Hip screen printing collective Print Club London has been holding the exhibition for five years now. This year’s was held earlier this month, with its 40 artists taking inspiration from their favourite band, tune, musician or gig. Illustrator and printmaker Ben Rider chose the song Firestarter by The Prodigy as the jumping-off point for his contribution. 

What did the job entail?

Rider – who counts the Victoria and Albert Museum, O2 Ireland and Samsung among past clients – explained why he chose this track: “Visually I’m quite taken by the rough and ready, I’m always excited by – and I suppose inspired by – happy accidents that come from a curious mis-registration, drips or fading of ink…”

How was it produced?

The piece was printed by Rider on a vacuum print bed at Print Club London. Rider said: “I first took a stout black GF Smith paper stock and printed a white background onto each of the 40 sheets. I did this by hand with an old roller and white ink in order to achieve a rough textured edge to then screen print on top of. The image itself is a three-layer screen print. I overlaid the Screen Colour Systems flouro yellow onto the flouro red to make an orange colour for the scarf. I then used a glossy Aqua Art Black ink for the final key layer to make it stand out more.”

What challenges were overcome?

The biggest challenge was apparently how the different layers would work together to build up the piece without the fluorescent colours becoming too brash. “At first I wanted to use five colours working indepen-dently, but I chose to simplify it to three. I felt paring back the colour range and being more bold and simple would add to the piece and give it a bit more of a lo-fi, punky edge,” said Rider.

What was the feedback?

Rider was certainly satisfied with the result, particularly the way his design subverts the conventional advertising poster aesthetic by featuring a product that, on closer inspection, is not a bottle of Coke at all, but a petrol bomb. “It’s symbolic, it’s playful, it’s rough and a bit lairy – especially with the fluorescent colours and a middle finger to the slick corporate world sold to us. It’s a bit like the sound and mood of the Prodigy track.”