Art Metropole

#05988

In the Good Name of the Company: Artworks and ephemera produced by or in tandem with the Colby Printing Company

Date

2013

Publisher

PictureBox Publishing

Format

Artists' Books

Details

Softcover

Size

19 × 24 × 1.7 cm

Length

324 

The Los Angeles–based Colby Poster Printing Company has been a friend to local artists ever since Ed Ruscha’s seminal Colby-printed announcement for the 1962 Pasadena Art Museum exhibition New Paintings of Common Objects. Their fluorescent posters have been disseminated on every high-traffic surface in the city, and their collection of over 150 wood and metal typefaces—usually bold and sans serif—are an integral part of Los Angeles’ visual aesthetic. Throughout the years, posters promoting everything from 1980s punk and heavy metal concerts to swap meets, street fairs, gun and bridal shows, local political campaigns and countless artist projects have been printed on Colby’s Heidelberg letterset press. A family-owned and operated union print shop since 1948, the Colby Poster Printing Company closed its doors forever on December 31, 2012. This book documents the print shop’s history and one of its final projects: a series of editioned posters by artists including Ruscha, Kathryn Andrews, Scott Benzel, Peter Coffin, Daniel Eatock, Eve Fowler, Jacob Kassay, Allen Ruppersberg, Andy Spade and Craig Stecyk. Printed in four neon-spot colors, this book is a unique tribute to Colby.