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in nineteen sixty seven
John Lennon walked into an antiques shop and bought a Victorian circus poster
that inspired him to write the song 'Being for the benefit of Mr. Kite', for Sgt. Pepper.
that inspired him to write the song 'Being for the benefit of Mr. Kite', for Sgt. Pepper.
This is the clearest image we have of the print he bought that day.
When it came to writing the song, Lennon said that the lyrics were staring him in the face
When it came to writing the song, Lennon said that the lyrics were staring him in the face
and that he hardly made up a word.
I'm a huge Beatles fan
and I'd always wanted to have a copy of Lennon's poster on my wall
but with only poor reproductions available
I decided to recreate it myself from scratch.
I could figure out the approximate size of the poster based on John Lennon's height
I could work out the approximate size of the poster based on John Lennon's height
and, by chance, one corner of the poster is visible in a colour photo
which confirmed that the poster was indeed black and white.
The original illustrations
were printed from wood engravings
and that's a rare skill
so I made contact
with an artist who was more than capable of taking this on. Andy English
Wood engraving is a careful and precise process that hasn't changed in hundreds of years. Andy's work is breath taking.
up close
you understand how much care has been taken
with every single mark
After a great deal of research and discussion
we were able to strip away the noise
to arrive at what we believe these engravings
originally looked like.
While Andy was working on the wood engravings
I tracked down letterpress printer in London
who had an incredible collection all victorian wooden and metal type. Graham Bignell at New North Press
Graham's task was no mean feat
He had to match every typeface and every type size on the poster.
While other parts had to be custom-made.
You can't rush something like this.
Type is set letter by letter, line by line.
We made dozens of proofs and made hundreds of tiny adjustments to get it right.
The poster gradually came to life
just like the original back in 1843
I had set out to recreate the poster
that had inspired Lennon.
I had done it, with a little help
from my friends