The latest poster incarnation.

The newest poster here is one I did for the band Jyrojets, an indie band from Scotland that I highly recommend everyone in the country to check out. They blew me away at SXSW, so through a few contacts of mine, I was able to do the poster for their stop here in Denver. Their tour is sponsored mostly by BBC America, and my logo/website address, as well as a small bio on my company is getting put in the flyers they distribute at every stop. Check out this great band through the tour website - www.thebritbustour.com

Anyway...this is the most original poster I've done EVER, and for the most part, it's all my own original drawings used as well. Check this band out though. If if you aren't in Denver, chances are they'll stop somewhere near you!!

-James

The Posters

If anyone cares to see all the work I've done, you can find my stuff at
http://www.gigposters.com/designers.php?designer=41971

The Wall

This is a picture of one of my walls in the basement with some of the posters I've done for bands, with their autographs on all of them. At some point I'm gonna have to think of a better display system, because I can't reasonably get a frame for each poster I ever do. As more posters get made, I may have to get a large portfolio or something to contain them.

As it stands, I really can't get rid of any of the signed posters, mostly out of a sense of pride that I got to work these artists. I could easily turn around and just throw these signed posters on eBay, but that would just make me look like an ass, when the truth is that I love doing this for the music scene, and I like adding great pieces to my portfolio, plus if someone wants to buy one(after a show of course), I'm MORE than happy to sell them one.

Oh My God. Finally.

I think I've developed fairly well in my design over the short amount of time I've been doing design for gig posters. It seems as if each time I do a poster, it somehow becomes my favorite, then I figure out a way to critique it so I feel as if I didn't really do a good job that time around. I think this time I feel as if I truly felt I gave a poster to the music scene worthy of being "art." The poster I'm working on now is for the band Oh My God, who I saw in my college days at the M-Shop in Ames, IA at Iowa State University. Most of my posters have been collages of images that make sense when put together, but this time I made a poster that has elements that were combined into one element to make a new object.

This poster is more like dadaism, which at times mocks the whole art scene, and combines things, or tries to pass off the portrayal ordinary items off as art. I think a lot of modern day gig posters are like that, where it takes a person to come up with random abstract thoughts that are sometimes the product of a daydreaming mind. In a sense, what I've mostly done in the past is portray "scenes" where I group like objects together and make them "look pretty." As much as I hear people like what I do, I feel I need to evolve past that, so I hope to make more posters like this one more often. Also, this is the first time I think I've given a poster a sense of depth as well.

Music overload.

Man,
Lately I have been extremely busy with a ton of music design. I am now doing freelance work for an indie record label here in Denver, and I've alos ton work for a few bands. The Theives, from California via the UK, now have their tour poster designed by yours truly. Check out their myspace page at myspace.com/thethieves. I also have submitted a cd cover design to the band Omnisoul, and merch design ideas to Mute Math, so I'm excited to see if anything becomes of that. I've also designed the poster for the South Park Music Festival, which is gonna be great(The Thieves are gonna be there.)! All in all, thing are looking up.

-James

More posters on their way

Unfortunately I'm finding it tough to find my own style. Somehow I want my posters to be in the vein of some underground comics artist that is known in the indie scene. I've been out of touch with my drawing skills, which sucks, because I can see most of the time what I want my posters to look like in my head, but not having the previous experience with comic-like cartoony illustration puts a damper on that process. So far, my "style" is creating slightly distorted, yet real looking vector images from raster images(jpeg, gifs) but somehow it only feels like untrue art. I guess I'm my own worst critic though.

Gig Posters for the masses...

So my new love is finding a good band that comes through Denver and Boulder, which are few and far between at the current moment, and designing a poster advertising that band, and bringing it to the show, and having the band sign it. Once the show's over, I have artwork, that both myself and the bands dig signed, usually 11" x 17" and framed on my wall. Most of the autographs I get from bands are on the cd sleeve and stuffed away in the cd rack against the wall, only to be forgotten unless I make a conscious effort to remember it.

I'm not one to get autographs for the purpose of financial gain. They are a way for me to take home a cool souvenier of a show that I loved. Now I have a piece of art I created along with signatures on it, and now it feels personal, and I could share my passion for music and design with the musician(s) themselves beyond the standard "Thanks...that was an awesome show." line we've all used before.

I used to love to grab the poster off the wall of the venue of the band that just played, and get them sign it. After collecting a fair amount of these posters, that ranged from quickly thrown together black ink on colored paper posters, to beautfully designed screen printed pieces. I enjoyed the art that went into a lot of these, but started to be disappointed by the fact I am an artist collecting other peoples art that was done for something I wanted to be a part of. Half the time, I'm never solicited to design these posters, but feel the need to speckle the design landscape with a few pieces of my own.

Admittedly, the only 2 bands I've designed a poster for that they've SIGNED are Bright Eyes, and Criteria. I've designed posters for bands such as Five Story Fall, Maktub, Mellowdrone, and VAST, but none of those posters were ever signed. They were emailed to the bands for them to use at their own disposal. Now I'm just waiting for one of the many small acts that I can see and talk to that I can get to sign a poster that I designed for them. Some day my whole basement wall will be filled with posters of mine, all signed. My wife might have a problem with that though.