Venues, like The Newport, are a common canvas on which music posters can be pasted. Credit: Zachary Rilley | photo editor
In the vast community that is the Columbus music scene, poster artists help performances come to life with their works.
The variety of music venues located in Columbus allows local bands to play throughout the city, advertising their shows with the help of local artists who have the skills to creatively spread the word, Peter Kratcoski, graphic designer at Cleveland Museum of Art, said.
Kratcoski said that aside from his day job, he has been working as an illustrator since 2015 and doing personal projects, mostly around music, such as album covers, flyers, logos and merchandise for events.
Kratcoski said he started working on posters by contacting venues and asking if they needed to do anything for the shows they had.
“When I first started and I didn’t have, like, a body of work to show, I would email sites and say, you know, ‘Can I please do this poster ?'” Kratcoski said. “‘I’ll get it paid for, you know, either not at all, or like, in concert tickets to the show,’ so that got me some cool ones.”
Kratcoski said he now worked on posters regularly and rarely had to look for a job.
“I’m really lucky because I don’t have to search for posters,” Kratcoski said. “I’m always working on at least one, people just ask me.”
Kratcoski said there were several steps in his poster-making process. He first gets basic information about the event, then sketches a quick drawing before sending it out for comment.
“I’ll send this to them, they’ll say if they like it or not, if they want to change anything, and then once it’s approved, I like the final design,” Kratcoski said.
As for the poster style he chooses, Kratcoski said it depends on what he’s working on and tries to draw inspiration from either the event itself or things he keeps in his mind. back pocket.
“There’s always something different to do,” Kratcoski said. “So you know make it a little bit more aggressive if it’s for a punk or hardcore show and if it’s for something more indie maybe it’ll be a little looser and a little more silly or a little a little cuter, you know?
Jack Omori, a 2021 Ohio State alumnus who performs in several bands around Columbus, said he’s been making posters since 2020 and got into poster making by getting involved in the local music scene.
“We released a demo tape in 2020, and we needed art for it, so I’m like, ‘Oh, you know, I’ll do it,'” Omori said.
Omori said that in addition to playing in bands, he also makes reservations for other bands around Columbus and also offers to do the lineups for them.
“It’s actually usually like, I book the show, and so I end up doing the flyer just because I’m like, ‘Ah, you know, I know how to do this stuff, I’m gonna do it,'” , Omori said.
Omori said that when creating posters, he sticks to Photoshop. In terms of styling, he said he tried to give them a photocopied look – a black and white photocopied look – because historically in the hardcore and punk world, that look was prevalent.
Omori said he had a very clear goal when it came to what he wanted people to take away from his posters: he wants to grab people’s attention, so they can spread the word about these events.
“The goal is to bring people in, but also, I try to make them, I guess, just interesting and funny,” Omori said. “I just kind of do what I think is what I personally would like to see or think is funny or cool.”
