Strawberryluna

Flatstock 33, SXSW, movie premiere & HGTV poster news!

Flatstock, in Austin TX during SXSW Music Festival

Here we go!

The very first Flatstock Rock Poster Convention of 2012 is right around the corner and we’re getting all of our posters, prints, tees, test prints and thingamajigs into gear. We’re chomping at the bit and rarin’ to go with lots of new work to show at first taste of Spring and favorite Texas town during the amazing SXSW Music Festival.

Flatstock 33 will display the works of more than 100 artists from across North America and the globe. The exhibition is free and open-to-the-public running March 14-17 and features posters representing decades of styles, colors and techniques for sale. Show up early and be ready to be overwhelmed with amazing posters. (You might want to bring some dough since you won’t want to leave empty handed!) The exhibition is free and open to the public.

This year is just slightly more exciting than ever with a couple of added events in Texas.

  • Wednesday 3/14: Hot gig poster printing awesomeness! We were commissioned by the HGTV network to design a poster for one of 4 showcase nights of great music they will be hosting at SXSW at their beautifully renovated venue, The Studio. Our silkscreen poster (see the design below) will be hand printed on-site by Andy MacDougall of Squeegeeville with the help of Austin’s own Coronado Studio during the opening night of The Studio on Wednesday 3/14 and we’ll be there too, signing posters and they are completed and handing them out to the first 300 folks at the show.  (Note, you must be a registered SXSW participant to attend The Studio showcase shows.) The bands appearing for Wednesday night’s showcase are:  Say HiYoung OrchidsOh MercySean BonesThe Pierces & Girl In A Coma. For more info about HGTV’s The Studio, full band and poster artist list click here.

    This limited edition, hand silkscreen printed poster will be available exclusively at The Studio by HGTV on 3/14 during the show.

  • Thursday 3/15: We will be appearing at the SXSW Film Festival Premiere of the poster documentary film Just Like Being There by director Scout Shannon on March 15th at 4:15pm at The Vimeo Theater (inside the Convention Center at 201 Trinity St.) and Allison will be speaking after the Premiere in a Q & A session with a selection of other Flatstock posters artists who also appear in the film.

The Details!

Who: Over 100 working rock poster artists from all around the globe. Click here for the list of Flatstock 33 participating artists.

Where: Flatstock 33 at SXSW in the Austin Convention Center on Level 1 – Ballrooms A, B, C – same place as last year!

When:

  • Wednesday 3/14 from 2:00pm – 6:00pm
  • Thursday 3/15 – Saturday 3/17 11:00am – 6:00pm

What: The FLATSTOCK poster show series is presented by the American Poster Institute (API). It is an ongoing series of exhibitions featuring the work of many of the most popular concert poster artists working today and happens  4-6 times a year with scheduled shows in Austin, TX at SXSW, Barcelona Spain during Primavera Music Festival, Chicago, IL during Pitchfork Music Festival, Seattle WA at Bumbershoot Fest, and in Hamburg Germany during the Reeperbahn Festival.

If you are in Austin for SXSW we hope to see you at the amazing Flatstock Rock Poster Convention, so come say hello!

 

 

Flatstock & SXSW: Here we come Austin, TX!

The strawberryluna booth at SXSW Flatstock '09, so come see us this year too. (click for more info)

It’s really Spring! And for us that means the first Flatstock of the year, in Austin, TX during the HUGE music festival SXSW. We’ll be working part of the time and having a blast the other. Come on and see us and close to 100 (that’s right) poster artists from all over the world, showing our work and talking shop with music industry folks, poster art fans and the wide open general public.

We will be debuting new posters and new art prints as well as bringing a slew of Test Prints too, so it’s going to be rad.  Come say hi!

Co-presented by the American Poster Institute (API) and SXSW, Flatstock 24 will display the works of more than 100 artists from across North America and the globe. Posters representing decades of styles, colors and techniques will be on display and for sale as well as additional merchandise. Show up early and be ready to be overwhelmed with amazing posters. (You might want to bring some dough since you won’t want to leave empty handed!) The exhibition is free and open to the public. Check out this year’s exhibiting artists.

Big ol' fisheye view of a Flatstock in Austin, TX, photo Jen Soto. (click for more info)

The best concert posters have always captured both the essence of the music they promoted and the spirit of the time in which they were produced. Flatstock provides an ongoing series of opportunities to see fine poster art in person and to meet the artists who created it.

Making SXSW a true music collector’s paradise, don’t forget to set time aside for the Austin Record Convention in the same exhibit hall and the Texas Guitar Show in the adjacent hall.

The legendary Smokey Robinson will visit Flatstock 24 on Thursday afternoon following his keynote address to sell his limited edition prints designed by Shepard Fairey. Swing by to get your one-of-a-kind poster signed by both Smokey and Shepard.

Screenprinted art print of the legendary Smokey Robinson by Shepard Fairey.

The Important Details!

Schedule & Hours:

  • Thursday. 3/18  HOURS from 1:00pm – 6:00pm (includes Smokey Robinson & Shepard Fairey appearances.)
  • Friday. 3/19 and Saturday. 3/20 HOURS: from 10:00am – 6:00pm

Location:
Austin Convention Center Level 1, Exhibit Hall 1, on the Ground Floor.

About the API: The American Poster Institute is a nonprofit corporation dedicated to serving the poster artist community and promoting the art form. The Flatstock shows provide the American Poster Institute with a way to present poster artists collectively while showcasing the breadth of styles they represent.

About SXSW: The first South by Southwest Music Conference and Festival (SXSW) was held in 1987 in Austin, Texas. Despite the fact that Austin was not a Top 20 major market at the time, the background and character of the city made it a perfect location for the conference. SXSW’s original goal was to create an event that would act as a tool for creative people and the companies they work with to develop their careers, to bring together people from a wide area to meet and share ideas. That continues to be the goal today whether it is music, film or the internet. And Austin continues to be the perfect location.

Thank you Austin Texas!

Man, whew! I’m beyond tired. We had such a great time at this year’s SXSW Music Festival and Flatstock Poster Convention in good ol’ Austin, Texas.

Lots and lots to tell, but overall the show was really successful. I feel like we all got to talk to a lot of new folks, see some happily familiar faces and once again get people jazzed about posters and music and the art in between them. Such a great feeling. Especially since the Flatstock show was 4 days long this year, up from the former 3-day event.

Dan, from Crosshair Press, photo by Mary Sledd

Dan, cool cat from Crosshair, photo by Mary Sledd

The Austin Chronicle’s Audra Schroeder wrote up a very nice piece about Flatstock and it’s tradition with SXSW here with some super photographs accompanying the article by Mary Sledd, above and below.

Me, strawberryluna, doin my thing. Photo by Mary Sledd.

Me, strawberryluna, doin' my thing. Photo by Mary Sledd.

Dave Witt, being awesome. Photo by Mary Sledd.

Dave Witt, being awesome. Photo by Mary Sledd.

Flatstock is a really crazy mix of super hard work and high-energy talking, particularly the SXSW version and then…so much fun. We bunked up with our best pals from Hero Design Studio, as per usual, and the laughs seriously never stop. Just when you think it’s bedtime and you can’t take any more? BOOM. The North American Free Trade Agreement becomes the funniest thing to happen all week.

Studios we adored hanging out with afterhours and that you should check out: Mike Budai, Delicious Design League, Design Medicine, Doublenaut, DWITT, Hero Design Studio, Largemammal, Brian MercerMiss Amy Jo, Popfuel, and good ol’ Dan Stiles,

Places we ate, and so should you when in the Austin area: Juan in A Million, The Salt Lick, Rudy’s BBQ, Mama Fu’s (they delivered to us in the Convention Center, thank you forever!)

We loved Austin so much that we made a very special stop at Cavender’s Boot City in Austin (with the world’s loudest women’s rest room EVER) on the way to taking our good friends, the Doublenauts to the airport on our last full day in town. Check out the boots that I could not pass up.

Takin a little bit of Texas home with me.

Takin' a little bit of Texas home with me.

Hope to see you all next year!

Flatstock, Part 1 The What Whats.

Part of my booth at Flatstock, SXSW in Austin, TX 2008

Part of my booth at Flatstock, SXSW in Austin, TX 2008, photo courtesy of Hero Design Studio

Sooooo, if you are a keen reader of this blog, you’ll notice that it’s been a few days since I’ve written a new post. Apologies about that. It’s not for lack of work or a spate of boredom though, trust me. This time of year, usually starting in mid-February right after the winter lulls, is what I like to call the “Pre-Flatstock Craze”. Just as new work starts rolling in as bands begin tour season, I’m starting to get ready for SXSW Flatstock by printing tons of new work, pulling, packing (safely! fingers crossed. yipe.) and shipping years worth of work down to Austin ahead of me. What is Flatstock you ask? Ahh yes. Let’s talk about that shall we?

Flatstock is an ongoing series of poster shows and events that happen at different music festivals throughout the year, starting with SXSW in Austin, TX In March, then during the Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago, Il in July, followed by Seattle, WA over Labor Day weekend during Bumbershoot, and then in September in Hamburg, Germany. Flatstock is part convention, part exhibition, part show, and a lot of tell where the top currently working poster artists from all over the world converge to show and talk about their work. All of the poster artists and studios involved in a Flatstock show are members of the the American Poster Institute (API), which helps produce Flatstocks, but is also a guild of sorts for the gigposter art industry.

Look for more Flatstock info coming over the next month. If you are in Austin or heading down to SXSW, come by Flatstock and say hello to your favorite poster artists! We don’t bite, unless you have a tasty breakfast burrito, that is.

Flatstock Schedule:

  • Thursday March 19 from 11:00 am – 6:00 pm.
  • Friday March 20 from 11:00 am to 6:00 pm.
  • Saturday March 21 from 11:00 am to 6:00 pm.
  • Sunday March 22 from 11:00 am to 6:00 pm.

Here is a list of exhibitors who will be selling their posters, prints, and talking with folks like you!

And here is a floorplan layout to help you find your must-see studios.

Flatstock in Austin, TX
Rows of rock’n’Roll goodness at Flatstock in Austin, TX