Commentary & Analysis
OK, Whatever, but Was the “Ink” Low-VOC?
By Patrick Henry
Published: July 30, 2010
(detail from original art)
We’re only passing this along, folks.
Headbäng, a music blog for heavy metal fans, reports that Watain, a black metal band from Sweden, recently commissioned the printing of a poster in human blood.
The job was perpetrated—uh, we mean produced—by Metastazis, a photography and graphic design firm started in Paris and currently based in New York City.
Be warned: links from the Headbäng post go to some extremely graphic pictures at the Metastazis blog of the blood being collected. According to the post, the marking fluid was contributed by the poster’s designer and an unnamed Watain fan.
The process used appears to be manual screen printing. The yield was a run of 111 posters that were offered for sale at €20 apiece during a Watain concert in London.
If you’re thinking of asking Metastazis to execute something similar, be sure to read its message “to all our clients to be or not.” We must admit, it’s the most singular take on customer relationship management that we’ve seen in a long time.
By the way: does anyone know if human blood makes a low-VOC substitute for conventional ink? Was the red “green”?
Patrick Henry, Executive Editor for WhatTheyThink.com is also the director of Liberty or Death Communications, a consultancy specializing in research, education, promotional, and editorial support services for the printing and publishing industries.
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Please offer your feedback to Patrick. He can be reached at patrick.henry@whattheythink.com.
A more curious question... what was the origingal pantone color match, and what will it change to over time? Buah ha ha ha!
It was I think 10 years ago that Anthon Beeke - dutch designer - I think posters from dutch photographer Erwin Olaf - had printed in oxblood
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