Handmade press and silkscreen print enthusiasts and lovers should get closer to their screens now because Eric Nyffeler does that very well. And by that I mean posters… Already without a doubt we can say that we live in a time of indie culture. And I’m going to present to you one of its member and icon, who lives by his dreams.
So “indie“ culture is partly D.I.Y. (do-it-yourself) culture, which, as you might know, the last couple of decades were unreasonably suffering from consumerism and people’s laziness. It is nice to see that, doing something yourself is becoming fashionable and an easily available again.
E. Nyffeler’s workshop, or rather himself is located out of Lincoln (USA, Nebraska). As he reveals, most of the day he sacrifices in the marketing department at big corporation and only during dark evenings artist-designer can allow himself to touch paint. Exactly this rather short part of E. Nyffeler’s day spawns most interest. Inevitably the idea to create posters came to “Doe-eyed” founder when his band started playing. E. Nyffeler realized the importance of good poster and instead of handwriting the announcement of band’s gig started creating unique and valuable pieces. There and then it became obvious of a talent this youngster possessed. Maybe band wasn’t very successful, but one of the members doesn’t lack attention at all.
Although E. Nyffeler still lives in his dreams, in which he becomes successful musician and drops designer’s “craft”, the real recognition comes from other “indie” scene bands : The Decemberists“, „Andrew Bird“, „St. Vincent“, „Yeasayer“ and others. Artist’s “grunge-ish” prints attracted some record-label’s attention too.
Most of you already noticed that weird fetish of “indie” scene for silkscreen prints. Some bands that are just starting are taking care not only of their handmade posters and t-shirts, but even of compact discs prints, which I might say is really nice looking, what you can’t always say about their sound. This way the band that isn’t very good can take pride in good poster or other merchandise. And yes, I speak strictly professionally, so I hope that you will not judge me for praising the cover and not the music.
E. Nyffeler found a golden middle in this plane. While making music, he does very good posters for other great bands.
“Doe-eyed” works bribe us with their “retro” color scheme, pastel, dirty colors remind old-school posters, even some kind of ornament that are borrowed from 60-s and 70-s. It is true that most use the same kind of tricks in their own works, but it is rare of them to do it so accurately. Maybe it helps that Nyffeler’s works have natural silkscreen defects, because offset print posters that imitate same thing looks at best as misunderstanding. Moral could sound hypocritical and banal, but it is obvious, that silkscreen is going to be superior to other graphic design means.
When the opportunity arises and financial conditions will get better, I will buy one of his prints to support the artist. I suggest you do the same.
Eric plans on continuing to screen-print posters, meeting a dog he can actually stand, and deserting graphic design completely in the off-chance his rock-n-roll dreams actually come true. – from authors web page.
www.doe-eyed.com
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