Recent Screen Prints by White Duck Editions

Original Story by Aaron Sams (2019-04-10)

We’ve been told that not only is there a Record Store Day release of “The Europa EP” this Saturday, but that there will also be a run of T-Shirts and prints showcasing the artwork from the EP. These should be announced and be on sale later this week.

U2 has been doing a number of screen prints of late, a more reasonable priced version of art than the lithographs they’ve sold in the past, but of a better quality than a poster would be. They’ve been using the print studio White Duck Editions for the last year to produce beautiful limited art prints. White Duck was established in 2005 in the UK, and has become a well respected producer of art for musicians such as Arcade Fire and The Rolling Stones as well as working with artists and illustrators on unique prints. The screen printing process that they are using is done by hand, and results in some gorgeous prints.


IMAGE: Experience + Innocence Tour Prints (Photos courtesy White Duck Editions)

Their work with U2 started with the city prints that were sold on the European leg of the 2018 dates of the Experience and Innocence tour. Each of these limited prints was initially only available at the concerts, but a limited number were later made available at U2.Com. Each of these tour prints were printed at A2 size, in three colours, on a 270gsm cover stock. Each city print was limited and each copy is individually hand numbered. The runs were as follows for these concerts:

  • Madrid, Copenhagen, Hamburg, Amsterdam: 150 prints
  • Lisbon, Manchester, London and Belfast: 200 prints
  • Berlin, Cologne and Milan: 300 prints
  • Dublin: 400 prints
  • Paris: 800 prints

Many of these sold out at the shows, but prints from Berlin, Cologne, Paris, Lisbon, Madrid, Copenhagen, Hamburg and Milan were eventually made available online. (Berlin, Hamburg and Madrid have since sold out but the others are still available.)


IMAGE: U2.Com Prints for Vinyl Releases (Photos courtesy White Duck Editions)

U2.Com have also moved into producing these in limited quantities for the website store. The first release of these were three bundles where you could get a T-shirt and a limited screen print of one of three designs. The designs included the artwork from the “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me” single released for the Black Friday Record Store Day event last fall and designs celebrating the release of Zooropa and The Joshua Tree on coloured vinyl last fall. The descriptions of these items from the U2.Com store are as follows:

  • “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me” hand screen print on superfine acid-free white paper, hand numbered out of 150 editions. Size A2 (420 × 594 mm).
  • Zooropa hand screen print on superfine acid-free royal blue paper, hand numbered out of 150 editions. Size A2 (420 × 594 mm).
  • The Joshua Tree hand screen print on metallic gold board, hand numbered out of 150 editions. Size A2 (420 × 594 mm).


IMAGES: Printing “Hold Me, Thrill Me”, Numbers on No Line, and Printing No Line (Photos courtesy White Duck Editions)

These were sold only in a bundle initially. Both the “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me,” and The Joshua Tree screen prints seem to be sold out at this point. Zooropa is still available in a bundle, and now they have also made the screen print available by itself.


IMAGE: No Line on the Horizon Print (Photo courtesy White Duck Editions)

The next screen print done by White Duck Editions was one to celebrate the 10th anniversary of No Line on the Horizon. That version too is limited to 150 copies, all hand numbered. The description of the print is as follows: “This screen print is a high-end giclée on 300gsm acid-free & archival paper, with metallic silver screen printed typography.” Those are still available at U2.Com as we write this.

Looking forward to seeing the designs done for “The Europa EP” and what the T-shirt and print will look like. We’ll give a shout on our social media channels when we see that they are available.


IMAGE: Berlin Tour Print (Photo courtesy White Duck Editions)

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