Official: Widespread Panic Show Poster - Louisville Palace

I have been patiently waiting for the official green light (band approval on concept) before announcing that I will be doing Widespread Panic's show poster for their concert at Louisville Palace in April. Production will start any day now and I am excited to see the final result once the order comes back from the screen printer. This poster will be a limited edition of 250, a 4-color screen print on a great stock of French Paper Co. paper, and it will be available for the first time at the show. Of course this is a behind-the-scenes blog, so how about a bit of a preview!Hand Drawn typography from my sketch book that I scanned and cleaned up in Photoshop before importing into Illustrator. You will see the final effect in the finished poster.There are a couple of things that I think will make this particular Panic poster a little special. One, as you might notice from the preview, is that I have been experimenting with hand drawn typography. I take the type drawings from my sketch book, scan them, do a little bit of clean up in Photoshop, and then I take them into Illustrator. I convert the sketch into a vector graphic, which makes it scalable but still retains some of that hand drawn quality. I did this same process for all the elements in the poster, composing the final layout in Illustrator once I had finished all the sketches.

The other cool thing about these prints is that they are 100% locally made. That's right, these prints were born right here in Louisville, Kentucky. I did the design (a Louisville native, of course) and the printing will be handled by a local screen printer. I hope to have a few more details about the print process in future posts if I can match my schedule with the screen printer's. 

I have a few other behind-the-scenes treats that I will reveal right here on this blog leading up to and after the show. Which reminds me...if you want a crack at getting this poster, they will be at the merchandise table both nights of the concert. Tickets to Panic at the Louisville Palace on April 16 and 17th are still available through ticketmaster here.

So, get ready for great music and I hope you enjoy the poster when it is complete.

New Work: Mad Men - Silhouette Series Finale: Don

Here we are at the finale. My latest Mad Men print series ends with the myth, the man, the legend...Donald Draper. After 7 weeks I have finally reached the conclusion of this silhouette series and I decided to end it with Don, one of my favorite characters on television. Jon Hamm is superbly cast as Don who is both a master ad man and a deeply troubled character. It is this duality that makes him so interesting to watch. I have high hopes for the forthcoming season 6 airing in April.I have mentioned before in this series of posts how much fun it has been to do this particular series. It really was great. I am happy with the clean layout and the simplicity of the illustration. Seeing them all grouped together here makes me really appreciate the final product.For the final quote, I knew exactly what line from the show I was going to use. From season 5's pitch for Heinz Baked Beans, the tagline "Some Things Never Change" helps to not only sell beans but also sum up Don's character development during the coarse of the season. We see him use his new wife, Megan from the last post, as a crutch to avoid falling into old habits, only to end season 5 with him being picked up at a bar.What does the future hold in store for Don Draper and all the other characters of Mad Men? We find out in a few weeks when Mad Men returns. Thank you for taking the time to stop by each Monday as I revealed a new poster. Mondays have become the biggest web traffic days for this blog and that is thanks to all the returning visitors. Stay glued for new work from me and more insight into my process right here. Cheers, Ben.

New Work: Mad Men - Silhouette Series: Megan

Wow, it is week 6 of the reveal of my latest Mad Men fan art series. I am down to the last few characters and today happens to be a last minute addition to the print series, Megan Draper. I almost did not include her because Megan, played by Jessica Paré, is a recent addition to the cast. Making her first appearance in season 4, it wasn't until Don popped the question in the final episode of that season that you realized she will be playing an important role in season 5. I would even go out on a limb and say she went on to become a break out character when season 5 aired.When it came to finding Megan a quote there were only one or two that I was even considering. The one I chose, "Don't be upset, it's just a milkshake," may seem like an odd choice but it is the moment that you realize that she is not Betty Draper. Given Don's expression in that scene you are lead to believe that line is perhaps why he asked her to marry him.Megan starts out as simple set dressing. I think she appears in the background of the Christmas party during the first half of season 4. Very slowly she starts to get more and more screen time and I wonder if it was by design or that she seems to steal the scenes she appears in during the rest of the season. Either way by season 5 she is Don's new wife and her youth makes an interesting contrast to Don's aging.It is looking like next week may be the last Mad Men reveal, and if you look back through the print series it won't be hard to guess who I left for last. Just a few more weeks and we will be celebrating the returm of Mad Men to AMC. I for one can not wait.