It’s taken two days for my eyes to recover from all amazing work at Flatstock Rock Poster Art Convention… talk about visual candy! Sponsored by the American Poster Institute and presented as part of the South by Southwest Music Conference, Flatstock exposes conference-goers and the general public to the graphic side of the music industry. Hailing from every region and representing a huge range of styles, more than seventy of the best poster artists converged on a ballroom in Austin’s downtown convention center and filled it from floor to ceiling with great examples of contemporary poster design.
For anyone who thinks that the hand-printed poster design is a thing of the past, Flatstock is strong evidence to the contrary. There was way too much for me to document it all but here’s a sampler of images and links. You can clikc here for a full list of participants.
This Flatstock promo poster from The Decoder Ring Design Concern is printed with an ink/barbeque sauce mixture(!) and sealed with peppery varnish. Haven’t we done a few posts on edible prints?
Jay Ryan of The Bird Machine was in attendance with tons of beautiful work. Look for him in the publishers area at SGC this week.
The Small Stakes from Oakland, CA. Like a lot of the posters at Flatstock, they were impeccably printed and a steal with many as low as just $20.
The work of Dan Stiles from Portland, OR.
Here’s a poster from Minneapolis-based Landland… I had to break out my wallet for this one even though I don’t know the band Mount Eerie.
Furturtle Show Prints from Utah (at least I think they’re from Utah).
Popfuel is a Toronto-based poster shop. Who doesn’t love a silkscreen of polar bear driving a van with flame graphics?
With any luck, I should have a follow-up post on the American Poster Institute and some Flatstock history.
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What a cool, inspiring post and event. I had no idea that this existed!
I recently did an interview with poster artist Stacie Willoughby on my blog House of Cat http://www.houseofcat.net where she talks a bit about the connection between poster art and music and the role of the artist in helping to create the vibe of the show. I love the connection and appreciated that there are still hand-made prints out there!
Best,
Cat.
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[...] I’ll have pics from Flatstock in a week or so. In the mean time, you can check out my Flatstock post from last year. [...]