Shopping: The Wire Poster Project

I'm preposterously late to the game, but have finally started watching The Wire. I know. I'm still only on series two and have only just stopped being traumatised about Wallace. 

It is as brilliant as everyone has always said it was, and so with the fervour of a new convert, I present something else – a themed design off-shoot – that's been around since October. But maybe you haven't seen it either...

The Wire Poster Project is a vast collection of typographical prints that spans the entire five seasons of the show – one print for each episode.

The design brain behind it is New York City based graphic artist and illustrator, Oliver Munday. Munday went to art school in Baltimore and grew up in nearby Washington but in a piece about the posters for the online magazine GOOD, admits: "I had little notion of what Baltimore was actually like." The Wire opened his eyes as he explains here, and while watching the series for the second time he hit upon the idea for the posters.

The quotes at the start of each episode are what make up the text for each of his designs. He explains: "My girlfriend and I would high-five every time the quote that preceded each episode showed up in the dialogue. It got me thinking that there were so many good quotes on the show...everyone had a favourite."

And Munday wanted to do something positive with those quotes, something that would, he writes, "propel fans of the series to take a real stake in the Baltimore community". And so for each purchase of the 60 typographic posters, a donation gets made to a local youth charity, the Baltimore Urban Debate League.

The posters are printed on archival paper and measure 46cm x 61cm. Season number is indicated on the top right corner and the episode number in the bottom left of each print. They cost about £23 ($38) each and are available from Wireposterproject.com

Post by Kate (with thanks to Big D for the tip-off)