Poster / flyer

Salon des Refusés V opens today, 1 week only!

Salon des Refusés V opens today at 201 Portobello Rd, London, W11, a pop up gallery and shop of 30 artists curated by Scraffer. Including work from names like Remi/Rough, Luke Insect, Pure Evil, Kid Acne, Inkie and James Jessop it should be a pretty diverse selection.

The overriding theme of the show is artists that are pushing boundaries, with the work of established artists hanging next to that of ‘up and comers’; there is something for everyone, both stylistically and fiscally.

I have an original collage piece on show called ‘Think of a Space’, one of the first of a new series I’m doing at the moment. The Scraffer site will also have two new colour versions of my ‘Skullstronaut’ print on sale shortly after the show.

The show will be on between 22nd to 28th April only and doors open between 10am and 7pm each day.

Posted in Art, Event, Openmind designs, Poster / flyer. | No Comments |

Vintage late 70’s comic rock posters on eBay


These vintage posters from the late 70’s, and many more of their kind, went up on eBay today from the seller v6kentman.They’re something you rarely see these days in a world where image and copyright is controlled meticulously; illustrated versions of current music idols, originally printed by Communication Vectors of London in 1979 and sold as posters.

What makes some of these especially interesting to me is that they are illustrated by some of the best of the UK’s underground comic artists at the time: Hunt Emerson, Kevin O’Neill, Bryan Talbot, Brett Ewins, John Higgins and David Hine. I’ve seen the O’Neill ones before but the rest are new to me and there were a lot of them it seems with 2 series’, A & B.

I can find virtually nothing about these on the web aside from a few more examples like Sid Vicious by Ewins and The Sex Pistols by Emerson. If anyone knows more about them then please get in touch. V6kentman has many more for sale though, all starting at £9.99 and featuring loads of other artists such as The Stones, Bowie, Ian Dury, The Runaways, Dylan, Zappa… some great, some not so successful. All fascinating to see though and linked in to a project I’m researching on music illustration in UK magazines from the 70’s onwards.

PS. David Hine writes:

“I hate that illustration! I think that was done 1979 or 1980. There were dozens of posters produced by Communication Vectors. This company, run by a guy called Mal Burns, also produced the comic Pssst! It was a weird setup, I think the money came from a mysterious French millionaire.
I do remember that all the submitted artwork was exhibited in a room and artists were invited to a meeting to vote on which should go to print. It was a ridiculous system. Only a small proportion of the artists were able to get there and I confess we fiddled the vote along the lines of “I’ll vote for yours if you vote for mine.” There were posters by Hunt Emerson, Bryan Talbot, Brett Ewins and Brendan McCarthy among others. Here’s a link to Brendan’s excellent take on The Specials and Johnny Rotten: I think I also did a Buzzcocks print. We were well paid for the time – £200 per artwork if memory serves.”

Posted in Art, Comics, Poster / flyer. | 3 Comments |

The Search Engine at Dome Club, Birmingham

Starting next week at Dome Club, the UK’s first weekly place to see full dome content, is the first of four performances of ‘The Search Engine’. This is a 360 degree film for the full dome (or planetarium) environment.

It’s been seen before in London, Leicester and Montreal but this is a newer, revised version that lasts 50 minutes and presents an alternative version of the album with film, animation, photography and graphics.

The first show is April 4th, starting at 7pm at the Think Tank planetarium at Millennium Point, Birmingham. It will then be shown on the 25th, then May 16th and June 6th. Admission is £4 or £3 depending where you sit – the middle back half is usually the sweet spot for dome showings.

The club has weekly showings of all sorts of interesting, art-based full dome films and it’s really the sort of experience it’s hard to convey without actually going yourself. Here’s the little short about the Montreal version of this show that I did last summer.

Ticket available both online or at the door, go to: domeclub.co.uk > TICKETS > Dome Club -> 4th April (or whichever date you’re after).

Posted in DJ Food, Event, Film, Poster / flyer. | 1 Comment |

Into Battle with…

Posts are slowly but meticulously being added over at artofztt.com

AJ Barratt: “I remember going into the NME offices one day and I saw this poster on their wall, and someone had added a third line to the bottom of it. ‘Noise Is Golden, Silence is a Dead Giveaway… and Bullshit stinks’, that’s what it was! (Laughs) That’s what somebody had written.”

‘Into Battle’ promo poster from the archive of AJ Barratt, digitally restored by artofztt.com. Also included is the original photo for this design, scanned from the negative. The quote above is from a forthcoming interview with AJ which contains more exclusive images from his collection.

artist: Art Of Noise title: Into Battle With Art Of Noise format: A2 promo poster design: XLZTT photography: AJ Barratt cat. no: ZTIS100 date: 09/83 art of notes: The red crosses are identical to the ones on the ‘You Can’t Suck The Same Piece of Sugar…’ poster and continue the trend for ephemeral symbols hovering in the top right corner.

Posted in Art, Design, Poster / flyer. | 1 Comment |

New ‘Art of ZTT’ blog online

I’d like to bring your attention to a new blog I’ve set up about the Art of ZTT Records (or ‘Who’s Afraid of the Art of Zang Tuum Tumb’ to give it its full title).

For years I’ve been collecting everything I can find from the early 80’s incarnation of this label and tracking down the designers and photographers responsible for some of the artwork. It’s a constant work in progress, starting off as a possible magazine article then progressing to a book idea and now, finally, I’ve decided to make it a website.

Inspired by Paul Gorman‘s rehabilitation of Barney Bubbles‘ work into today’s design community I hope the same can happen for the work of ZTT as it was hugely influential on my own desire to design for the music industry. XL, Accident and The London Design Partnership aren’t exactly household names in the same way as Vaughn Oliver and Peter Saville are but I think that the work they produced for the label in their golden age is at least an equal of the Factory and 4AD portfolios.

The site will eventually feature sleeves, promo posters, print ads, photos, exclusive interviews and associated ephemera connected with the label, its artists and designers. At the very least it should be an exhaustive gallery of an innovative label with a host of rare and forgotten imagery.

Posted in Design, Photography, Poster / flyer, Records. | 4 Comments |

New Food & Flint prints on the revamped Scraffer.com

Several prints have just hit the Scraffer.com site shop, all collaborations between myself and Henry Flint for ‘The Search Engine’ album and related EPs. ‘Sentinel’ (top left) and ‘Octopus’ (above) make their first appearance in the shop after being available in a tiny run for last year’s Pure Evil Gallery exhibition. Both are the same size as previous editions – 64.5cm x 47.1cm, come signed by Henry and myself and cost £60. Close up details in the gallery below.

Octopus printPlanets printsentinel-detail-5sentinel-detail-3sentinel-detail-2sentinel-detail-1sentinel-detail-4octopus-detail-2octopus-detail-3octopus-detail-4octopus-detail-1

‘Planets’ (top right) is a completely new print in a new size – 47.0cm x 34.7cm – again signed by both of us and at a wallet-friendly £35. All are printed to the very high standards of the Fine Art Trade Guild on 300gsm Somerset Photo Satin which is a 100% cotton paper. Scraffer also has copies of the ‘Cosmonaut’ print, a version of which featured on the cover to ‘The Search Engine’, at £50. The last copies of ‘Mad Man’, which was used on the ‘One Man’s Weird Is Another Man’s World’ EP sleeve, are also there, each one with a unique doodle from Henry in the speech bubble.

‘The Secret Life of A Machine’ print is now sold out unfortunately, as is the ‘Skullstronaut’ which was done for the Factory Road exhibition although this may get a reprint later in the year. For those still waiting for the 4 x 12″ repress of ‘The Search Engine’ EPs in fold out sleeve – it’s coming! The vinyl is pressed and the sleeves are being printed now after going through three different design changes to make the package better. It also may be with us sooner rather than later as the planned Record Store Day release might be vastly oversubscribed this year.

Posted in Art, DJ Food, Openmind designs, Poster / flyer. | No Comments |

Andy Votel Kleksploitation at the Barbican


Andy Votel presents: Kleksploitation – 17 March 2013

A homage to Pan Kleks, a Polish trilogy of films for children from the 1980s, loved by Poland’s children from that era. Electronic musician, DJ and music producer Andy Votel draws on images, music and sound from the original films, selecting and subverting, to coax their darker side to the surface and create something wholly original, unsettling and – at times – weirdly humorous.

The Pan Kleks trilogy was scored by Andrzej Korzyński, a Warsaw composer whose unearthed catalogue Votel is currently releasing on his Finders Keepers label, including music written for Andrzej Żuławski’s incredible Possesion.
Want to go to this, tickets available here

Posted in Event, Film, Poster / flyer. | No Comments |

Flint & Food prints available at Orbital Comics, London

All four giclee prints I did with Henry Flint are now available in Orbital comics, 8 Great Newport Street, WC2H 7JA just off Charing Cross Rd. in London. They also have copies of the comic book / flexi disc / CD edition of ‘The Search Engine’ and Henry’s ‘Broadcast’ book along with a fine selection of comics, books, vintage toys and a small gallery space which is always interesting. Highly recommended.

It looks like there will be a fifth print soon too by way of a revitalised Scraffer.com, a smaller A3 size of ‘Planets’, an illustration that appeared on the ‘One Man’s Weird Is Another Man’s World’ EP. Talking of which, the 4 x 12″ repress package (the three EPs plus the Amorphous Androgynous remix 12″) is at the printers but it might be held over until Record Store Day in April now, I’m not sure. More info when I have it.

Posted in Art, Comics, DJ Food, Poster / flyer. | No Comments |

Go Ask Alice

Never seen this poster before but Dangerous Minds posted it and you can watch the film on YouTube if LSD frightspoiltation films are your thing. Whenever I see the name Alice associated with LSD I’m reminded of the Kenny Everett jingle he once did… KE – Alice D
*UPDATE* Seems that this poster was made by Markey Funk in 2006, for Agitpop Records – not for the film at all. It was for a psychedelic mix and here’s it is in three parts with additional info – well worth a listen.

Posted in Poster / flyer. | 2 Comments |