David Bowie, Iggy Pop, and Miles Davis posters

David Bowie, Iggy Pop, and Miles Davis posters by The Colby Poster Printing Company

The Colby Poster Printing Company was a family-owned business established in Los Angeles in 1948 and closed in 2012. They produced posters for local events, concerts, fairs, and political candidates, and collaborated with various local artists, including Ed Ruscha and Eve Fowler. Their shop used traditional letterpress techniques, using wood or metal type.

“The Colby Poster” is most well-known for its strictly condensed black typography on bright and/or neon backgrounds and/or paper stocks, often featuring split fade gradients. The colors and type were a great fit for a dominant car culture in Los Angeles. Their work is characterized by its bold type, which breaks many modern typographic rules, as the printing company was run by non-designers. In their time as a print shop, they didn’t sell a single poster; they just made them. They didn’t keep an archive of their work because they didn’t know they were making art.

The Colby Poster has become tied intrinsically to our modern conception of poster design in Los Angeles. Though they have closed due to more digital printing demands, their legacy is seen through many of the posters seen around town in Los Angeles today. Notably, the initial posters for the yearly “Made in LA” exhibit at the Hammer Museum were designed by them.