Poster Cult

Poster Cult offers a detailed insight into the nationally and internationally renowned poster printing technique of one of Switzerland's foremost poster designers, Dafi Kühne. In his varied works, Kühne plays with the contrast between analogue production tools and modern layouts. Since the release of his first publication True Print (also published by Lars Müller Publishers) seven years ago, Dafi Kühne's work has expanded and developed substantially. Since 2018, he has been working with larger print formats, which is made possible by the use of the largest one-person letterpress printing machine with inking unit ever produced. Poster Cult aims to build on this development and document Dafi Kühne's work over the last ten years. While True Print is an introduction to Kühne's work, this new publication provides insights into the technical and conceptual development and the background to his poster work. The focus is on the simultaneous balance and tension between poster culture and poster cult, between the romanticisation of the craft and the integration of digital tools, and the consistent application of autonomous design processes. The publication comprises the careful presentation of 70 selected posters, as well as black and white photographs by Peter Hauser that illustrate the artist's connected digital and analogue working process. These expressive images are complemented by various texts by cultural experts that contextualise the works. The publication also contains a glossary that illustrates printing procedures and processes, thus enabling experts and poster enthusiasts alike to access the work.