Here we have a typical poster for a party at a gay bar.
Here we have a variant where some actual attention was paid. (Designers unknown for both. I suppose I could have gone to Herculean lengths to find out those names, but these guys are too reedy to be Hercules.)
Quite the gulf between the two layouts, even considering the intrinsically limited visual lexicon of gay skinheads (tautological?). Gay-fetish-party-poster design rivals conservative design in overall tackiness and lack of acumen.
In a class by itself are Nik Dimopoulos’s posters for the Trough and TroughX parties in Oz and London. This would be one of those WHY DIDN’T I KNOW ABOUT THIS GUY BEFORE? scenarios.
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They’re overly posed, with what seems to be a dealbreaker found everywhere in gay “erotic” photography shot by unseasoned and excitable young men – subjects who stare at the camera.
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But everything is so ridiculously overpo(i)sed that the photographs build up a new æsthetic from a huge kit of parts. (Tons o’ props.) Nik follows in the footsteps of Pierre et Gilles and James Bidgood, but instead of dreamy magical realism, Nik goes for tack-sharp Realist Absurdity™.
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The twee fashion catchphrase colour story applies strongly here.
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As has been true for nearly 40 years, Avant Garde Gothic doesn’t work at all except when it does, at which point how could you have used anything else?
Maybe Gay could survive after all. Naw, not a chance: Trannies will spend the next century rewriting our history, and when our generation and the one right before it die off, gay will be over. But, in our dying days in the 21st century, a couple of lads put together a really smashing set of ad campaigns. They’re just! ridiculous! enough!
Gold-lamé references
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I dropped Nik and his photographer collaborator Damien Hinds a line. (There are other photographers Nik uses, and he shoots some pieces himself, apparently.) Nik couldn’t get back to me.
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For posterity, I’ve posted every layout I could put my hands on to my Flickr. (Wouldn’t want these things to just disappear.) You can also watch Nik’s promotional videos.