Would you pay an extra pound to go to a gig with good posters?
Kate has made a great start over at Created in Birmingham, and her latest post has been about the Capsule posters. You can always tell Capsule gig posters because they all seem to fit into the same style and theme, yet are different enough to catch your attention every time. I’d also add that Sugarfoot Stomp, This Is Tomorrow and Robot vs Dinosaur all do event posters well.
There’s quite an interesting question here too. If you’re a DIY promoter and not an artist it can be difficult to design a range of uniquely interesting and clever posters which revolve around some common themes (I’m running Microsoft Paint as my graphical package at the moment for example).
Generally DIY promoters do their own posters, and most of us seem to stick to a format or layout and vary that each time rather than designing individual posters for each night in the way that Capsule do.
The reason I’ve always shied away from asking artists to do posters is because (assuming that whoever you ask would want a bit of money for their time) it would probably translate into higher door prices – which is something that we desperately try to keep down.
Larger promoters like Capsule have higher attendances and ticket prices - reflecting the larger costs to get Capsule bands into Birmingham – and paying an artist can be more easily covered and wouldn’t represent one of the largest costs for the night.
For a smaller night it probably would, and the question put bluntly is – if you’re going to a gig are you prepared to pay an extra pound for good posters?
Having said this, maybe I’m wrong and there are loads of Birmingham artists who would be happy to do occasional gig posters for free. Get in touch if you are an artist who wants to try their hand at gig posters or a promoter who’s looking to inject some new ideas into your posters! Maybe we can start linking local promoters with artists for the good of poster walls all round Birmingham!
January 19th, 2009 at 10:01 am
This might not be the cool answer, but no - I’m not in the slightest bit bothered what the poster looks like if improving it meant putting up the price of a gig I wanted to attend.
With that said, though, I’m sure most regular promoters with a recognisable identity (such as - say - The Autumn Store) would have a fan or two with a bit of artistic skill who wouldn’t mind chipping something in for free. There are some nice folks knocking about.
January 19th, 2009 at 2:40 pm
I’m with Russ on this one, I wouldn’t consider better posters something worth paying for but I wouldn’t be surprised if you could find someone to help you do them for free or at least help you get an initial idea sorted which you could then tweak yourself for future events. What sort of artist wouldn’t want the chance to have their work put up all over the place?
I know a guy who’s involved with some sort of artist group of people based at the custard factory, I’ll have a word and see if this might be something he could bring up with them.
January 19th, 2009 at 8:52 pm
The existing Autumn Store posters are entirely in-keeping with the feel of the night, and clearly say “I’m doing this for fun” rather than “I’m doing this because someone paid me”. I suspect that for this kind of event, anything too slick is likely to be counter-productive.
January 19th, 2009 at 10:19 pm
I think you’re looking at this from the wrong way, Dunc.
The question isn’t whether gig-goers will pay a premium on gig admission for high-quality posters, which they clearly won’t. It’s more a case of whether the expenditure on said posters will translate into increased turnouts and consequently more money on the door to pay the bands and what-have-you.
I half-agree with Peter’s comment above: while I don’t believe “slick” posters would harm the night in any way, neither do I think they’d be of much benefit. Good-quality printing simply isn’t an option for the promoter on a budget as short runs are prohibitively expensive (even if the art is cheap), and going by past experience our turnout was actually down on the month we did decent-quality colour posters!
However, the economics of such things will obviously vary from event to event. In the case of large-scale promoters like Capsule, they will certainly have to include such promotional costs in their budgets in order to help spread the word about their gigs- gorgeously designed as they are, they wouldn’t do them if they didn’t help them promote their nights and break even on their investment.
I’d also like to draw some attention to Matt of This Is Tomorrow, who’s done a fantastic job of branding his suite of nights using beautiful artwork penned by the enigmatic Lewes Herriot- I don’t doubt that his posters have helped him raise the profile of his events and consequently his turnouts.
Anyway, great post as ever Dunc.
January 19th, 2009 at 10:21 pm
I’m really glad they do show that we’re doing this for fun, and there’s still plenty of animal puns to get through on the posters yet(i).
I suppose as there are a range of nights in Birmingham, all with their own approach to putting on bands, there are a range of different artists with their own styles too. I really like Lizzlizz - http://www.lizzlizz.com for example. It’s funny, lo-fi and generally leaves you with a smile.
I was just wondering at the end if we could get a list of artists or promoters together for everyone (I wasn’t originally thinking about The Autumn Store, but if someone wanted to help design a poster then do get in touch).
January 19th, 2009 at 10:47 pm
The Lewes Herriot/This Is Tomorrow example is a really good one Seb - it worked out well for This Is Tomorrow who got some good quality artwork out of it, and it worked well for Lewes who ended up doing a lot of Johnny Foreigner artwork to the point where you can’t really imagine a Johnny Foreigner album coming out without it.
(I’m presuming the initial Jo Fo/Lewes connection came about through them playing This Is Tomorrow nights, though someone stop me if I’m wrong)