Posters are so infinitely adaptable. They can be any size or shape containing any variance of textual and graphical elements. Posters are usually the first port of call for conveying any kind of message. With regards to music this message is usually a show, an event, a gig or a release of an album or single.
Event posts often become items worthy of collection. Many concerts/gigs have specially designed custom prints of their posters often producing far more than needed to promote the show so that fans of the bands can purchase them for display at home. This blurs the line between a poster whose design exists to educate the observer and a poster that is supposed to be displayed as a piece of art. Sometimes beautiful posters do a very bad job from a design point of view because the information they contain is sacrificed in order to create a more visually stunning piece of work.
Posters are so infinitely adaptable. They can be any size or shape containing any variance of textual and graphical elements. Posters are usually the first port of call for conveying any kind of message. With regards to music this message is usually a show, an event, a gig or a release of an album or single.
Event posts often become items worthy of collection. Many concerts /gigs have specially designed custom prints of their posters often producing far more than needed to promote the show or producing generic posters to advertise but creating custom prints so that fans of the bands can purchase them for display at home. This blurs the line between a poster whose design exists to educate the observer and a poster that is supposed to be displayed as a piece of art. Sometimes beautiful posters do a very bad job from a design point of view because the information they contain is sacrificed in order to create a more visually stunning piece of work.
I've made a selection from my saved collection of posters...
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Rich
I just got word of this amazing looking film about poster design and the counter-culture that’s associated with it. It’s directed by Iranian born Canadian film maker Eileen Yaghoobian and her film focuses on the subversive culture of rock posters in North America and the unique characters that design them.
Their art subverts popular American Culture; taking little pieces and rebuilding into controversial, often obscene, frequently vulgar but always strikingly beautiful poster designs that on the face tell you when a band is playing but with closer inspection reveal very different messages. The artists and designers are as idiosyncratic as their work. I can’t think of another film that focuses in this much detail on the visual elements of the scene and not just the music.
Click for more info and to see the Died Young, Stayed Pretty trailer...
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Rich
Ceri Jones is a graphic designer working in Cardiff. He is also a very good friend of mine. I’ve nicked this poster from his blog because I think it works so fantastically well as both poster and image. The band had insisted that promoters use the photograph for any tour related imagery. Most promoters just slapped a chunk of text on the photo and make it look like death.
By adding...
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Rich
Bands & Design