Wonder Room shows how to adapt posters designed for print for online

Date
30 July 2015

It goes without saying that we receive more information from screens than we do from paper. But posters are such a superb platform for graphic design experimentation that they seem unlikely to become obsolete. Instead, they’re adapting, and a wonderful example of that shapeshifting is in the smart moving posters of agency Wonder Room. The man behind them is Steve Hockett, who made them in response to seeing his poster designs diluted for online platforms.

“They are kind of online versions of printed posters I’ve done,” he says. “I’ve been exploring how we can give things designed for print a new life in a digital format. I make a lot of posters for shows which were getting used more on social media than in real life so I started thinking more about their function beyond being stuck up on a wall.

“When they get used online it always seems kind of wrong, it doesn’t make sense (beyond saving time and money) to use something which is designed to be printed on standard sized paper in that context.”

Aside from this simple but smart solution to the digital vs print issue, the posters are bloody lovely, if rather strange. Ranging from an, er, excitable naked man to some zine-like painterly typography and stark monochrome patterns, they’re a varied and pleasing bunch.

“I work quite expressively, often by hand so I feel a lot of the things I design have movement in there and there’s an opportunity for that to come out on screen,” says Steven. “Making an ancient hillside chalk giant’s dong swing is also just kind of funny isn’t it? I bet the people that made that never would have imagined it would wind up that way.” 

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Wonder Room: Poster

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Wonder Room: Poster

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Wonder Room: Poster

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Wonder Room: Poster

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Wonder Room: Poster

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About the Author

Emily Gosling

Emily joined It’s Nice That as Online Editor in the summer of 2014 after four years at Design Week. She is particularly interested in graphic design, branding and music. After working It's Nice That as both Online Editor and Deputy Editor, Emily left the company in 2016.

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