Remember those sweet screenprinted pinball posters we gave away last year for the five year party? Ever since having them printed we have promised ourselves a trip to see where the magic takes place at Globe printing and last week we finally got the chance to go behind the scenes and experience the hands on excitement of screenprinting.

The shop was founded in 1929 and is now run by three brothers, Bob, Frank and Joseph Jr. Cicero who took over the business from their father, Joseph Cicero Sr., in the 1960’s. Since then, they have been producing screenprinted and letterpressed posters and signs for musicians, performers, and clients all over the country.

I didn’t notice how big their shop really was until Bob and Jasmine Sarp (a former Orange Element intern), took us to the back of their shop. It was incredible to see the amount of letters and equipment that they have–they could very well start a museum of wood type alone. One of their letterpresses dates back to the 1920’s, and it is one of the largest presses in the mid-Atlantic, able to print up to 40’’x 60’’ posters. They also do a lot of screenprinting manually at smaller sizes, so for some who have never used a squeegee and a screen before, it takes a lot of time and effort to produce a large quantity of prints. However, the results are great, and the ink applied onto a surface looks incredibly vibrant and rich. A lot of their posters have hand-drawn type, halftoned images and blocks of colors behind the images which create a vintage look. Vintage posters for acts such as Parliament Funkadelic and Marvin Gaye are great examples of the “Globe Poster” style. I am looking forward to see more designers work with Globe in the future to revive the woodtype and letterpressed style.

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