Let me start by saying thanks for all your submissions so far this year. Some of you out there are doing pretty well about submitting your posters well in advance--it's nice to have several pieces to choose from every week.
There are some really nice posters that have already been selected for the coming weeks (unless, of course, something is submitted between now and then and topples the current leaders). So with that, please, please, spread the word to your favorite promoters, bookers, designers, illustrators, printers, etc, about submitting their gig posters to DC9.
Now for this week's winner...
Brought to us by someone who's no stranger to having their work
featured here, Gavin Mulloy, this
week's selection keeps things quaint and calm.
"It really made me feel
like the music from the '50s," says Mulloy of the image he found and incorporated into this piece. "And the presumable Dad was
making his daughters play while he sang because his buddy Gus or Steve
had a drinking problem and was banned from the saloon where they had
their gig. It ended up having an
old pack of smokes feel to it."
I'll definitely agree that it does have a
old feel to it, keeping it "earthy" as Mulloy also adds. Although the
only hint of tobacco and/or nicotine I think this piece has is the
earth-tone color palette and chevron shape happening at the lower half
of the piece. It feels more like an old oil can or or songbook cover
filled with some earthy tunes of a by-gone era, either way, tit for tat,
it still works in the vintage respect.
The colors work here, as
does the added grunge, to give the public domain vintage image Mulloy
spoke of an appropriate stage to perform on.
The only critical
observation I have to speak of in terms of improvement would be the type
handling. Where the type choices are, for the most part, sound, the
handling seems a little hasty. This can be seen by the loose alignment
and inconsistent spacing between lines, mostly in the line leading and
margin spacing. With so much type, and a decidedly symmetrical
composition, it's not quite lined up.
If this poster were set with
woodblock type, like something out of Hatch
Show Print, then the irregular spacing would be more forgivable. In
this case, the type is too clean and precise to imagine that the
off-kilter spacing is to be intentional.
Enough poking and prodding
though, I'll let the good parts of this poster take root to flourish as
this week's winner. (Hey--Gavin's won a few times before, so a little
nit-picking won't hurt, right?)
Keep sending in your designs,
right here. Get them
to us at least a week in advance, and don't forget to give us the skinny
on the goods. Until next time!
