I have been meaning to do more posts with good examples of contemporary poster art and after seeing Well Medicated’s 50 Amazing Gig Posters Sure To Inspire article I thought now would be a great time to start. Concert posters were always my biggest inspiration for getting into art and design. I like to think of my work as sort of straddling the disciplines of pure graphic design and the more illustrative styles featured in the Well Medicated post so I’m always excited to see new work from these types of artists. It always amazes me how they do so much with so little and how they stay true to the classic modernist typographic ideals. It’s very rarely that we as designers get to be truly idealistic with our design so it’s a breath of fresh air to see work like this, unmolested by the hands of middle-men and marketing departments.
On a side note, seeing a large collection of stylistically similar prints like this always reminds me of the rather strange disconnect I’ve noticed between the world of gig poster artists and graphic designers. A good example would be FlatStock at SXSW; that whole scene always seemed to me to be quite insularly while a lot of the design festivals I end up presenting at seem to fall short in their representation of the poster art world. Perhaps I’m missing something, but you’d think there would be more overlap between the two worlds given how much the output has in common.
I just got home from Terrabyte after a nice drive today; LA > Sacto > SF, needless to say I am exhausted so I’ll keep it short. Terrabyte was amazing as usual; thanks to everyone who came out and made it a success and thanks to the Arboretum and Kyle and Ryan from Subtractive for making it all happen. I also want to apologize for the delay getting started, as some of you noted, we had some technical difficulties starting out, but things smoothed out once things got rolling. I was pretty busy most of the time so didn’t get many good photos this time around, some of the few I got are below. Bijan has also posted some photos from the show here.
Somewhere in the middle of the central California valley.
I found some early videos from the show on YouTube, below is a shot of some of the visuals. I didn’t realize this girl (video below) had been dancing in the visuals until after the show was over, pretty cool to see this now. There is also a video of the new single being played; the audio is really bad and you can’t see much, but it’s a small taste at least: link. There are a couple more from the same person up here as well.
Got the Prius washed up, gassed and loaded to make the drive down to L.A. tomorrow for Terrabyte 3. Some stretches of I5 are rather scenic so I’ll try to get some shots on the way down, although at this time of the year it might be a bit bland with all the greenery long since turned brown.
I did a test mixdown tonight of the a new single which I’ll be debuting along with some new video work during the set. Hope to see everyone out at the show, there will be an ISO50 booth with shirts, vinyl, CDs, and prints so stop by and say hello.
Photos from last year’s Terrabyte show by Studio JFISH
Update: as many pointed out in the comments, this is set in France, not sure where I got that UK reference. I guess I had Cunningham’s work stuck in my head while I was writin.
I was debating whether or not to post Justice’s new Romain-Gavras directed video for Stress just because it’s so damned violent. Like out of control, completely senseless violent. But I decided it would be a nice counterpoint to Justice’s last video so I decided to put it up. The video follows a gang of youths around the city as they cause mayhem and beat the hell out of people. It’s set against the familiar dreary backdrop of urban UK streets reminiscent of Chris Cunningham’s Come To Daddy video for Aphex Twin (which is equally disturbing, but at least no one gets a bottle smashed over their face in that one). I’d be interested to hear what everyone’s take on this one is; right now it feels intense but I’m having trouble finding any deep meaning beyond that initial visceral reaction. But perhaps that’s the point.
Some Otl Aicher 1972 Munich Olympics pins. There is nothing better than green with that deep aqua-marine (top pin in particular). If I had these I would wear a different one every day on a short sleeved white button up shirt with horn rim glasses. Speaking of the ’72 Olympics, Spitz is still the champ in my book based on stylealone.
That huge $11k price tag will buy you an equally huge f/0.95 opening for those low light shots that your $5k Nikon just wasn’t getting. A French magazine leaked shots of the new Leica Noctilux 50mm Lens (pictured above) which will enable you to take shots like this (apparently candle light only):
Whether you intend to take suggestive shots of bare-chested men in dark rooms with it is your business, either way this thing is awesome. $11k awesome? No, but only because I don’t have $11k. By the way, that M8 it’s stuck to will run you another $5k. Start saving! Alternatively, just get this (called "One of the finest DSLRs ever produced") and spend the left over $12,000 traveling around the world and actually taking shots with it instead of leaving it sitting in a drawer which is what most people who can afford Leicas seem to do.
The Terrabyte 3 show is fast approaching so I’ve spent this week preparing before I hit the road. In case you missed it, the details on this show are here and you can get tickets here. You can also buy tickets at the gate.
Pictured above is the proof of the poster which I just received via FedEx today (hence the crease). The rest are being printed up as we speak and will be available for purchase at the show. They won’t be up on the shop for a while so this will be an early shot at them.
The poster won’t be the only new work dropping at the Terrabyte show, I’ll be debuting a new Tycho single (due for release in January) during the live set along with some new visuals. Should be a great evening, hope to see you all out there.
Music site Better Propaganda picked recent Tycho single The Daydreamas song of the day today (9/9/08). They’ve posted a review and a free MP3 download. Check it out here
