A pretty cool gig
Reebok designers find time to make tour posters for Wilco, the Bosstones, and other rocking acts
Angus Young, if you're reading this: Ghost-Town Studio would love to design your next gig poster.
Though Pete Cardoso and Darren Johnson haven't worked with AC/DC (yet), the Pawtucket, R.I.-based designers have created hand-printed, limited-edition artwork for Wilco, the White Stripes, the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Elvis Costello, Spoon, and more.
Sonic Youth frontman Thurston Moore even told Cardoso that the band has a Ghost-Town original in its practice space. Talk about a dream job for rabid music fans.
"It's is the perfect outlet," Cardoso said. "I love design, and we both love music. This is between the two."
The friends and avid poster collectors work during the day at Reebok as graphic designers for apparel and footwear. On nights and weekends, they head to their ink-stained studio - complete with skateboard ramp - to screenprint posters by hand.
Cardoso's designs are decidedly mod, with a nod to advertisements of the '50s and '60s. A recent poster for a Matthew Good tour features a silhouette of a shoegazing woman with heavy bangs and a minidress, swathed in punchy blue. Johnson's designs are more raw, dripping with punk references and found images.
"Pete and I have different styles which is good for the studio. We don't necessarily get approached by the same people to do the same thing," Johnson said.
Collectively, they have designed more than 300 posters and are well-established in the music industry. Artists usually seek out Ghost-Town for gig artwork when they play at Lupo's in Providence or at venues in Boston, though Cardoso and Johnson have also designed posters for bands playing in New York City or at several venues on a multi-stop tour.
Ghost-Town Studio - named for the emptiness of "pre-Renaissance Providence," Cardoso said with a laugh - essentially started in his apartment. He taught himself screen-printing while attending community college in the late '90s in Providence, and got involved with the AS220 community art center, where he learned techniques from poster art stalwart Mark Pedini.
He began freelancing artwork and creating merchandise for various bands and worked as a roadie from time to time to meet musicians, venues, and managers, and he officially launched Ghost-Town Studios in 2003. Johnson came on board the following year.
Johnson and Cardoso screen all their posters by hand, one color at a time. Most posters come in limited runs of 100 to 200, and many designs sell out. And once they are gone, they're gone.
"Collectors will e-mail me and show up week after week to see if we have any more," Cardoso said. "They think we're lying to them, like we have some secret stash."
Rock poster art boomed in the '60s with psychedelic artists who designed colorful, trippy posters for the Grateful Dead and Woodstock. The 1980s saw DIY punk fans designing and photocopying fliers for Black Flag, the Misfits, and more. The popularity of rock posters has ebbed and flowed through the years, but according to Clay Hayes of gigposters.com, the demand for these unique, handmade pieces is on the rise.
Hayes, who lives in Alberta, Canada, started his site in 2001 as a place for people to post their own poster art and talk about it. Now, there are thousands of members in his online forums, and what began as a hobby for the Canadian poster collector has become a full-time job.
"It's grown rapidly," he said of the site. "Bands use the site to find designers, designers use the site for inspiration and marketing, and fans can browse and purchase posters."
Cardoso and Johnson have seen the growing poster art community firsthand at events like Flatstock, a giant rock poster exhibition and sale sponsored by the American Poster Institute and usually held in conjunction with music festivals such as South by Southwest and Bumbershoot.
"It's like a Trekkie convention for poster designers," Cardoso said. "We get to know each other, BBQ, network, and really geek out about design."
The Ghost-Town Studios guys are forever busy. Cardoso also owns a small record label on the side - Smash & Grab Records - which puts limited edition seven-inch vinyl of local bands like the Mighty Mighty Bosstones with custom, handmade packaging. And the AS220 community art center in Providence just hosted a 10-year retrospective of Cardoso's designs during the month of September.
At $20-$30 a pop, selling music posters isn't a huge money maker, Johnson said. It's a labor of love, and each poster comes with stories and memories. "They're like your children," Cardoso said. 