Everyone knows i make posters. i find it hard to turn down a poster gig because they are generally fun, completely creative and a process i know so well i can do them pretty quickly. i worked very hard in the past to get to the speed i can throw down a poster at now. 2-3 hours is what i budget for one of these and believe me some are easier than others. clients  want posters come in all shapes and sizes, for real, but one thing remains the same: they want the poster to reflect the feeling of the event, and i do believe i am reasonably talented at this level of divination.
VibeSquaD’s aaron holstein, loved the poster i made for the nelson show. This guy utterly brings the full on womp wherever he plays, with a look on his face of someone totally loving what they are doing. i was honoured to make a poster for this event, put on once again by mike and sara (hoola and lioness). killer dance floor vibes, but unfortunately not hugely attended. so it goes sometimes.
Onbeyond MetaMedia visuals division took the SpiritBar helm and commanded the 3 projector array with the usual blend of youtube mashups, crafty clips, pattern tags and overlays. the poster always takes on a totally new dimension when i get to play with it as a layer on the modul 8Â composition (vj software). this is where i feel the media collage of what i am doing is most vibrantly evident. as coz&fx showed: the mix is the message. the SpiritBar projectors are jank no matter how you cut it and their gear is getting old. They smell a new generation of hipsters craving a new venue. sometimes i realize that every poster on the wall in the bathroom is mine. that’s the downer shadow side of mass marketting. You literally see your art in the garbage. Eventually. i think maybe the SpiritBar will have to morph into something new. the Royal and the Spirit are neck and neck for the finish line.
And why this ramble? because i make posters for events that are either gonna sell out anyways or not even come close. It’s a weird thing to be the poster guy. you are privvy to a certain level of the workings of promoters in town: how they like to do business, how much the respect and admire your work, how much you respect and admire them and what they are bringing to the media community. Who pays well. Who does not. i see nelson as an incubator for raw artistic talent. the spiritbar is the training grounds for a new generation of media artists but the place is stale and it’s hard to attract the kind of crowd that you would like to attract. i find the club scene diminishing in quality these days.
the problem is that it’s hard to attract really killer talent like VibeSquaD up here without it potentially being threatened with low attendance because it competes with someone you’ve never heard of. filling rooms is hard these days.
My friend rob has been going on and on about marty party for the better part of half a year, almost fanatically, trying to convert me into a fan, playing me music. he didn’t have to convert me, i was already well enough a fan through his side project PANTYRAID with josh ooah, and was stoked to be asked to do the poster for his night hosted by pat and rob who are old and trusted friends.
Rob has run tribal harmonix for many years now, almost defacto making him a legend in the vancouver underground intentional dance community. we’ve been online friends for many many many more hours than real time, and he’s a digital genius so he was an easy client to work for remotely. the design for this gig came fluidly and easily once the initial image was spotted. i think ultimately what this poster became is very influenced by rob’s vision of the crowd being bigger and photoshopped. me i voted for the reality and wanted to use an untouched photo. what’s posted here is my version. i dont know where his version got posted, but it was pretty cool, and marty even has it up on his studio wall .
unfortunately i couldn’t make the show as i was working on yet another poster for ENTHEOS 2, the legendary festival/conference taking place north of Hope BC.
Entheos is a whole post in itself which i am going to make on wednesday evening. but suffice it to say that the media for this event is a top level priority. If there was one project a year that i would love to stop a whole season to make happen, it would be entheos for the summer. i think this is the little festival that could, and it really depends upon the level to which all involved simply jump to it and manifest their dream. for some reason i feel really confident about entheos. I feel like i have seen it in vision.
These are the latest of the posters but i could blog about every one so easily. this could get addictive.