Hello internet friends

So, i've had a busy few weeks with poster jaunts to Aarau in Switzerland and then Chicago and Austin in the US. All were amazing and a big thanks to all the lovely people I met on my travels. You made this foolish man very happy.

The good news is that whilst on that trip I had three new posters released and made two new art prints. I might be lazy, but I still get things done.

First up for the new prints we have a collaboration with Jay Ryan called Sloth Comes To Visit, which is an 8 colour slice of joy born from our collective love of animals, sea slugs, small houses and oddness. I met Jay years ago at the opening of his first show in Manchester at the Richard Goodall Gallery along with many other of the current UK poster nerds including Graham Pilling and Drew Millward. If one man is to blame for us persuing this gig poster thing, it is most certainly Jay Ryan. To say it was an honour when Jay agreed to work with me on this is an understatement and the couple of days spent making this in Skokie were truly inspiring. The print can be bought from The Bird Machine site HERE for a mere $40 and there are a few process pics at the Bird Machine Facebook page HERE. Enough gushing, here's the print:

Second up we have my Andrew Bird poster. This was the poster for the mini Euro tour in support of the release of the new record (which is excellent, as you would expect from Mr. Bird) called 'Break It Yourself'...hence the smashed Faberge Egg. Plus he's called Bird you see...Bird's lay eggs...It's clever you see....no?....sorry. It's available from my online purchase hut HERE. Look at it with your vision orbs now:

Third up (bored yet?) we have the print I made based on an illustration for Mat Pringles zine project 'The Book One'. Titled The Escapist it's inspired by one of my favourite books, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, and shows a 1940's NYC skyline with the insignia of the comic creation from the book (called The Escapist hence the title) being beamed into the sky. Printed live at Flatstock 33 at SXSW by Andy MacDougall from Squeegeeville it's a rather splendid wee thing indeed and is available HERE: Right then, finally we have the last two prints. FIM (International Federation of Musicians) commissioned me to make a set of prints based on the tag line 'Dangerous Bands In Safe Hands' with a sort of Propaganda type vibe about them. These are what I came up with. They are available as single prints HERE or a set HERE:

That's it for now. Frankly i'm exhausted so I'm off to read comics and eat biscuits. I'd ask you to join me but I only have a few biscuits left and I'm greedy. Goodbye all

Luke

 

Hello chums

All is going full-pelt up our way and we have a load of poster shows and a couple of new prints available to prove it. I don't know why i said 'we', it's just me here, and i'm cold and scared. But never mind that...

First up i can finally reveal my new poster for The Black Keys. Designed for the Edinburgh show on 4th March 2012, this is now available along with my recent comic influenced poster for The Local's 'SHHH' Festival, an all-day celebration of quiet music, art and film. Both can be bought at the online shop HERE.

Now for the upcoming shows. Over the next few months, as well as staring at my posters on mass on the compurenator on your desk, you will be able to go and look at them on mass in physically physical spaces where you can talk to other humans about why someone would bother. Where? I will tell you where:

1. Prints & Tunes, Aarau, Switzerland. The first of this years overseas jaunts will take me to the unfamiliar terrains of Switzerland. Looks like a great show, put together by the folks at Laborartix, alongside some wonderful poster fellows including friends Furturtle and Damien Tran. Come meet us all at the opening on 2nd March 2012. More information available HERE.

2. Flyposting, Leeds, UK. A poster show in the city where I began designing posters and taking place at The Gallery at Flannels, 68-78 Vicar Lane  Leeds, LS1 7JH from March 6th - May 6th 2012. Sadly I won't be there for the opening but there's a great selection of poster talent in the show including Mara Piccione, Jacknife and Nick Rhodes aka Switchopen.

3. Flatstock 33, SXSW, Austin TX, USA. Last but by no means least the UKPA will return to Flatstock at SXSW with some of the best in UK poster artists including Graham Pilling, Telegramme Studio, Cameron Steward aka Twoducksdisco and Scrawled Design. If you find yourself there, just follow the babbling British nonsense at it should lead you right to the UKPA booth. More info on the show exists HERE and on the UKPA HERE.

Finally in case you wondered what was rattling around in my head, the Crewkoos lot have put together a wee interview with me about my posters. If you have time to waste it lives in this bit of the internet HITHER.

That's it for now, better be off

best, Luke

Hello all

2012 is upon us already and with the potential end-of-the-world firmly in sight we charge forward into its open jaws...or something like that.

Right the first of the years posts is here and its all about the next installment of the Local's excellent 'SHHH' events which will take place on Feb 4th at Gallery Cafe, London. 'SHHH' is an all day celebration of quiet music and for the first time alongside the great music, which includes the likes of Steven Adams, Anna Meredith, Tom Rogerson (Three Trapped Tigers) and many more, it will also feature a few bits and bats of art and film that relate to quietness curated by me. This will include audio-visual sculptures by Rita Evans, some improvised soundtracks to silent films and a screening of the first part of the new film about David Thomas Broughton. Exciting stuff indeed.

As if that weren't enough I have designed a new poster/print for the day which will be available at a special discounted price on the day alongside a host of other merch and goodies. Look at it now:

All in all it should be a great day so i suggest you go get yourself a ticket HERE 

More things soon

Word to you, the internetters. You're all well i see,

Ok, been holding off on posting a couple of things but they are all finally done, ready and out there in the real world so i can share them with you too.

First up is a new poster for Death Cab For Cutie. Always liked myself a bit of DCFC so it was a great job to work on and was commissioned via the Richard Goodall Gallery in Manchester. They are inspired by vintage travel posters and available now from my webstore HERE and from the RG Gallery in person soon. Here it is:

Next up, if you were in Orlando for Orlando Calling last weekend you may have seen my poster for Gypsy Punk loons Gogol Bordello, commissioned by the ever wondrous Screenadelica. For those who weren't in Orlando, they look a lot like this: 

If they didn't sell out (which they probably didn't) they should be available from myself and Screenadelica soon.

And finally, I was asked as part of an ongoing relationship with the fine folk at British Underground, if could design the poster/advert/branding thingy for their stand at this years Womex convention. Brace yourselves...here it is!:

Well I for one am now full to the brim with doodles and scribbles so i will bid you all good day and happy nights,

Bye! Luke

Hello all,

Hope this finds you well. This is a quick, wee blog update about a recent project that has now launched.

As part of Ekko's, a live music venue in Utrecht, 25th anniversary celebrations, they teamed up with Push & Pull Posters aka Mara Piccione, to put together a series of commemorative posters for seminal and/or great gigs at the venue. Due to me having quite a bit of dirt on Mara she agreed to let me design a print for Franz Ferdinand. Here it is:

Inspired by the bands use of Constructivist imagery on previous releases i decided to try and filter Constructivist poster design through the streets of a moonlit Glasgow night. I guess to put it another way, what if Rodchenko had come from Scotland? If you like it, it can be purchased from my webstore at lukedrozd.com HERE.

The rest of the series features some amazing work (including a lovely one for I Am Kloot from my poster friend extraordinaire Mr.Graham Pilling) so go and have a squizz at them too HERE.

Bye for now, Luke

 

 Hello all, I trust you are well in digital land

First off I have returned to my own shores. This means I have to get on with normal life and pay a load of outstanding bills (as in 'need to be paid' not 'really good') BUT it also means normal shipping times will resume for print purchases. Which neatly brings me on to the fact that new prints are available in the online shop at www.lukedrozd.com.

First up is the print I produced for tUnE-yArDs at Into The Great Wide Open festival. I hope it captures the manic, joyous energy of a band who were the highlight of a great weekend. It is available here.

Second up are the mini prints from the residency with Subwalk in Arnhem. These are available either as single prints or in sets of 3 or 5 and are available here.

that's it for now. There will be a some pictures and info on my time at Flatstock Europe 6 later in the week and a new print for Franz Ferdinand available next week though so keep the peeper peeping

best, Luke

 

 

Hello wonderous virtual friends and foes,

So my final week in Arnhem is coming to a close. There have been fun times, prints and artists talks all over the shop and i for one will miss be here at Subwalk, but a couple of days in Groningen beckon before Flatstock Europe 6 later this week.

Most of the week here has been taken up with finshing the design and printing of the mini art-print series 'This, That, The Other', a collection of one, two and three colour lino and photo-plate prints which i think, in general, have ended up working well. There are some pictures below of the works at various stages of completionas part of a very potted run down of the process for those print nerds who like that sort of thing:

1. Designs are taken from brain and made on paper with a pencil and pen:

2. Designs are then reversed and either transfered and cut out of lino:

or designs are scanned, inverted and printed onto acetate. These are then exposed onto photo plates in the magic UV box and the washed out:

3. They ready to print lino looks a little like this:

and the photo plates look a little like this:

4. Ink is mixed, again i use my brain here to think of the colour then my hands and eyes to make sure it matches what is in my brain. Beer helps but is optional:

5. The ink is then rollered onto the plate/lino evenly and it's ready to print:

6. Paper is carefully placed over the print surface and paper packing is placed on top to protect the print and give some pressure when the print-roller works its magic.

7. The print-roller is pulled/rolled over the paper. Underneath magic happens that i was unable to see due to my human eyes not be able to see through paper. The result is the ink has left the lino/plate and transfered to the paper BUT the right way round! Mind-boggling! Peg these up to dry, and get on with the next colour/print:

Repeat as desired. Here we ended up with 11 designs of around 20 pieces each:

I will have these with me in Hamburg for Flatstock if people are interested in purcuring them, and then online afterwards at the old online shop. Subwalk arranged a small pop-up show of then at a great bar/coffee place in Arnhem called Tape. If you are ever in Arnhem i recommend you check it out.

I also did a brief chat/artists talk/waffle time at ArtEZ, the art school here in Arnhem. I think it went well. I talked a mix of sage advice and inane jokes whilst showing work i had made, some of which had penises in/on it. The students seemed interested or at least had the good manners to pretend to be and you can't ask for more than that. Here's a photo i took after the talk of them waving at me but due to me being inept it is blurred and cack-handed. That seems somehow fitting though:

Right that's it for now, off to Hamburg,

bye for now,

Luke

Hello inter-chums, hope all is well. The worlds happiest chair greets you!

Well week two of my time in Arnhem, Holland is well underway and I have been working hard at the wonderful Subwalk studios. This week has seen an artist talk, a workshop and a great opening party for the new Subwalk studios.

So on travelling back to Arnhem I spent some time working on a new anniversary print for Ekko in Utrecht which is part of a series of works by a range of great poster designers. Not sure if I’m able to post pics of it yet so for now I’ll hold off but images and more information soon.

Aside from that I have been working away in the rather amazing Subwalk studios and developing a series of lino and photo plate prints that should form a limited set of prints...providing I don't total balls up the printing process itself. There are a couple of sneaky peeks of the lino-cutting stage for two of them below to get those chops salivating.

Finally a huge thanks to all the wonderful people that came along to Subwalk’s opening bonanza of food, booze, posters and art. I had an amazing time and was great to talk to some of you about the weird world of gig poster design. Pictures ahoy!:

I have one week left here now before I hop the border into Germania and attempt to sell posters to the wonderful people of Germany at Flatstock Europe 6. It will be ace...

Speak soon the international-computer-web

Luke

 

 

Hello internet peoples, hope all is well

Meant to write up a bit about my art jaunts overseas before setting off on them but one thing led to another and I'm already a week in so we will back track a little and try and stay reasonably on top of this the rest of the trip.

Ok, I set off last week to do a mini residency in Arnhem, via the wonderful Into The Great Wide Open festival where I was working on a print workshop alongside Mara Piccione and organised by Roos and Hans at Subwalk. Subwalk are also hosting me in their studio in Arnhem for the next couple of weeks and then it’s up to Groningen to meet up with Piccione again and off to the booze and poster funfest that is Flatstock Europe 6. All in all it should be a great trip, and my last big one of 2011.

Bit of information on Into the Great Wide Open: it's a great little (4-5000 people I think) music festival on an island off the coast of the Netherlands called Vlieland. It was laid back, friendly and generally one of the nicest festival experiences I’ve had in a while. We were running a workshop there producing prints via an awesome old roller press with 6 Dutch art students over the three days, which in turn were then either used to advertise pop-up shows or sold as print packs at the merch stall. Great, engaged students and excellent co-conspirators in the form of Mara, Hans and Roos meant a successful workshop was had by all...I think. On top of this I designed one of the official posters for one of the festivals performers, namely tUnE-yArDs who were far and away the festival highlight, a picture of which you should have cast your internet loving eyes over at the top of this ramble and which will be available on my site in October. Here are some pics:

Since leaving the island I’ve been back in Arnhem working on some new commissions, preparing for some more workshops and talks and planning a small project using some of the equipment we put to good use over the festival weekend. More to follow soon.

Oh yeah, and loving Hagelslag on toast

Keep on keeping on

Luke

Why so sad indeed. After much waiting and deliberating the posters I designed for the Circa Survive show in Denver last year are finally in my sweaty hands and ready to be pushed into yours...hopefully free from sweat stains of course.

These 3 colour, screen-printed, A2 posters feature a monkey king on a throne of building blocks, lost deep in his own Quixotic senility. Silly monkey. Anyway, you can grab a copy at my online tat emporium here.

And while we're here, here's a pic of a recent print set I designed for a clients twins christening featuring imagery inspired by their names, Liberty and Gabriel. I'm rather happy with so lets hope the wee ones are too.

More info soon about upcoming exploits and exploitations. Ta ra!