Damn. What a crazy-busy last few weeks. Months, actually.
As I was getting ready for my usual morning work ritual for the upcoming show last week, I received an awesomely unexpected email from Ken Bethea, guitarist for the Old 97's, asking if I could print a poster for their upcoming Spring tour. I had a lightning quick decision to make. Either I could politely pass and say "I'm too busy with painting right now to help", or bite the bullet, recognize the awesome opportunity, and squeeze in one more major project in a short amount of time. Needless to say, I said "Yeah, I can do it."
I spent a couple of days working on designs, and after a few back and forth emails on edits/suggestions, we nailed down a final design late Sunday evening, which is pictured above. When Monday morning hit, I was off to find silk screen ink, paper and have my transparency films printed. Five o'clock rolled around and I was ready to start printing. (Did I mention the 300 tour posters needed to be complete by Wednesday?!?) Tuesday morning, 2:30am rolled around and I had finished all 300 two-color posters...by hand, and boy, did I receive a killer workout from all that printing.
One of the major challenges to this poster job, aside from the really short window in which to have them complete, was my lack of a useful vertical print drying rack, as well as the lack of floor space to accommodate that many posters. Cat hair doesn't bode well with art drying on the floor, either. Luckily, a vacant loft in my building was available to use for a couple of days. I had a few racks to use for drying, but the bulk of the prints still had to remain on the floor. It was a pretty clean floor, I might add.
The following afternoon all of the posters were finished, signed and numbered, and ready for pickup. Ken seemed pretty pleased with the poster, and was perhaps equally pleased with the lightning quick turnaround. Hopefully, the rest of the band digs them, too.
I've dabbled in gig posters for friends and local bands over the past year or so, but this one marks my first major gig poster for a band. I'd love to see this turn into a more regular gig on the side, in addition to all of the gallery work I do. There are a few other gig poster jobs on the table for the coming summer months, but I'll be anxious to see what else gets thrown my way after this.
I should note these Old 97's tour posters will be signed by the band and available at their shows. I have a few extra posters that are signed only by me (but not numbered) that will be available after their Spring tour is over. Check out their
site for tour dates and such!
