Scottish Winds

I was recently asked by Frightened Rabbit to design a tour poster for their Highlands Tour, in which they played intimate venues in small Scottish towns.

I love the thought of a band on a major label making such an effort to play to their fans who might not be able to get to their shows, which often take place in the major cities of Scotland.

People who know me will know that I'm quite fond of FR; I consider their second album 'The Midnight Organ Fight' to be a genuine modern classic. So when it came to inspiration, I had a lot of ideas at the ready.

Firstly I wanted to have references to their lyrics and themes tackled across their albums; the sea, isolation, faith and lack thereof and combine it with the idea of the band heading up into the unknown wilderness to play these shows.

Here is a quick printing process of the day I spent screen-printing them.

Firstly, the screens are coated with a chemical called Azocol.

Here are the transparencies, which will make up the two layers / colours of the poster.

They are transferred to the screens, using UV light.

The screen is then clamped into the bed place and the first colour has been pulled through with a squeegee.

Hanging out on the drying racks.

The second screen in place, with the imminent brown to complete the print.

Here is the final cropped version of the poster, which I think came out pretty well.

I printed 130 in total, 100 for the band and 30 for me. They're now available in my online shop and if you want one, then get to it, as I understand they were pretty popular on the tour. Also, for one week only I'm offering free p&p within the UK.

Big thanks to the band and their management for letting me do these and also to Alice Munks, who helped get the ball rolling with the band about 18 months ago...

Head Rolls Off

Hi

So whilst trying to better last months number of blog posts I've already succeeded with this very entry. It's a poster that I did recently for Frightened Rabbit.

It's primarily based on ideas taken from the song 'Head Rolls Off', which has references to death and religion. I wanted to create an image that would illustrate the religious undertones of the song but not come off as cheesy or cliche. I also looked to their recent artwork, which contains images of crosses and illuminating light and decided that the best way to execute such a poster would be through basing the illustration on religious literature.

With an image of the bible being the focus of the poster, I wanted to add a more personal touch, which would suit the sound of the band. The water coming from the book draws reference to the song 'Swim Until You Can't See Land' and also emphasises the themes of loss and isolation which frequently occur in FR songs.

Hopefully the design came across something like that to you. If not, then hopefully you just like it...

Bye