All of a sudden I miss my weekend

This ended up pretty different from what I had originally planned. The text style and things are the same but the eventual execution is significantly different. Anyway, I'm pretty stoked on this. I resisted the urge to do any kind of distressing. I plan on screenprinting a small run of these A2 on black card (minus the bloodly logos, bane of the poster maker).

Been so ridiculously busy that the only way I could get this stuff done was to forgoe much of a weekend. And I have new 360 games that demand to be played! Life's tough. Although at the moment all the contracting work should see me pretty well secure, financially, over the summer, which is inevitably dead as a doornail work wise... still about late Jan.

Your Band's Poster Rocks
November 22 - December 10th
Opening Night: Thursday November 22nd 6pm
Up There Arts Gallery Space
145 Karangahape, Newton, Auckland

"Your Band's Poster Rocks!" a cry frequently overheard by the artists themselves as they stand at the back of the club.... A true test of any poster is found on the walls in university dorms, overcrowded flat living rooms or possibly even framed and hung by the clubs featured. Together with the artists involved, we’ve gathered the last remnants of gigs gone by and for the first time showcasing a New Zealand Artist Only Group Rock Art Show.

This show will contain a collection of New Zealand's continuing & emerging rock poster designers creating original images for national and international modern rock artists, with a sprinkling of "classic art prints" by the likes of Coop and Kozik from the Illicit Archives.

This exhibition will push to the forefront gig-art usually only seen in densely packed foot traffic areas, with limited wall space and posted under the cover of night by dark hoodie wearing vandals (the artists). These complex, handmade advertisements, as different as the creators, juxtapose aural/visual artistry found throughout fluxing city streets country-wide. Each designer is charged with conveying the difficult visual message coupled with a variety of musical styles to translate the idea that a band's street poster is the direct visual representation of how the gig should make the audience feel. This first in an ongoing exhibit will showcase the temporary posted works from Ruban Nielson, Bradley Fafejta, Ed Gains, Alan Holt, Autistk, Mat Scheurich, Heckman & Ben Thompson.

We make the posters because we love to.

Thanks to:
Up There Arts - Illicit Clothing - BFM - Cheese on Toast - Jagermeister

So, this exhibition opened in Auckland last night, with about 8 of my posters in it. I've been way too busy with contracting work to make it up there, which was really gutting considering it's the first real exhibition I've ever had work in. To make matters worse, I was getting txt's from Pete Heckman who put the show together saying people were wanting to buy stuff and did I have more of X poster and could they buy the ones I'd marked Not For Sale... which is awesome.
The NFS ones were digital prints I had done of posters I lacked big copies of (in this case, Kristin Hersh, the Fighting the Shakes that won Poster of the Week on Gigposters.com, and The Gossip).

but yeah.. if you're in auckland and read this blog, go check out the exhibition and tell me how it is!

Cleatis Preston

I got approached a while back about doing some designs for a newish NZ t-shirt label. I ended up pillaging some of my poster designs, under the rationale that A) I made 'em so I can do what I want and B) they were on posters that were up in wellington for a fortnight at the most (one night in the case of the middle pic) and why the hell not.

Unfortunately, the shirts (and hoodie, also of the middle one) they sent me are a size too small for my fat ass. Hopefully I can switch 'em, cuz I'd def wear them like a big big dork. Maybe I should just set a goal to exercise more til I fit 'em..... nah, switching's easier.

Interesting side note, my favourite shirt, the yellow one (although it's also printed on red and black and some other colour I think), wasn't too popular with retailers. Go figure. Perhaps this was before everyone seemed to go apeshit for slogan tee's and shirts with crap printed huge all over them?

sorry about the crappy photos