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Design Trend Report: Linocut Graphics and Effects

Linocut can create a host of visually striking and memorable images that will leave an impression. Here's a deep dive into everything you need to know about this relief printing technique.

Marc Schenker September 2, 2021 · 13 min read

If you’re looking for a new design trend, there’s hardly anything more interesting than linocut graphics and effects. As with all good design trends, linocut graphics and effects leave you with a sense of curiosity and admiration. This printmaking technique is actually a variation on woodcut, which itself is a relief printing technique characterized by the designer drawing an image onto the surface of a wood block, so that the print begins to part level with said surface as the non-printing parts are removed. With linocut, a basic sheet of linoleum is used as the relief surface. As you can imagine, this specialized approach to design can create a host of visually striking and memorable images that will leave an impression on you. Here’s a deep dive into everything you need to know about linocut graphics.

The History of Linocut

Linoleum as a floor covering goes back to approximately 1860, but this printing technique for graphic design only arrived on the scene in the early 20th century. Linocut was initially explored by creatives and artists from the school of design called Die Brucke, which translates to “The Bridge.” This school of design came from German Expressionism, which was characterized by showcasing extreme emotion via high-level colors that were frequently not natural. Between 1905 and 1913, this material that had been mainly used for wallpaper covering slowly but surely transitioned to its role as a medium for creating art. Interestingly, linoleum was traditionally used, thanks to it being a cheap alternative to more refined materials, as either a teaching product in schools or just by amateur artists looking to further hone their skills. German artists such as Gerd Arntz were fond of this material nonetheless, especially the opportunities in stark contrast that linoleum offered.

If we look to one artist who made linocut popular in the UK, we have to look at Claude Flight, a pioneer in the field who also produced woodcuts. Since his first experimentation with linocut in 1919, Flight became the infant technique’s most fervent promoter because of his philosophy. He looked at the affordability of linoleum as a way of bringing this graphic-design style to a broader audience—the masses, if you will. As such, it was the democratization of art and design that he was interested in. Flight was influenced heavily by other important design movements that were active at about the same time. Noteworthy among those were heavyweights like Futurism and Cubism. In his work related to linocuts, Flight was fond of using techniques such as movement and speed, and he also delighted in using simple and bold forms, which made him an early proponent of minimalism. If you’re not yet convinced about Flight’s dedication to this printing technique and art form, try this on for size: over the course of his career, he managed to produce more than 64 unique linocuts along with nine books on the subject. The famous Pablo Picasso also contributed to this design movement. From approximately 1958 to 1963, Picasso created some highly memorable compositions when he began to dabble in linocuts. Though linocuts were only a relatively small part of the works that he produced over the course of his career, they still contributed greatly to putting this printmaking technique on the map in a big way. What was so unique about Picasso experimenting with linoleum was that it wasn’t his forte, to say the least. Though he had created graphic designs before, primarily with lithography and etching, he had never before ventured into something like linocut. It was also interesting that Picasso was already 78 when he started to broaden his artistic horizons by working with linoleum for the first time. One of Picasso’s more well-known linocuts was his reimagining of Portrait of a Young Girl by Lucas Cranach the Elder. While his work was definitely memorable, he surprisingly found the linocut process to be labor-intensive because it needed the cutting and alignment of six, separate colored blocks on top of each other for precise printing.

After this initial frustration and taking a break from linoleum for a couple of years, Picasso returned to this design movement because he came up with what he thought was an ingenious solution to this labor-intensive effort. Now called the reduction method, he went from printing on several, different blocks to using just one, big block. The block would be printed in the lightest shade of color, then additionally cut and printed further from the lightest to the darkest colors. While this may have saved him some time and therefore allowed him to circumvent the large effort required, his new method was more mentally taxing. Now, Picasso had to deal with pretty much visualizing how every, single alteration to the block would look without being able to see it in front of him. Needless to say, being able to imagine how such changes would affect the overall composition of the block took great, artistic genius. Another great artist who contributed to linocuts was none other than the Frenchman, Henri Matisse. Matisse was renowned for working with a slew of printmaking techniques over the course of his career, thereby allowing him to smoothly move from one to the next, eventually leading to linocut. Matisse actually started experimenting with linoleum a full decade earlier than Picasso. Starting in the 1940s, Henri Matisse produced a collection of linocuts that were based on Greek Mythology’s legends, like those of Minos and Pasiphae. The result of this labor, which took him almost a year, was recognized as one of the greatest contributions to linocut printmaking within the 20^th century. For a look at how some of today’s most creative designers are applying linocut themes, see our large selection of linocut-inspired digital assets:

Linocut Graphics and Effects: The Technique Explained

When we say linocut, we are indeed talking about linoleum, that old floor covering you’re used to seeing in your grandma’s house that’s made from materials like wood flour, mineral fillers, ground cork dust, pine rosin, and linoxyn, which is really solidified linseed oil. The thing with linoleum is that it’s a highly versatile material—which is why it’s used in this printing technique. But before we even get to the linoleum, it’s important to plan the design on something as basic as a plain piece of paper. This is where designers will sketch out any patterns or compositions they want to test out for the actual linocut. Designers may even use design software like Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator to get an idea of how aesthetic the finished design they have in mind might be. From here, designers have two options:

They can draw their designs on paper and then transmit their illustration onto the linoleum through graphite transfer paper
They can carve or draw their design right onto the linoleum sheet (which can be mounted on a wooden block or just unmounted as thinner sheets)

To make these linocut graphics, designers have to cut right into the surface of the linoleum, usually with a very sharp knife or a V-shaped chisel. The goal of any linocut print is to have the uncarved or raised areas showing a reverse or mirror image of the parts that will show up printed. In other words, what designers carve out of the linoleum sheet won’t be in the printed image. The carbon process can be a little bit tricky and potentially harmful, which is why artists will generally carve and chisel in the direction away from their free hand.

Designers also have a number of choices when it comes to the manual carving tools at their disposal:

Chisels
Knives
Gouges (U- or V-shaped)
Japanese-style woodcutting tools

Next, the sheet of linoleum is inked with something called a brayer, which is a hand tool for rolling ink. This is also the moment when designers have a chance to periodically inspect their work to see that it’s on the right track by rolling only thin layers of ink onto the linoleum. One of the bigger challenges facing artists at this point is the temptation to use excessive ink. For the most part, though, using moderate amounts of ink gets better results. There are two types of ink available to designers:

Oil-based ink
Water-based ink

With all of these preparations out of the way, the real printing process can start, usually through a printing press. Unsurprisingly, there have also been numerous choices for designers when it comes to their favorite printing press for linocut graphics and effects. Here’s a rundown of a few of them:

A Columbian press, which lets printmakers print larger forms in a single pull
An Albion, an old-school hand-printing press
Modern etching presses

What’s interesting about this process is the ease with which, in general, designers can create specific, artistic impressions compared to traditional woodcut printing. This is because, with linoleum, the material in question doesn’t have any directional grains or a tendency to split—but wood tends to.

Helping this along are the distinctive traits of linoleum that include:

Being easier to cut than wood
Having a diced quality

Linoleum also comes with a couple of disadvantageous qualities that can nonetheless make it challenging for designers to work with it. These include:

The flimsiness of a sheet or block of linoleum
The quicker degradation of plates, thanks to the pressure of the printing process

The Characteristics of Linocut Graphic Design

By now, you have a great understanding of what makes this linoleum-based technique so special. At this point, it’s a great opportunity to talk about the one-of-a-kind qualities of linocut design. When you look at any linocut piece, the following immediately become apparent:

An otherworldly look
A faded, grungy or even vintage appearance
A lot of black and white (monochrome, though color prints are around as well)
Stark lines
Simple forms and shapes
Lots of shading effects
Geometric shapes
Abstraction instead of realism
Common themes including people animals and daily scenes of life

Overall, linocut is a design movement that’s inspired, visually striking, and completely different—all at the same time. For graphic design and art that holds your audience’s attention and really gets a conversation started, linocut is hard to beat. For more inspiration on what makes the qualities of this design style so outstanding, see our large selection of digital linocut pieces, which are ideal for your next project or just your next creative experiment:

Famous Linocut Works

For designers to get a reliable idea of how far they can really take working with linoleum, it’s vital that they get to admire and study linocut works that have stood the test of time. Here are some standout examples of what’s really possible when working with linocuts.

Henri Matisse’s Corbeille de Begonias I

When discussing noteworthy contributions to this design style, we have to mention Matisse’s work. His most standout contribution has to be his 1938 Corbeille de Begonias I. This piece is a still life that includes a number of simple though visually interesting elements.

For starters, note the curvy lines that make up the vase. They juxtapose nicely with the more right-angled forms that make up the background of the piece. Nonetheless, in spite of this mix of elements, you can readily see the ease with which it was carved, a true indication of how comfortable Matisse was with working in this style. You come away from viewing this piece with an appreciation of the simplicity of linoleum that hides the actual difficulty of its production.

Claude Flight’s Speed

No list counting down the most famous linocuts would be complete without a work from one of this medium’s pioneers, Claude Flight. His 1922 work Speed is a textbook study of how expressive a designer can get working with linoleum. The piece is pretty much an homage to the hustle and bustle of the modern age, which is represented in the motor vehicles and dynamism within the piece.

This linocut of a red London bus moving through Regent Street was actually the frontispiece in Flight’s first linocut book Lino-cuts: A Handbook of Linoleum-cut Colour Printing. Through this piece, the viewer is left with an admiration of the possibilities of linocut, namely the vibrant colors and the Futurist-inspired themes of machines, speed, and motion.

Pablo Picasso’s Bacchanale au Hibou (Bacchanale With Owl)

For many great artists, it seems that Greek and Roman mythology served as a continuous source of inspiration. That’s the case with this 1959 work by Picasso: It dives deeply into an ancient celebration held in honor of Bacchus, the mythological god of wine (and some would say drunken debauchery, too).

A great example of one of Picasso favorite subjects to explore, this linocut is a study in how simple and curvy lines can still create a visually interesting piece that tells a captivating story. For one thing, the flowing lines imply a celebration, with all of the usual song and dance that accompany it. Another feature to note in this linocut is characterized by two, main elements: the backdrop of grand Mountains and the foreground of the reveling partygoers. Overall, this effective linocut transports us back to the ancient world of the Greeks and Romans.

Pablo Picasso’s Picador et Cheval (Picador and Horse)

Perhaps one of the most powerful displays of how simple a linocut can get, this 1959 Picasso work in linoleum is a testament to the artist’s talent for producing work even in a difficult medium. An homage to Spain’s love of bullfighting, this linocut focuses our gaze on the man and his horse with careful and ultra-basic etchings.

Note how Picasso was able to use simple lines to emphasize small details like the horse’s attentive ears and the plumage on top of the man’s hat. While seemingly trivial touches, these additions actually make the piece more interesting and further its story. As a consequence, the audience continues to inspect the piece to see what other interesting touches can be found.

A Graphic Design Movement for the People

When you look at how eye-catching your average linocut is, it’s almost hard to believe that this design trend started off in Europe a century ago as a medium that was looked down on as a cheaper alternative to more refined styles. Ironically, it was this viewpoint that helped it to expand when its proponents realized that this medium, therefore, was actually very accessible to the masses. After it started to spread, even notable designers and artists like Picasso and Matisse had to pay attention to it and even ended up experimenting with it to the point of contributing their own creations to linocut design. If you’re looking to dabble in a design movement that’s little-known and extremely unique, then you yourself have to start experimenting with this style. Perhaps for your next project or just for fun, but linocut will fascinate you, just as it did some of the 20th century’s greatest creatives.

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About the Author

Marc Schenker

Marc is a copywriter and marketer who runs The Glorious Company, a marketing agency. An expert in business and marketing, he helps businesses and companies of all sizes get the most bang for their ad bucks.

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