, there are scores of them there. they represent a unique history of design decisions, and are reproduced here in order to discuss this history. this article is bending rules, not breaking them, by using only lower-case; it is a "lower-case" piece.

many of them feature a design of "dialectic" as well as "razzle"


the 90's held much critical dialectical debate on topics such as what is art? of course, there still was a certain pizazz in the slicing.

neo-futurism is observed in hyper-color vests, mimes, and fonts, against a truly"theater dork" city-lights and monumental stage.

silhoettoes are a good way to transcend raceism. this is the kind of message-poster that i would stare at as a kid, trying to understand it, and eventually getting a headache from it. always, my friend, always- note the font.

this photo was in the same name as the others, so i brought it out here. look at that wonderful tokyou lighting on kii-kun's face.


this poster is the worst! i love it. the musical notes have a french horn in pink, right next to my ear you see it;. you know, baltimore has always had crabs, and now it has "hon" officially accepted by the mayoral }{ and municipal gov't ":}{[[]l,; [thus] we have crab-hons,'; clowns ;;] mimes,}{:" ice cream }{';';';';' flashback to now we have a thriving silkscreen and experimental jam band scene.

you know, my friends, when i was a kid my parents took me to baltimore, and we went to the aquarium. i may have seen one or two cos-play kids down there by the harbour, and you know that's all it takes in a kid's head, to trip some sort of switch or lever. since then, for many years, i thought of baltimore as the following:

"a hairy, but compassionate looking, man, his hair in curls and capped loosely with a jazzy french hat. the man is playing bongoes in a room full of crazy art."



turns out this came alive when i was about 22, when i met twig harper and moved to baltimore... he is totally such a man and there are many others here, it's like i have discovered an imaginary land that was leveraged in my brain a long time ago... he also has designed many posters which i like, and he would appreciate these posters here if not for he were ;']['.;'][';.;'

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