Secret Mountains

I got asked to be in JP Boneyard’s  National Poster Retrospecticus show and at first I was super hyped to be among some of the poster gods then I thought to myself, “Shit, I haven’t printed/designed a poster in over a year.” Conveniently, that same week my buddy Jeffery Silverstein from Secret Mountains asked me to make a gig poster for their new album’s record release show down dere in Bal-di-more. The planets aligned and God said, “Let there be 18 x 24 posters.” and I got to work.

All through college all I did was make posters so it was fun to get back in the game and make something that people might actually want to buy. I went through a few different “subjects” for the poster. I originally wanted to include a lion in some kind of crest/shield because I tend to call everyone kings and I thought that was a good enough connection but it just wasn’t working out the way I wanted it to. I went back to the drawing boards. For some inspiration I listened to their new album, Rainer. It has a super chill, atmospheric rock vibe to it. It opens with the sound of a river and waves crashing on a shore. Immediately, I knew I wanted to somehow tie the ocean into this poster. I was thinking of what I could possibly do and it hit me like the god damn Titanic (get it??). An iceberg was perfect. It is LITERALLY a secret mountain. I knew I could put it on some nice pop tone french paper and call it a day. I started making something realistic feeling and kinda lost interest in it so I scrapped it and started over for a 3rd time, still holding onto this iceberg idea though. The 3rd time was a charm I kept it super geometric and  took advantage of some screen printing tricks to create depth; halftones, lines, subtle textures, negative space and…whales of course for scale.

I sent it over to Shawn at Masthead Print Studio and could not be more happy with how they turned out. I even Vined the chopping of it. It felt good to number and initial 100 posters again, I even hand stamped the backs of the 50 that are heading to the Retrospecticus jam just to make it feel a little more official. You can scoop one for $25 at the Retrospecticus show and $15 at The Bell Foundry on Thursday the 28th. Go to the show, have a great time and watch Chris Muccioli softly shred the drums. But seriously I’ve been waiting a long time for this album to come out and I’m super pleased with how it came out. And the design for the interiors of the vinyl are looking great. Nothing but the best from Muccioli.

As a lil bonus for the peeps that can’t get their hands on a poster I made some iPhone backgrounds for ya so you can be cool too. Lock & Home

Also, special thanks to Taylor Goad for holding the poster like a true designer.