The poster is dead. Long live the poster!

June 17, 2009 8:41 PM

I'd like to print a very small run of posters (maybe 15 each of 6 or 7 different, related designs) soon. What's the best way to go about this?

The posters are still concepts at this point, though I imagine I'm going to draw them and then manipulate them on the computer. I'd like either to have a printer do them, or to do them myself, but if I do them myself, the method needs to be very inexpensive. I do not have a budget to go out and buy more than, say $15-20 worth of supplies.

These posters will be displayed in an art show, so they need to look good (i.e., I'm not looking for the rasterbator).

posted by ocherdraco to media & arts (12 answers total)

What size? How many colors? I think your budget is unrealistic. I'm assuming you want a standard poster size of 24"X36". Kinkos does runs of six full color posters and they will look very professional for 51.00 dollars assumimg your graphic files are ready to print. In printing, short runs are almost the same price as longer runs. Discmakers.com for instance does very nice runs of 300 posters for $99.00. I hope someone steps up with a solution in your budget. You might be able to do a single color like black on colored paper for your budget at a local independent print shop. I'm assuming you mean 15-20 dollars for all 100 posters not for each design.
posted by Muirwylde at 1:05 AM on June 18, 2009

I should clarify: I understand it'll be more expensive if someone else is printing them (the prices you quote for Discmakers and Kinkos sound like what I expected). The smaller budget is for if I print them myself—I wanted to deter answers that would tell me to acquire all sorts of expensive printing equipment, because I have neither the funds nor the space to do so.

What size? How many colors?

I don't know yet. How I print them will likely have some effect on both.
posted by ocherdraco at 4:56 AM on June 18, 2009

I don't think $15-20 will even pay for the paper for 100 posters, unless you are running them at 11x17 or smaller.
posted by MegoSteve at 4:56 AM on June 18, 2009

Kinko's quality sucks ass, because their employees are mostly untrained and underpaid, and they charge too much, because they can. I'll hit you up via email.
posted by Optimus Chyme at 6:24 AM on June 18, 2009

Optimus Chyme is the best Optimus. Thanks.
posted by ocherdraco at 6:49 AM on June 18, 2009

My only advice would be to hit up a local print shop as opposed to Kinkos/OfficeMax etc. I have always gotten much better rates and much faster service at these types of places, on top of that the people have usually be doing it for a while and both know what they are doing and can offer recommendations about different options that you might not have thought about.
posted by magnetsphere at 11:13 AM on June 18, 2009

I've heard (and this is second-hand knowledge at best, unfortunately) that if you're a Costco member, Costco's Photo Center is a great option.

I've been looking to print some high resolution video game images as posters, and am planning on using Costco.

Not sure how well they scale to bulk prints, though.
posted by Bard09 at 10:44 PM on June 19, 2009

For the record...Kinkos does excellent work on Maui. Ever thought of developing a relationship with the people that work there? I suppose no. That would suck ass for you too wouldn't it...
posted by Muirwylde at 10:40 PM on June 20, 2009

Muirwylde, sorry if I hit a nerve, but I worked for Kinko's when I was in college, and my adulthood has been spent in the print industry. I know what I'm talking about. The people who work at Kinko's are always very nice and extremely competent within a certain range of services. If I need 50 copies of a long document, three-hole punched, with a bunch of crazy tabs and such, I'll go to Kinko's. But Kinko's doesn't do this sort of project very well.
posted by Optimus Chyme at 10:50 AM on June 22, 2009

For the record...Kinkos does excellent work on Maui.

I can report from past experience that this is not the case in New York City, at least. My experience in New York City is more in line with OC's in terms of service.

Also, in New York City the average Kinkos' seems to be outrageously understaffed -- so while you're right that I could "develop a relationship with the people that work there," my biggest obstacle to that would be in finding the time to do so around every other customers' attempting to get their jobs done as well.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 12:29 PM on June 22, 2009

I don't think that Kinko's will be right for my project, but I do appreciate that there are projects they can do well (and I have, in fact, used them for such things).
posted by ocherdraco at 4:05 PM on June 22, 2009

Update: the poster project has turned into a wallpaper project. I'm figuring it out.
posted by ocherdraco at 1:35 PM on July 15, 2009