A couple of new t-shirt designs for Faith No More and Jack White.
MONDO GALLERY “IN PROGRESS” UPDATE AND PHOTOS
Mondos’ first show of the year In Progress opened last week at their gallery space in Austin. Featuring only original art, concepts and sketches from some of their most iconic posters, it is a rare opportunity to catch a glimpse of the artists’ process leading to the final images.
You can check out collider.com’s walking tour of the exhibition right here
One of my contributions to the show were these handcut paper silhouettes which made up the majority of my poster for Alfred Hitchcocks’ Shadow of A Doubt.
MONDO GALLERY PRESENTS “IN PROGRESS”
I’m excited to have been asked to show some work at Mondos’ ( the collectible art division of Alamo Drafthouse Cinema) first gallery show of 2013. “In Progess,” which will run from January 25 through February 23 at the Mondo Gallery located at 4115 Guadalupe St. in Austin, TX. will feature original sketches, concepts and line art behind some of Mondo’s most iconic screen prints. Poster art enthusiasts will get a fascinating glimpse into the process of creating the beautiful imagery.
The “In Progress” show will feature original artwork from many of Mondo’s distinguished artists including Martin Ansin, Ken Taylor, Kevin Tong, Jay Shaw and Tom Whalen. For the first time, people will have a chance to own original art from some of Mondo’s most iconic posters, including original sketches from Aaron Horkey’s Pan’s Labyrinth as well as Laurent Durieux’s Iron Giant. The full artist roster can be viewed in the gallery postcard.
The gallery opening will be held on January 25 from 7:00 – 10:00 pm with regular hours to follow for the show’s duration.
UNFINISHED BUSINESS – PART 1
Whilst organising work from last year over the holidays I realized there were a number of projects, that for one reason or another, never saw the light of day or were scuttled midway through. I generally try to create imagery specific to a particular project so I don’t often go back and repurpose a lot of this stuff, it pretty much sits in a folder on my hard drive and I never think about it again. In the interest of not completely wasting this work, I’ve decided to showcase a few unfinished projects from 2012.
PART ONE: Spiritualized
5/11/12 6:20 PM – I was contacted by Secret Serpents to design a concert poster for english space rock band Spiritualized, I’d always been a fan of their design and innovative packaging for cds – the aesthetic was like Damien Hirst crossed with Peter Saville’s designs for Factory records, clinical but a little macabre so I was excited to take on the job and create a design in a similar vein. Despite the very limited timeframe I said yes and Jason Pearse sent over his concept partly based on their last record, an oldstyle morphine bottle and a rainbow.
My initial reaction to the sketch was, Huh? but due to the fact that there were two dates I saw an opportunity to make two posters that joined, completing the rainbow and potentially encouraging a double purchase at the merch booth. I felt it added to the original idea but I still wasn’t really convinced or that excited about it overall. Also, screenprinting the rainbow required three screens which bumped up the cost and time required to produce it, both of which were in short supply.
I decided to do my own take on what I thought Jasons’ idea was and include it with the other designs, I was also able to keep it to 2 screens utilizing a simple blend to create the rainbow, a cheaper less time consuming option. I think its graphically stronger than the other designs and follows their aesthetic nicely, I also feel it gets the original idea across better.
5/13/12 9:03 PM – Designs are sent for approval.
5/14/12 7:10 PM – Initial ‘double rainbow’ posters are approved with the following changes:
1. Need to use the dark blue colour for the typeface (as on the syringe design)
2. Spiritualized? as logo, question mark rather than the trademark symbol (see attached jpg)
3. Bottle to be dark blue (as on the syringe design)
4. Huh? logo on bottle to be green + blue typeface as album cover (see attached jpg)
5. / With Nikki Lane after the venue names
5/14/12 8:06 PM – 2nd round posters with changes are sent for approval. The new design would now require seven screens to print and with one week till the show, printing options are rapidly disappearing.
5/15/12 – Rush job digital printing options explored and priced. Still awaiting approval on 2nd round changes.
5/18/12 – 3 days till the show, printing options are all but gone, job is cancelled and files are relegated to my FOR BACKUP folder.
SÉRIGRAPHIES DE CONCERT
A new book called Rock Poster Art- Sérigraphies de Concert published by Eyrolles in France features a number of my concert posters. The author Didier Maiffredy takes a different approach to the subject and also includes an interesting breakdown of the type elements in my collage for a 2008 Mudhoney concert poster in New York. Its nice to see this sort of information included. The book is entirely in French and after “studying” the language in school for seven years, I was pleasantly surprised to still understand at least a small part of it.
DAMN FINE DUBLIN
Poster for a mega screen-print spectacular “Damn Fine Dublin” featuring Dublin’s finest creatives and musicians. The exhibition will take place on December 6th in BLOCK T, Smithfield, Dublin 7 to launch a new screen printing facility ‘Damn Fine Print Studio’
The show will feature 30 hand-pulled screen prints inspired by the phrase ‘Damn Fine Dublin’ from artists including Chris Judge, Mark Garry, Alan Clarke, Fergal Brennan, Mick Minogue, Alan Hynes, Fuchsia Macare and many more.
30 Artists. 30 editions of each print. A mere 30 euro a pop. A surprise edition will also be available on the night from the legendary Jim Fitzpatrick, whose iconic screenprint image of Argentinean revolutionary Che Guevara has graced millions of t-shirts, posters and other items throughout the world since it was first printed in 1968.
WHEN – Thursday 6th of December TIME – 6pm – 11:30pm
WHERE – BLOCK T, Smithfield Square (beside the luas track) https://www.facebook.com/DamnFinePrint
THE ART OF MUSICAL MAINTENANCE 9
It’s that time of year again – the biggest and best poster exhibition in the country The Art of Musical Maintenance, in it’s 9th year, will open Thurs, Nov 29th from 5pm-2:30 am and be up until Jan 28th. at the Goodfoot in Portland, OR. The exhibition features over 300 posters from artists throughout the country including Alan Hynes, Alan Forbes, Anville, Ben Wilson, Billy Perkins, Brad Klausen, Brian Methe,Carisa Lu Von Gasser, Casey Burns, Chris Haberman, Craig Horky, Dan Stiles, David D’ Andrea, David Welker, Dirty Donny, DKNG studio, Drowning Creek Studio, EMEK, Furturtle,Gary Houston, Gigart, Guy Burwell, Jay Ryan, John Howard, John Vogl, Justin Hampton,Justin Helton, Justin Santora, Let’s Go Geoff, Let’s Go Heidi, Lil Tuffy, Lindsey Kuhn, Marq Spusta, Nate Duval, Powerslide Design, Rob Jones, T-Bone Aljaxx, Tim Doyle, Todd Slater,Tyler Stout, Uncle Charlie
This annual show is curated and beautifully framed as always by the tireless Jason Brown and i’m very happy to be participating for the seventh year alongside such talented artists. This years poster was designed by Furturtle
Check out the Facebook link to see more posters featured in the show. https://www.facebook.com/events/307258472713271/
#GOVOTE PROJECT
In the week leading up to the Presidential election, hundreds of artists nationwide are creating unique images using the tag #govote. GoVoteNov6
SIXTY YEARS OF ROCK POSTERS 1952 – 2012
I don’t often receive unexpected packages from China but after a short period of paranoia I opened this one and was happy to find a copy of Dennis Loren & Mick Farren’s new book Classic Rock Posters; Sixty years of posters and flyers. Published by Omnibus Press it covers the expansive history of posters over the last six decades through multiple diverse music genres. Rather than focusing specifically on concert posters it also includes many promotional posters for records and other releases which is a great addition. It’s a fantastic looking book and it’s nice to have a number of my poster designs included in documenting the ongoing tradition of rock poster design.
