There’s something instantly recognizable in Alecse’s vintage travel posters. Whether it’s a dreamy coastal view, a vibrant city scene or a pastel-colored street in a faraway place, each composition carries his unmistakable style. But look closer, especially on larger formats, and you’ll notice a subtle yet powerful detail: the halftone.
This delicate pattern of tiny dots softens the image, evokes the charm of classic offset printing, and has become a true signature of Alecse’s work. More than a stylistic choice, it also plays a hidden role: it helps protect his art from imitation.
A Legacy of Print, Reimagined Digitally
The halftone is a technique born in the age of analog printing. In the era of newspapers and commercial posters, offset presses reproduced images using a grid of dots, with each ink layer applied at a different angle. This process allowed printers to simulate depth, texture, and tone long before digital photography – but it also created a unique visual grain that defined the aesthetic of the 20th century.
Alecse, deeply inspired by that visual language, set out to bring this retro feel into the digital age. Not with pre-made filters or presets, but by developing a precise and personal treatment.
After months of testing, tweaking, and comparing results, he finalized a process based on four independent rotation angles, one for each color layer. Today, the effect is applied digitally and consistently across all his artworks – but it’s built on countless hours of fine-tuning.
Style with a Purpose
This halftone layer does more than just evoke nostalgia. It plays a key role in giving Alecse’s posters their soft focus – a signature atmosphere that balances realism and dreaminess. On smaller sizes, it adds a tactile texture. On larger formats like 4XL (80×120 cm) and especially the 5XL, the only true oversize in the collection, the halftone becomes even more visible and expressive.
Many collectors actually choose the bigger sizes for this very reason – not just to fill a wall, but to enjoy the richness of Alecse’s technique up close.
Not Pixelation – A Common Misunderstanding
Because the halftone is made of dots, it’s sometimes mistaken by the untrained eye for pixelation. This confusion has, on rare occasions, led to misunderstood reviews – especially when customers weren’t familiar with offset-style textures or didn’t zoom in properly.
But halftone and pixelation are fundamentally different. Pixels are square and rigid – the sign of low resolution. Halftone dots, on the other hand, are intentional, round, and layered, creating a controlled visual grain that’s designed to enhance the image, not degrade it. It’s the difference between a technical flaw and a creative choice.
This is why Alecse and the team at Myretroposter have made it a point to clearly explain the halftone effect in product visuals and descriptions – to help every buyer appreciate it for what it is: a handcrafted digital signature.
One in 16 Million: A Natural Anti-Counterfeit
What makes Alecse’s halftone even more interesting is its level of uniqueness. Because the dot pattern is created from four color layers, each using one of 360 possible rotation angles, the number of combinations is staggering:
360 × 360 × 360 × 360 = 16,777,216 possibilities
In other words, the chances of someone – even with access to a high-resolution print – replicating Alecse’s exact halftone are 1 in 16 million. That’s why this texture acts not only as a style marker, but also as a natural anti-counterfeit shield. Even the best imitation would “feel off” when compared side by side.
A Story of Style and Protection
The halftone wasn’t present in Alecse’s very first posters, but it appeared very early on, becoming part of his visual identity as Myretroposter grew. It was developed partly to reinforce the retro feel, but also as a response to an unfortunate experience.
At the beginning of Myretroposter, when Alecse was the sole artist featured, a print-on-demand operator began selling posters heavily inspired by his work. The mimicry was obvious – the same dual titles, the same inline typography – but the image treatment was clumsy, the colors tacky, and the overall quality cheap.
Rather than engage in a legal battle, Alecse chose to respond artistically: by refining his method, adding the halftone, and making every poster unmistakably unique. It was the moment when his posters stopped being “nice images” and became collectible, original works with their own fingerprint.
A Retro Poster with Soul – and Substance
Today, the halftone is present in every Alecse poster sold on Myretroposter. It enhances the mood, roots the artwork in the visual codes of the past, and makes each print feel like a real object, not a digital copy.
For interior designers, collectors, and vintage lovers, these limited edition wall art prints offer both beauty and authenticity. And for Alecse, they are the proof that even in a world dominated by instant images and AI-generated visuals, craft still matters.
