This is a postcard I created last spring for an annual dinner held by the University of Chicago for some of its donors.

I used two PMS colors for the design, which was printed on a nice, smooth cream cover stock. It was enclosed in an A7 envelope with a smaller (matching) reply card and envelope.

I have always loved these album covers for their simplicity:

I'm a sucker for great book covers, and Speak Up's very own Rebecca Giménez has a knack for creating real winners with limited color that have inspired me whenever I have hunted online for inspiration for interesting ways to do more with less.

Some of my favorites from those she has posted online at her Web site include the following:

For even more great ideas, be sure to bookmark and check out her portfolio of work at http://www.rebecky.com/design.

Great topic, Joy!

Some one color trivia: Up until only a few years ago, People Magazine was only in one color--except the ads and the cover. The entire editorial content of the mag was in black and white. Kinda puts the memories of those old Farrah photos in a whole new light.

Didn't mean to bring the intellect of this discussion down...just thought you might enjoy the trivia.

Thanks Debbie.

Steppenwolf Theatre Company's latest production "Homebody/Kabul" has a great look, thanks in part to the illustration and typography:

When I was in college I worked in the office that produced posters for campus events. We had a really bad offset press and had to make the most of it. I love using two complementary colors and creating a third:

I do so much two color work its ridiculous - but I enjoy it! I think the limitations sometimes can make the design stronger - I have posted a few posters I have done in two color in the past year:

Here's a two-color CD cover I did for a local band.

Nice posters, Amanda.

Here is a set of 2-c promo materials I did for a chamber music fest about a year ago.

Thanks for the compliment Joy! And great topic too.

I'm constantly amazed by the designers on gigposters.com because they work so well within the limitations of screen printing (or xerox machines for pete's sake!). The first time I designed a poster for screen printing, I had no idea there was no trapping. No trapping!!! And the guys who printed my poster use these shiny plastisol inks that can't overprint. No overprinting!!! I was completely at a loss. It ended up turning out ok but was quite a learning experience.

Lately I've been admiring the work of a local, Dale Flattum, who makes the coolest xeroxed handbills south of the Mason-Dixon.

Oh yeah, great work, everyone!

This from Reid Miles, one of the masters of 2 colors.

These are both from here, which is in a Scandinavian language I don't recognize but has lots more great stuff.

joy, great thread.

to follow are a couple of images from Carouschka's "Tickets" book...

...

so informative and beautiful.

Has anyone seen this book? It may interest some of you.

(or xerox machines for pete's sake!)

I find photocopies to be beautiful. While doing research for a paper in college on a micro fiche machine, I printed a few "captures" out just because they were so aesthetically pleasing.

I had no idea there was no trapping.

There is trapping in screenprinting. Lots of it.

I find desgin/art like this from Mexico to be a great example of two color work. Perhaps it mainly has to do with the color choices and combination? Like Dan's example - it just stands out.

Wow. Outstanding examples. I was always really attracted to the 2-color and budget printing articles in HOW and Step-by-Step Graphics that I used to read when I just got out of college. The simplicity and contraints really focuses the message and makes the final result so much more impactful.

Personally, I have a really difficult time working with more than a couple colors and usually prefer just plain old black-and-white. Even the photographers I really like lean towards monochromatic colors schemes... Burtynsky and Gursky, for example.

Sam wrote:

"...a Scandinavian language I don't recognize..."

It's Swedish :)

Thanks for the great topic, Joy. I also work within a university, as the sole designer for a postgraduate student association at the University of Melbourne in Australia. I'm always working with small budgets, so one or two colours are normally all I have to work with.

This image (which hopefully Joy will link for me, thank you!) is the cover of a postgraduate journal I designed last year. It's just one PMS and black.

Thanks Rebecca for the reminder about gigposters.com. For more gig stuff -- which I'm sure everyone here's already familiar with , but just in case -- Aesthetic Apparatus does some fantastic two-colour work as well. Always inspiring.

Here's Helen's cover:

Unable to afford a nice, slick 4-color piece like other Universities tend to have budgets to produce, we opted for a one-color (with diecuts) cover and three color inside for the past two year's Reunion/Alumni Weekend registration guide.

The cover was printed on a bright yellow stock with a mustardy pms. What appears to be red and black ink is really just the first inside page (which was printed on an inexpensive white text weight stock) showing through the diecuts on the bright yellow cover.

I used a lot of halftones and heavy ink coverage throughout the inside pages since we were unable to run any full-color pictures or clip art. The piece was text heavy, but the spot colors -- I thought -- helped to make the piece more playful.

Registration (and attendance) jumped markably the year this piece was sent out which meant I was allowed to do something similar this year. And, luckily, the numbers jumped higher again. I credit the positive changes in the programming and the marketing, which previously hadn't been as "fun."

Hi. Here's a two-color poster I did for the yearly book fair for the University of Mexico at the palacio de miner�a

(Thanks to Joy Olivia for hosting my image in her website and for not waiting to do it till her lunch time)

A little misinformation for a house music club night. Created as a reaction to 'war' propaganda and general uneasiness (which persists to this day....)

Printed one color in a camo green pms for full symbolic effect.

Love the collage feel, especially the inclusion of the Mr. New Yorker guy at the top of the first "1"