how a poster learned to roar
Four painterly rules of the ring
1
The dark comes first
Every sheet starts on near-black litho ground — the colour lights up only because nothing else does.
2
One hot red, one loud yellow
Vermilion does the shouting, circus gold answers — two pigments carry the whole tent, no muddy in-betweens.
3
The hand stays in the letter
Type is brushed by the same arm that paints the clown — uneven, gestural, never set in a tidy grid.
4
The grain is the proof
Offset texture and visible bristle marks stay on the sheet — we print the gesture, not a clean vector.