Most of the time, sitting in a cool, jazzy café will bring me lots of inspirations and ideas, and it’s been a while since I got time to do it. So one day recently I visited Plakat Paradijse, a creative boutique which has a terrace café located in the heart of Jakarta, Senopati. It has a terrace on the first floor, and its ground floor is used for showroom of some old customized cars. But as fascinating as these vehicles were, what really caught my eye was the amazing array of antique advertising posters adorning the walls of the café.I ordered one of my most fattening favourites, a cappuccino float, a delicious ice coffee with vanilla ice cream and whipped cream on top, then took it outside to the terrace to feel the joy of the summer breeze and ask Jason Gunawan, one of the boutique’s owners, about this amazing poster collection.
Jason explained where all the vintage posters had come from, and why. “Most of them were from France and others from Switzweland. I started to collect them around 7 years ago when I was in college, they have given me inspiration throughout this time,” he said. “Graphic design is my speciality and I’m inspired by old design, not just from the vintage posters but old cars as well.” he explained further while I sipped my coffee.
A graduate from RMIT in Melbourne, Australia, where he majored in graphic design, Jason said he has collected not only hundreds of antique posters but thousands of old match boxes with ads on them as well. “Most of the time I like European designs from the 50s and 60s, but I do make exceptions,” he said.
Why Europe? “Mm…well Europe, especially France, has been known for its print quality, where the finest prints come from. And for collectors, vintage posters are always associated with France. Compared to other European countries, France has lots of varieties and better quality although Switzerland has some good designs as well.”
Jason explained how he collects the posters. “I receive emails from dealers regularly. Let me put it this way, back in the old days, the printing company would make extra copies whenever they printed some ads. The treasure hunters found them and sold them to the dealers. So the posters are actually old new stock or what we called mint.” He enthusiastically showed me some Christie’s booklets which had lots of vintage posters offered for sale. I was shocked when I saw the prices in euros! “The prices range between €500 at the least, to €65 thousand at the most, depending on the artist, brand, condition, and rarity,” Jason said. “The expensive ones usually are posters from exotic nude shows in France such as the Moulin Rouge, or for example this one, Jane Avril by Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901),” he said.
I asked Jason what he thinks of Indonesian poster design. “Well, based on what I’ve seen so far, I think Indonesian artists should learn more about the grid concept. There are many ‘sort of’ post-modernist works here without any grid structure, but for me personally, good design should have a grid. In college, I used to learn about the grid until I got sick of it but I’ve just got to see it as the most important thing in design, and maybe in life,” he continued. “Take the Swiss as an example, their designs are strong in the grid, and it’s all about grid, grid, grid and grid. A work of Josef Muller Brockman for instance, has a good grid and he is also wrote a book about a grid system” yawning and apologizing at the same time. I gave him a smile and signalled him that I will have to leave soon.
Seems like we let the time pass by and let ourselves be drowned in a very nice coffee break. Not wanting to end the night too early, I finished my coffee hoping that it would keep me awake.
It's hard to say good bye when he gave me a quick tour inside his office for some more vintage posters. He looked a bit tired and I think we both were, so I keep my thank-speech short. “The pleasure is mine” he said with a big smile. See you around Jason!
