Question for Poster Designers

[Clay]

I was wondering about the different techniques that are used in creating gig posters. I am sure that each designer creates them slightly differently (printmaking, drawing, painting, etc).

Care to share? Any stories?

[Speed]

Sure Clay,
I started with elmer's glue, bad drawings, scissors and a xerox.

My next plateau was photos, Corel Draw II and the scanner at my school

Third wave was making mine own illustrations, scanning and vectorizing them, coloring them in Illustrator, then tile printing them to make one 5 or 6 foot poster.

fourth wave was learning to do silkscreen. I stayed and have stayed with two colors not just because I register by eye, but it suits the art I love in a more focused way.

Nowadays I still use the sketch, scan, color method, even if I'm printing out transparancies to be burnt on screens. Sometimes I do 11x17 prints because there are too mmany colors or the piece is too subtle (or the club is too broke) for silkscreening.

Oh, and I draw everything with one of them there ultra-fine sharpies.

[jcooper]

let's see........

I start with a pencil sketch (or two......or three....) until I get the design to an acceptable state....

then I break out the trusty pilot precise .05 and sharpy marker for the inking...(I've tried brushes but I'm too much of a control freak and end up fixing the lines with my pilot anyway)......

then I scan the drawing in sections and piece them back together in Photoshop, vectorize them in CorelTrace...........

and color the poster in CorelDraw, adding the shading by using my top secret methods........

I then send the art to Jeff Wood who does his type magic on them and a while later I get a huge package in the mail for me to sign and ship back. Voila! Posters!

[Speed]

J,
How much does Jeff charge to print posters? I'm such a famous guy out here thatsometimes I got no time to do the printing, and I'm trying to find someone who can do low print runs at a decent cost.

[jcooper]

Actually I'm not really sure how much he charges.........he's still in the process of getting his press up and running.......you should drop him an email at the drowning creek website and see what he says..........

[MaximumFluoride]

Hey J, I use the same method! jeff is the master. I am doing a Slipknot poster with him right now as a matter of fact.

All of my other stuff is Hand drawn scanned and the type is done in Photoshop. Printed and copied on a good old Xerox machine.

Punk Rock!

[Stainboy Reinel]

I start with ideas usually dreamed, which get me outta' bed and sketching. Then it's onto inking, cut n' paste, or whatever inspires me - or, more importantly, makes me laugh my ass off. My scanner is a fun weapon of choice. I've dumped everything from maple syrup n' dirt clods to crushed hard candy, blown ink and wet aluminum foil on it. Using the lid to create lighting effects is cool, too. After that, I usually assemble said items in Illustrator, work with the colors until I'm thouroughly frustrated and pissed off, then have the whole shebang printed via laser on the heaviest matt stock I can find.

I'd love to do more screen work, but as I'm usually gigging and I also do all of our posters, I've really gotta' pump shit out fast. Laser is getting better all the time, though. You can get a very screen-printed look with laser color if you experiment with colors, stock, etc.

Cheers,
Reinel

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Stainboy Reinel on 2002-01-17 036 ]</font>

[Decker]

I start with the band name, songs titles or lyrics and abstract ideas from that point. Then I sketch with non-photo blue pencils (this cuts down on lead smearing and capeting my floors with eraser nubbins). To ink I use sharpies in every shape and size along with a Rotring art pen with an EF sketch nib. I scan it to my slow ass Mac and color it in photoshop. I then send it to Jeff Wood who works in the ass kickin type. I often listen to movie soundtracks or NPR while working. For some reason it keeps my mind focused more so than music. Weeks later boxes of glorious and delightfully toxic posters almost as fragrant as new McFarlane toys arrive at my door.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Decker on 2002-01-18 10:27 ]</font>

[JGex]

Speed, check your private messages if you haven't already.... I sent you one with the info that we have right now. Press still won't be up for a couple of weeks &amp; we're already backlogged with work!! And that's a *good* thing!!

[gooch]

For the drawn stuff: Sketches first in the ol' sketchbook. Afterwards I take individual sheets of paper and start working out the actual drawing with blue pencil (a holdover from my animation mania days). This usually involves cannabalizing different parts of different drawings to make a final composition (cut n' paste). Then scan and redraw in Illustrator ('cause my shakey hand hasn't learned to ink properly--I'm learnin'!). Color, top with a cherry. Serve hot.

For my designy stuff it's a sketch, xerox, manipulate manually as much as possible, scan and assemble (again in Illustrator).