COLBY POSTER PRINTING COMPANY
From 1948 until 2012 The LA based Colby Poster Printing Company defined the Southern California poster aesthetic with their fluorescent split fountain backgrounds and rebellious black letter all caps sans-serif designs. Fans of artist Ed Ruscha, Eve Fowler, and Allen Ruppersberg will no doubt also be aware of the Colby Co. who frequently collaborated with artists to create limited edition posters. Despite their artistic bona fides The Colby Poster Printing Co. mostly did commercial work for local events, concerts, carnivals, fairs, flea markets, etc. The bulk of its business depended on income from creating political poster and yard signs for elections. The family owned print shop ran for 3 generations as a union shop printing letterpress, screen, and eventually with inkjets. Their prints would go on to paper the stop signs, fences, and utility poles of Southern California.
When the Colby Poster Printing Co. closed shop in 2012 The International Printing Museum was the fortunate recipient of a large amount of it’s type, graphic woodcuts, and halftone engravings, in addition to some archival posters and fluorescent paper stock. There’s a whole drawer of Colby woodcuts labeled “Political” at The International Printing Museum. The cuts are mostly the word “Elect” in varying sizes and fonts with accompanying “Re” woodcuts that could easily be tacked on before the former. In a Los Angeles Business Journal Article from 2000 the reporter notes that “As one of only a handful of local unionized printing shops and the only one that caters to the political world, Colby gets the largest chunk of its business, about 40 percent, from campaign signs.” Colby customers weren’t bipartisan either. Former President, Part Owner, and Grandson of the Founder, Glenn Hinman, told the LA Business Journal "if candidates ask what would help their campaign, I tell them, 'neon, it's better than red, white and blue." Despite political leanings, any person would be attracted to the bold black lettering and fluorescent look of Colby. Basically, Colby was affordable and effective.
