If you come to my apartment, you’d see walls coated with rock posters, boxes full of poster tubes, and a giant flat file under the bed with even more posters. So to kick off this feature, where Spinning Platters writers will pick six of something in music that they really like, I’m going to share a quick list of some of my favorite poster artists.
I’m not trying to make a “Best Of” list here, just sharing some of my personal favorites. I’d love to see comments about your favorites, so leave them in the comment section. That way I’ll know of more artists on which to spend my money!
1. Kevin Tong
Kevin Tong has me buying posters of bands I don’t even like that much. His stuff has great use of color, is printed beautifully, and always has interesting composition. He’s an artist on top of his game.
2. Guy Burwell
Guy’s been at it for a long time, and always has loads of “stuff” in his posters. This means I never get tired of looking at them because I’ll always find new stuff. Also, when I bought a couple of posters from him at Flatstock a couple of years back, he sent me free bonus posters in the tube when he shipped them to me!
Seemingly, Daniel Danger focuses more on his art prints than on his gig posters, but all of his work is just awesome. He manages to create a mood with minimal use of color, and he gets this woodcut look to all of his work. The pictures of his stuff are good, but they’re even more impressive in person.
If you want a poster with great color design, and without being too busy, then strawberryluna will be a good choice for you. Her posters will definitely bring comments of “how cute” when people see them.
I didn’t know anything about Artillery Design until very recently, but a ridiculous poster for Ong Bak 2 brought them to my attention, and everything coming out of them this year has been great. The poster above isn’t for sale yet, but when it is, it will be in a tube on its way to me.
6. Gregg Gordon
I met Gregg Gordon (or Gigart) years ago when he was showing a portfolio of gig posters with crazy characters in them. Years later, his posters run the gamut from crazy to quiet. I don’t think there’s a style he can’t do.
I was going to give you a hard time for leaving Roger Dean out of the mix, until I remembered he’s famous for his album covers, not his concert posters.
I second Kevin Tong, just because he was such an awesome guy at flatstock. I love my shirt from him too. Oh, and his robot business cards = greatness!
Hey, good blog you have going here. I, too am a fellow bay area music nerd. There are some great choices here, but my favorite is the Small Stakes http://www.thesmallstakes.com/ check them out!
Thanks Derek! I know The Small Stakes stuff well; I just prefer my posters to be “busier.” The simple iconic look almost never works for me, although his Treasure Island Festival logo is pure genius.