Noir City Film Festival Design Keeps It Reel

The San Francisco Bay Area loves its festivals. You’re hard-pressed to live around PsPrint headquarters without finding some sort of film, food or any other themed gathering on the weekend. That’s one of the reasons PsPrint is proud to sponsor not one but two beloved Bay Area annual festivals that begin this week. While SF Sketchfest launched on Thursday, Noir City bows tonight. PsPrint is thrilled to do the printing for both festivals. Noir City, organized by the Film Noir Foundation, plays at San Francisco’s Castro Theatre every year and is known for digging deep into the movie vaults for noir that is both popular (“Sunset Boulevard,” “Gun Crazy”) as well as more obscure or not available on DVD (“A House Divided,” “Inferno”). PsPrint is back to sponsor Noir City for another year, and we printed the program, opening-night tickets to Noir City Nightclub, posters and postcards. “This is the 11th year that we've used PsPrint for our posters,” I was reminded by Eddie Muller, Film Noir Foundation founder and president. “We have never had a problem and have always been completely satisfied with the work.” Scroll down to see more Noir City print materials.

San Francisco-based Bill Selby designed the posters, postcards and tickets, which, to me, are vintage noir with a modern edge. The souvenir program was designed by Michael Kronenberg, from Chapel Hill, N.C., though I think it looks like it could have been created in the ’50s – the same time period as “The Other Woman” and “The Come On” were made. Those two movies make up Bad Girls Night next week, which I plan to attend. Kronenberg’s program and so many of the noir movie posters have a distinct design style: garish typography, splashy graphics and contrasting colors. Which Noir City movies are you going to check out? At minimum, I’m seeing the ones below. I’ve attended the past number of years, and people get dolled up to pack the balcony of the gorgeous Castro Theatre – it’s definitely a unique experience. Most movie-goers will be treated to the mighty Wurlitzer organ, too! While you’re there, be sure to thank Muller for hosting such a darkly entertaining film festival – he’ll be the guy in the fedora.