A swimsuit-clad Farrah Fawcett, John Belushi donning his famous ‘College’ shirt and President Obama have one thing in common: They’ve all been blown up as posters that have become especially popular among college students. The numerous posters purchased by college students encourage vendors to cater their prints to popular college interests and flock to campuses each year, including Syracuse University. Beyond the Wall, a business with store locations in Pennsylvania, New York, Chicago and Myrtle Beach, is selling 2,000 pounds of filled poster books in addition to various magnets, bookmarks and postcard-size prints in Schine Student Center until Friday. ‘We carry the stuff that sells well … pretty much everything we have will go,’ said Adric Garlick, a vendor for Beyond the Wall for four years. Beyond the Wall’s competitor Global Prints, a business that brought over 1,000 posters to SU, ended their poster-sale stint on Marshall Street Wednesday. ‘The girls are interested in ‘Sex and the City,’ ‘Twilight,’ ‘ said Furdean Sergiu, who worked at the Global Prints sale for the past week. ‘The boys are buying all kinds of stuff: music, art.’ But the most popular prints vary from fall to fall, usually depending on the blockbuster of year, Garlick said. When the film ‘300’ debuted in movie theaters, Beyond the Wall had a large variety of posters printed. Now there are only a few. Additional Michael Jackson posters were ordered this year, but they haven’t been huge sellers, he said. ‘Certainly people are expressing their identity and personal preferences (in their poster purchases),’ said Montana Miller, an assistant professor in the Department of Pop Culture at Bowling Green State University. This year, posters for ‘The Hangover’ and ‘Entourage’ have been successful sellers, in addition to a seductive-looking print of Megan Fox in a Supergirl costume. Andy Warhol posters and Beyond the Wall’s tapestries have also sold well, Garlick said. Last year’s best-selling poster theme was ‘The Dark Knight,’ though Beyond the Wall’s prints were in limited supply during college sale season since they were ordered before the extent of the film’s success became apparent, Garick said. ‘There are some mainstays that don’t sell a whole lot but have been around for years and they sell enough that we keep them in, like ‘Ferris Bueller,’ he said. Miller remembers that when she was a college freshman in 1992, she and her peers revamped their poster collections. Instead of reusing the posters that plastered their walls in high school, which were mostly of their icons – famous gymnasts and rock stars, they started anew with the ‘more grown-up aesthetic’ posters, like prints of famous art work. One poster she remembers in particular was of a topless male holding a baby, who was ‘not just a stud, but a stud you’d want to marry.’ But she says the poster, since it was so ‘unexpectedly sexy’ still fit in with that mature factor that she and her peers were seeking. Cynthia Glanzberg, a freshman public relations major, bought three mini Andy Warhol posters from Beyond the Wall’s sale Wednesday. She estimates she has a total of six or seven posters, including one of Bob Marley and scenes of Thailand. But Miller also notices the trend of college students being interested in posters targeted toward a younger crowd, like those picturing Hannah Montana. ‘The great thing about college is you are still allowed to be crazy about the Jonas Brothers.’

bmdavies@syr.edu