Vice Magazine Has a Lot to Answer For

Hiya

Let's set the scene a little bit here. Back in December 2009 I finally got to meet Tobias Hayes, he of Shoes and Socks Off, Shield Your Eyes, Meet Me in St. Louis, I could go on (fame). We recorded a little session in the upstairs of The Cockpit for the currently-resting Tapes podcast project.

Anyways, we became good chums and he said that at some stage in the next year he'd like a twoducksdisco and Shoes and Socks Off collaboration of sorts and a couple of months ago, such an opportunity arose.

Above is the image that Toby sent me that he wanted incorporating into the poster. It's by his lady friend, whose frankly awesome work you can see at her website.

So after working through a few ideas we arrived at our final design, which meant off to the print studios again. Below is the design printed on the acetates, ready for burning to the screens.

Printing the orange layer.

Rows of posters.

Oops, I did it again. I forgot to take pictures of the printing of colour number. All shall be clear across the third colour in the process but to keep you enticed, here is a picture of a screen with emulsion, drying in a cupboard. Wow!

The third and final colour was to be yellow and here is a shot of me mixing it with acrylic medium, which helps it go that little bit further. Basically it doesn't dry out as quick.

I applied in a slightly different approach to screen-printing, the wonderful technique of stippling.

Stippling is fun!

I had to cut a few flame stencils of as the paint would bleed through and underneath the paper after a while and this made splotches and other not so nice things.

The final poster; printed, stippled, cropped, signed, numbered and ready for action.

They will be available on the Shoes and Socks Off tour, which starts this weekend. So get out to a show, see the SASO band, love it and then maybe pick up a poster. Go on, he'd like that and so would I.

Cherry bye.

I Am a Cider Drinker

Hello.

So, no posts for a month and then two in two days. You lucky... you.

This morning the postman brought me a little package containing a CD wallet that I designed a couple of months ago for the 2000 Trees Festival compilation Cider Smiles. If you've followed my blog for a while you'll understand my excitement in saying that the wallet's were printed with an uncoated soft matte finish and look (not to mention feel) wonderful.

The compilation will be available for sale from the 2000 Trees Festival website shop and at the actual festival. Which will be playing host to a shed load of fine bands like; Future of the Left, Pulled Apart By Horses, Shoes and Socks Off, The Xcerts and loads of others.

In other news a few of my posters shall be being exhibited at The Sage, Gateshead as part of the Summertyne Americana Festival, which runs from 22nd to the 25th of July.

As you can see a whole host of awesome Americana dudes will be playing including a personal favourite of mine Howe Gelb, he of Giant Sand fame. So I'd strongly advise going along, seeing some awesome acts play and maybe grab a poster or two.

Remain distorted folks!

Riser

Hi dudes.

So I said that a few weeks ago I'd be posting lots of exciting news; screen-prints and an interview amongst other 'exciting' things. Well, they all happened but I've just been a bit too busy to show them off on here.

Enough rambling and on to this little project that I completed for my now-Canadian buddy Paul Elam, better known as Fieldhead within the ambient / noise scene.

I was contacted by GZH records and Paul to screen-print an insert to accompany Fieldhead's upcoming release 'Riser'. The 10 inch EP would contain five tracks, each based around vocal recordings made by five female vocalists. With this in mind I wanted to create artwork that would represent the five female vocalists, a repetitive minimalist aesthetic (to illustrate the genre of music) and ultimately something that would look nice and that you'd like to get.

Enough rambling, some pictures please...

So above is the acetate for the print. Due to size of the print (having to be inserted into a 10 inch sleeve) I was able to print 4 to a sheet of A1, saving me a hefty slice of time.

I then burned the image onto a screen. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of this, so here is a shot of the screen with azocol emulsion drying... exciting!

Whilst this was doing it's business I got mixing the paint. When I made the file in Photoshop the print was intended to be pure black but upon arrival at the print studio I found some silver, which would give the print a nice metallic finish. Oh and yes, I am sponsored by Lucozade. It makes me go the extra mile, etc.

Printing the inserts, big and good!

Rows upon rows on the drying rack.

After the prints had dried, they were cropped to fit inside the 10 inch record sleeves.

A little close-up detail shot, showing the textures from the screen-printing process.

The Riser EP sleeve (designed by Rich from GZH records) and my print, side by side. Aww, nice...

Hope you enjoyed that little process, it was certainly an enjoyable and stress-free printing session.

If you fancy ordering a copy of Fieldhead's warm and fuzzy soundscapes (which comes with my personal stamp of approval) then you can do so from here. It of course comes with my screen-printed insert and download codes for MP3 heads, though it obviously deserves to be played on your record player to hear it in all it's glory.

Coming soon; that interview, posters for Dinosaur Pile-Up, Maps & Atlases and Esben & The Witch and a painting for a limited record release / exhibition but more on that soon.

Take care my little cherubs.