Posted by
Jason Urban on January 21st, 2010 |
Quinton Gonzalez, Chicano 15, 2008.
Austin, TX is known for music so it’s not surprising that hand-screenprinted music posters are a big part of the local color. Wayne Alan Brenner wrote an informative article called The Art Is Formally Known as Prints for the Austin Chronicle back in early November about the scene. If you can forgive the title, it’s definitely worth a read. Brenner does a good job of documenting the lineage of recent Austin screenprinting. It’s a pretty tangled web but he manages to cut through it and tell a story of a vibrant community. In the article, Sam Coronado and his Serie Project get their due respect as a real force in the Austin print community so I decided I was long overdue for a visit.
Located in East Austin, The Serie Project, Inc. is “a non-profit Latino organization that produces, promotes and exhibits serigraph prints created by established and emerging artists.” Master Printer Sam Coronado started the Serie Project in 1993 after a visit to Self Help Graphics in Los Angeles. To date, Serie has trained countless printers and worked with over 150 artists. Assistant Director James Beard had some time to show me the shop and some prints.
A gray day in Austin is pretty rare but that was the case back in December when I stopped by Serie.
Continue reading The Serie Project, Inc.
Posted by
Jason Urban on March 24th, 2009 |
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.
Posted by
Jason Urban on September 10th, 2008 |
This is somewhat peripheral to print but relevant in that it deals with image culture and its intersection with an everyday, two-dimensional multiple: the street sign.
As a recent transplant to Austin, I thought I would share one of the more interesting graphic elements of my new home- the neighborhood watch signs. Many of you may be familiar with the city’s often-repeated motto “Keep Austin Weird.” Well, these street signs are clearly doing their part. The unauthorized (I’m guessing) modifications to the normally sterile warning to would-be criminals do a good job of making the neighborhood feel friendlier/funnier and therefore more secure. Art can do a lot of things but it’s rare that it makes people feel safe- it’s a nice precedent to see.
Though no doubt there is some irony in using graffiti and the unlawful modification of public property as a means of discouraging neighborhood crime, I think there is a sincerity in the message that transcends the means. The modification of the multiple creates a sense of specialness and really makes the place feel cared for and watched where as generic neighborhood watch signs almost seem like ugly markers for places that crime happens. I think this makes a strong case for thinking outside of the box for public infographics- it’s necessary for signage to be universally understood but there’s room for some regional and/or city-specific variation.
I took these two images but you can see a few more of Austin’s custom signs at Adam Rice’s Flickr. I would be curious to know/see other examples of these kinds of signage modifications in other parts of the country.
Quinton Gonzalez, Chicano 15, 2008.
A gray day in Austin is pretty rare but that was the case back in December when I stopped by Serie.
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