My First Mondo

So for a while, I’ve been thinking of how to decorate my walls. I think I’m suffering from the Steve Jobs syndrome, where he left his personal home unadorned and unfurnished for many years…my guess, most likely due to the inability to find perfect pieces that would fit his aesthetic. I’m hoping to not live a life of bare boring walls, but the decision is huge as the wall decor often defines the feel of the space.

I wrote a post a while back about the french poster movement (maitre de l’affiche)…but at prices hovering around $1k per poster, it’s just too pricey for me. So, I finally came across another poster movement that I’ve decided to invest in…the world of gig posters and Mondo.

I guess it was sitting under my nose all this time…a modern poster movement grown from the artists of today. The first piece I decided to buy is a limited edition Man of Steel poster by Ken Taylor. The appeal of the poster was instant…I only wish I equally loved the Man of Steel movie…but that’s a different story.

So one of the things that drew me to maitre de l’affiche is the rarity and collectibility of the pieces. Because of the 3 stone lithograph production technique used to create those posters…they can never be reproduced again since the stones used to create them are all destroyed.

So all the authentic posters of that era with vibrant colors from the lithograph process are now very rare. They had a finite “run” and all that remains today are highly collectible.

The same is true of these modern gig and mondo posters. Many of them are limited run and you can actually feel the ink from the screen printing process on the paper…unlike the glossy mass-market produced posters. As far as I know…they also normally destroy the screens used to produce the posters…making the potential collectibility of these modern posters pretty rare as well.

Anyways, stay tuned as I build my collection. My master plan is to dedicate an entire home wall to these posters and build a little companion app to highlight the details behind every poster (think multimedia). Then if the budget allows…mount a tablet on the wall with the attached app to serve as a guide to all the pieces! Hopefully, it’ll be like my own little museum.

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