Art Hound

During the daytime hours I work for the marketing department of a large corporation, but in the dead of nite, under cover of darkness, I sneak into my studio to do some of my own work. This is Doe Eyed time. Doe Eyed is currently a one man team, so all the thinking, concepting, drawing, painting, pencil sharpening, scanning, collage-ing, inking, emailing, business-ing, network-ing, shipping, and billing are up to me. I mainly work with bands but am open to working with any similar, like minded businesses or people. I like making simple little things that people actually want to touch and hold and own; posters, albums, shirts, books, snowboards, potted plants, and/or plastic trinkets in the shape of famous landmarks.

In the last year or so, I’ve been luck enough to work with The Decemberists, Andrew Bird, St. Vincent, Yeasayer, Black Moth Super Rainbow, Magnolia Electric Co, East of the Wall, 1988 Gallery, 1% Productions, Gold Robot Records, and Arts & Crafts Records. I’ve been extremely fortunate that literally EVERYONE I’ve worked with so far has been fantastic and fun to work with. I’ve been dreading the day when some goofball rap-metal band approaches me about some work, but so far it’s been nothing but amazing talent.

…..

It’s simply fun to work with! I love the mess, the process, and the mistakes. I love watching prints come together, color by color by color. The restraints of the medium force you to think in new ways, pushing you to be more creative. When you get done printing a poster and hold the final piece, so much more of yourself went into the creation than if you had simply printed it offset or digitally. The colors POP more than any offset, commercial printing ever could.

I’m pretty new to the scene myself, so I don’t know if I have the best answer. I think it’s mostly a combination of poster artists influencing each other and continuing to step up their game and innovate the medium as well as more and more bands seeing the financial benefits of commissioning posters for their show. Personally, I got drawn into the gigposter community by designing posters for my own bands. I was shocked by how amazing and colorful and conceptual gigposters could be. I found myself booking more and more shows for my bands, JUST so I could do more posters.

….. Artist: Doublenaut

Gigposters is doubtlessly the Heaven/Mecca/Valhalla/McDonald’s for posters and screen prints. The sheer amazing amount of artists on that site is staggering and intimidating. I can’t overstate its importance to the poster community. OMGposters is also one of the best/only(?) blogs devoted to news and happening in the world of art posters. Their webmaster, Mitch Putnam, knows almost all there is to know about posters and curates some of the best gigposter series today. Insound also has an amazing collection of posters by almost every poster artist active today. I’d also like to throw out some big ups to some of my friends whose amazing work inspires me everyday. There’s no time to be lazy when you have friends like these. Be sure to check out Doublenaut, The Silent Giants, and Young Monster Nick.