After the 1959 revolution, Cuba's ICAIC film institute pulled hundreds of bold, flat-color silkscreen posters by hand — a graphic language of saturated inks and political punch that defined a generation of Latin American design.
Push thick coloured ink through a fine mesh screen, one colour at a time, to build flat punchy posters by hand.
- ▸Each colour gets its own screen, like a stencil stretched on a frame.
- ▸A rubber blade drags ink through the open mesh onto the paper.
- ▸No press, no plates — it's why a small studio can print thousands.
History
Founded in Havana in 1959, the Instituto Cubano del Arte e Industria Cinematográficos (ICAIC) commissioned designers like Eduardo Muñoz Bachs, René Azcuy and Antonio Pérez (Ñiko) to create posters for every film it screened. Trade embargoes meant scarce ink and paper, so silkscreen — cheap, hand-pulled, no plates — became the national poster medium.
Process
- 01
Design the poster in flat color separations, one screen per color.
- 02
Coat a silk-mesh screen with photo-emulsion and expose under each separation.
- 03
Wash out unexposed emulsion to open the stencil.
- 04
Tape the screen over cheap rag paper or newsprint.
- 05
Pull saturated water-based ink across with a squeegee, one color at a time.
Strengths
- +No press required
- +Brilliant flat color
- +Cheap per copy
Limitations
- −Registration drifts by hand
- −Slow for large editions
- −Screens need reclaiming
Sources & citations
References for the history and process described above.
- 01Cuban Film Posters from the ICAIC — MoMA — Collection
- 02Soy Cuba: Cuban Cinema Posters — Library of Congress