Bringing together the best of the best for an awesome cause is just a typical work day for Legendary Printing. Metallica in partnership with Kii Arens, Graphic Design Guru to the musical gods, was in the market for a standout collectors poster for their Helping Hands 2020 benefit concert to support Feeding America, American Association of Community Colleges, and other organizations involved in COVID-19 relief efforts. → link to new tab https://www.iheart.com/content/2020-11-24-metallica-raised-13-million-with-helping-hands-virtual-benefit-concert/
From the get-go Kii and Metallica envisioned a truly smashing item and knew our capacity to deliver one of the kind production standards would unleash the full potential of their ideas. “We’re gonna be printing it on holographic fucking foil material, that is stunning!” – Kii Arens
Link “24×18 Metallica Posters” https://www.metallica.com/store/2020-helping-hands-benefit-show-poster-kii/2020AWMHKIIPOSTER.html
The 24×18 Metallica Posters were indeed printed on Holographic Foil Cardstock which provided iridescent color shifts that created a dynamic contrast against the solid color layers.
The Serigraph print process that was selected for these custom posters involves masking portions of a screen and allowing pigments to pass through the exposed spaces and enables multiple colors to precisely layer over each other to create both texture and depth to the surface.
This technique has an origin story rooted back in woodblock printmaking of Edo Period Japan but began making fresh waves in the 1960s when Pop Artists, like Andy Warhol and Peter Max, enjoyed the flexibility and nearly limitless technical effects ranging from flat, straightforward color washes to lush textured surfaces.
Competing printers aren’t typically outfitted to produce more than a couple of separate color passes with their Serigraph presses. Relying on more intricate and large volume orders to be completed by overseas partners which is a lengthener lead time and compromises the quality control compared to what we can offer with our in-house facilities. This proved exceptionally helpful for Metallica’s poster project because they were working with a nonnegotiable tight production timeline that we confidently agreed to and ultimately outperformed. We were slated to complete the order on a Friday but received a band request, Tuesday of that week, that they needed them on Thursday instead. Undaunted by the news, the posters were ready the next day and distributed to several different locations with one ending up being box damaged by their courier. Again, ready to course correct for this new challenge, we reprinted and shipped the posters ourselves. The benefit was a massive success, raising over $1.3 million in funds, and people all over the world got to enjoy this limited edition poster.
You can see videos of us producing the poster on Metallica’s instagram account.