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 that have jumped out at me in the past and have jumped out at me again this morning.

I really like the two colour print option Flora has chosen for this poster. Flora is a children’s illustrator and this totally comes across in the poster but its gentle naievity works with regards to a band like Softee. 

The use of raw paper and two colour print really makes this poster stand out. The quality of the type treatmeant and detail of the hair, beard and sax are all excellent. Designed by SubGrafik.

Black stock? Intelligent design referencing both location and band? Justice? DC? Gold and silver referencing original releases of Waters of Nazareth 12 inch? If you can answer yes to all of these you have a poster so achingly cool it’ll look dated before your limited run has sold out. Which it has by the way; which is a shame because these two posters are aces. Designed by Cernoch Design.

A very literal and striking interpretation of the band name Animal Collective. Designed by TraceFace.

Again just a two colour print with plenty of white space make this poster really stand out. Designed by Arial Nay Nebeker.

Exactly as a Bonnie Prince Billy artwork should be: strange, subtle and kinda beautiful. Designed by Studio Tengu.

I like a lot of the elements within the poster, the unusual layout, the strong illustration and the length but there’s always something odd about it I can’t place my finger on; the result of which however is that I spend longer looking at the poster. Some times a visual unease can be a huge benefit. Designed by Chris Comella @ Go Media.

Angry and strange; it completely works for The Black Lips. Designed by Tamara Waite-santibanez.

Probably the most expensive poster on this page. Beautiful. Designed by Casey Burns.

Not only is this image beautiful in its own right but the clear reference to Blonde Redhead’s Kazu Makino‘s horse riding accident gives the image a far darker edge than perceived at face value. Designed byFlora Fauna.

This poster actually seems to completely capture what Feist is all about. Pretty but not perfect; delicate but distorted. Designed by Kevin Mercer @ Large Mammal Print.

A classic! I love how the Clash’s only American appearance is actually 8 nights in a row in the same venue. Designer unknown.

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 here to view the embedded video.

The film has already debuted at the Montreal Film World Film Festival but is being shown again at SXSW for those lucky enough to be in attendance. For those like me who are the wrong side of the Atlantic a DVD will be out in April (and since we’re all cool and have multi-region DVD players we’ll be able to watch it). www.diedyoungstayedpretty.com

I’ll be featuring some of the artists from the film among others when I get my ass in gear.

Ceri’s blog is here.