The walls of James Billiter's studio are covered with framed prints of Cincinnati landmarks. The precise two-dimensional renderings of Roebling Suspension Bridge, Union Terminal, and Concert Hall combine Victorian and Art Deco architecture, using striking black and gold, revealing turquoise veins.

They can be old-fashioned posters announcing the opening of the new Carruta, or they can be advertisements for one of the city’s many international fairs.

But they are Billiter's own designs, inspired by his passion for Cincinnati culture and history. This city is his muse.

As a graphic designer, he developed his own architectural illustration style, combined with stylized typography that imitated the appropriate era.

"It's good to tinker, expand and experiment with different aesthetics, and possibly evolve slightly," Billiter said in his space at Essex Studio in Walnut Hills. "I call it fine design, where you can enhance graphic design and make it more related to artwork."

In his hands, Cincinnati looked elegant and fresh. What he hopes is to be able to truly capture the inspiring and beautiful graphic artwork of the landmark. His goal is to produce affordable art prints that everyone can use. 

"Sometimes, especially 15 to 20 years ago, we were not so proud of where we lived," Bilit said. "Our community is not so excited. I remember that feeling and wanted to move, but once I lived here and really wanted to make this city better, if possible, or make people feel like living here pride.

"So I hope my art can celebrate the place, and then if you are proud of where you live, maybe you will be more proud of your identity and contribute more to your community. So this is the underlying theme ."

In the computer age, posters can be printed digitally in a few seconds, while Billiter is an old-school way of working, where each layer of color is screen-printed by hand at a time. But this does not mean that he avoids modern technology.

He sketched with pen and ink or on the iPad, and then tightened the drawing on the computer, which provided him with the precision he needed and allowed him to correct any mistakes.

New and old at the same time: images drawn and honed in a computer, and then printed using methods dating back to the 1930s.

Billiter prepared a screen printing device with a mesh screen stretched out on a frame with an image of the 150-year-old Taylor Davidson fountain. The negatives of his portrait photos are printed on film, and then exposed to ultraviolet light, which will cause a layer of photosensitive emulsion coated on the screen to react and form a template.

For this batch of single prints, Billiter hand-painted orange and patina watercolor dyes onto the screen. He poured a line of transparent ink and spread it on the screen, then used a special squeegee to pull the ink out of the mesh, and transferred the ink (now filled with watercolor) to the paper below through the template.

"This is a higher-end process," he explained. "Many of my larger versions use typical screen printing or letterpress printing, and this one usually you might get five, so it makes it a little more precious."

The printed image is not precise and has personality.

"This is what makes printmaking interesting," Bilit once told CityBeat. "Everything you receive is a copy and an original."

Billiter, 45, lives and grew up in Madisonville. He remembers traveling on the subway with his father, taking an epic adventure to downtown Cincinnati. Go to the viewing platform at the top of Carruta, visit the fountain square and the holiday train display. This cultivated his interest in urban architecture.

One of his most popular images is a metal print of Cincinnati landmarks, layered on top of each other, as if they were gathered together to take pictures. The Concert Hall, PNC Tower, and the Great American Tower also have some surprises—the gazebo in Storm Mountain Park, the historic zoo building, and the much-maligned Crosley Tower of the University of California, with a grooved single-cast concrete tower on the top.

"As long as it's there, I usually try to sneak in," Billett said of the Crosli Tower that will be demolished in 2025.

When he was 6 years old, he went to an appointment with a pediatrician near the campus and noticed the tower. "It looks like a strange rocket ship crashing into the earth. That's what my little 6-year-old head thinks. I just like it," he said. "I think that was the first time I really thought about architecture. That building is not in the past, but in life and growth. It's not just history."

Another printing of ink created another slightly changed print. No two are the same.

"It's almost like you stamp a stamp," he said, "it gets more and more blurred every time you print it."

His mother was a home graphic artist, and in the days before the advent of computers, he looked at her pasted designs. He used to sit on the floor of the studio and do his own projects.

"She is a bit like an art teacher, giving me something to do so she can focus on her project, and I am in the studio with her," he said. "I didn't realize that I kind of followed in her footsteps."

Billiter received a design degree from the School of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning at the University of Cincinnati in 2001, and then studied screen printing and letterpress printing at the evening school of the Cincinnati School of Art.

"Probably in 2014, I really fell in love with this work and produced it, I think it's a way to share my passion for this city and its obvious history," Bilit said.

He used to ride a bicycle to and from get off work, walk through city landmarks at close range, and then go home to try to replicate them in his designs. He said that he compares his images to Victorian posters, which is a memory of Strobridge Lithographic Printing Company, which prints posters of the world-famous circus.

New and old. Another print of the fountain, darker than the previous one.

Fixed on the wall where Billiter created the artwork, there are sketches drawn by Enquirer artist Caroline Williams and prints of ET Hurley's "Midnight Mass", showing the Immaculata Church on Mount Adams. Charlie Harper’s geometric animal design is another influence, Billett said, inspiring his playful side and paying homage to the illustrations from the middle of the century.

That side is reflected in some of his murals. He recently collaborated with artists Maria Nacu, Michael Colbert, and Anissa Pulcheon to create a colorful community mural in East Walnut Hill.

"Being public art is a reward," he said.

Billiter shuttles back and forth between two aesthetic worlds, one is historical and formal, in dark and gold, and the other is modern and delightful. "Then it's really fun to make things interesting and embrace the full rainbow of colors," he said.

After printing four or five times, the ink is not as effective. It's like old, weathered advertisements.

Then the screen is cleaned and scrubbed, ready to print again.