DESCRIPTION New York Public Library Poster CLIENT The New York Public Library DATE December 2009 DESIGN CREDITS Matthew Poor PRINT CREDITS Kayrock Screenprinting TYPE CREDITS Bauer Bodoni Kievit

QUANTITY PRODUCED 100 PRODUCTION COST $370 PRODUCTION TIME 5 days DIMENSIONS: WIDTH × HEIGHT × DEPTH 20 in × 26 in (printed area, cut sizes varied) PRINT METHOD Silkscreen PAPER STOCK The Wall Street Journal NUMBER OF COLORS 2 Spot (PMS 809 and 7946)

How to solve a small print run with a minimal budget? There are many different solutions to this problem, of course, yet the poster designed by Matthew Poor for the New York Public Library stands out in design, production and risk.

Really I was inspired by the idea of enabling someone to create their own financial future, to make their own outlook. This is where the idea of printing on The Wall Street Journal came from. It just so happened that the budget was too small to do digital printed posters, and the quantity needed couldn’t justify offset. The only way to make it work would be silkscreen, as small quantities are still cost effective, and to not have to buy expensive paper. I knew I had the solution.

The main problem was getting people who had never seen something printed on a newspaper to agree to it, but I knew they would love it once they saw the actual piece. Since I just couldn’t make a mock-up that really captured the beauty of silkscreen and the interaction of inks on top of each other, I had the posters printed before I got final sign off. I presented them simply as samples, knowing full well if they were killed I’d have to pay for them myself. It was a gamble, but it worked out.

For those of you who have printed on newsprint, you know there are usually some challenges to be tackled due to its thinness and permeability. Matthew had his set of challenges, lessons and subsequent solutions.

Silkscreening on newsprint is a huge challenge. Because it’s so thin, the paper buckles as it dries, so big floods like we had here were just asking for trouble. The guys did a phenomenal job, and we learned as we went that papers bought the same day take ink much better than ones that sat for a week.

So there you have it, a date is more than a date where newsprint is concerned.