Eye-catching, mood-evoking then, colour is also a way that a
poster designer can make their individual style clear. Nyffeler
loves “rendering the scenes of [his] posters with non-objective
colours, yet still clearly recognisable. Make an ocean green
instead of blue. Make a deer pink instead of brown. Make a
building orange instead of concrete. Make a mountain purple
instead of stone. I think the mind instinctively enjoys seeing
familiar subjects represented in subtly new manners.”
Demonstrating your own style isn’t always the priority though,
not if you’re working on a commissioned piece. Jones offers a
good piece of advice if you work in various different styles: “When
I’m hired by a new client, I ask them to go through my work and
pick five to ten pieces that they like and five to ten pieces that
exhibit a style or content they feel inappropriate for the task at
hand. The latter usually helps me more than the former in
formulating an approach.”
Like any other branch of creative endeavour, if you’re working
to clients’ expectations then you need to have one eye on what the
next big hot trend is. At the moment, Jones says that “heavy
illustration” seems to wear the poster crown. “Photomanipulations
and starker designs don’t seem to ignite the applause they once
did back in the gig poster blow-up of the early [21st Century],” he
says, adding that “overexposure of style and content” is part of the
issue. Brogan thinks he’s seen a general move towards “a more
simple and graphic look lately, which I personally think is great.
Not everything is moving that way, of course, which is good
because variety and unique voices are extremely important, but I
know that I have seen a lot more things done in that sort of retro
graphic style in the last few years.” He points to the newest Pepsi
logo as an illustration of this style. “It’s very simple and clean,
when typically we’re used to seeing fast food and junk food logos
that have lots of gradients, shine marks, shadows, and that sort of
thing. I think people are starting to realise again just how
appealing a simple design can be when it’s done well.”
Ferguson thinks there’s a harking back too, to “how posters used
to be in the 70s/80s. Illustrated pieces of art rather than simple
photomanipulations. This is because the current wave of designers/
collectors grew up loving those kinds of posters and also theROB JONES LIKES TO MAKE SURE HIS POSTERS HAVE PERSONAL MEANING,
EVEN IF THAT MEANING ISN’T EASILY APPARENT TO THE AUDIENCEMAKE IT PERSONAL
“If you make it more personal, then you tend to create more interesting and unique
imagery,” says Jones, who recently made a poster for Jack White’s show at Red Rocks.
“I’ve found most artists who do Red Rocks posters tend to showcase the natural beauty
of the venue,” says Jones. Instead, he decided to concentrate on the sense of community
in the small town of Morrison, where like-minded folks have journeyed to see the music.
“This made me recall a lyric from Jack’s recent tune, That Black Bat Licorice,” says
Jones; “And get my feelings hurt / And move to New York like I’m Dumbo”. I can’t speak
to what the lyric meant to Jack, but for me that image of Dumbo moving to NYC evoked
the contrast I experienced growing up in Albany, GA, a smaller, more conservative city,
compared to my current digs in Austin, TX. I didn’t have an easy time in Albany and felt a
bit like Dumbo getting pelted with hoots and wide eyes. When I moved to Austin, there
were plenty of other elephants with big ears or wearing clown hats and collars. I felt
comfortable and unnoticed, like I belonged. I wagered having the same sort of feeling at a
Red Rocks show, something tribal, something more than I would experience at a concert
held in a regular club atmosphere. When I created the image, I wanted a flying elephant to
appear unremarkable against the Times Square backdrop. He’s up in the air, but folks on
the ground aren’t gawking. They’ve seen it before and accept it as part of their city.”In the mid to late 90s people were
seduced by the ease of doing thingsdigitally, but the tools weren’t really fully
formed to actually make the postersbetter than traditional art
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Dave Matthews Band: “Recently it seems that
artists are playing with form and composition in interesting ways and trying to push their skills as
far as possible,” says Neal Williams© Rob Jones© Neal WilliamsGRAPHICS AND WEB