Fort Lauderdale-based Iron Forge Press creates some of the most eye-popping rock posters we've ever seen. Whenever possible, we'll share their designs right here on Crossfade.
Iron Forge Press' Chuck Loose and Ian Rowan were commissioned to create the Wilco poster on the right to promote Monday evening's show at Fillmore Miami. Because of the terms of the arrangement, they waited to post the image until now.
Our interpretation: Wilco's music has long been a roots, alt-country and rock-based meditation on the beauty of decay around us. The hat reminds us of the band's consummate showmanship. After the jump, a Q&A about the print with Iron Forge's Ian Rowan.
What inspired the seahorse?
I have a seahorse skeleton in a shadowbox in my living room and always thought it would make a cool design element for a poster. When the Wilco opportunity came along I decided to finally use the little guy and photographed it and separated it down for printing. The hat and tie were added to formalize the seahorse to be in keeping with the show being titled "An Evening With Wilco." It seemed like an event the skeletal seahorse may have wanted to dress up for.
What went into the coloring/materials for this piece?
I decided to use a varnish as a technique to color the all ready teal/blue paper in a natural-looking way, sort of mimicking the effect that it was wet in the shape of subtle bubbles beneath the seahorse skeleton. For the color palette of the other inks, I just selected variants of bone/natural tans from light to dark as well as the darkest tan being used for the hat and bow tie. The red-over print for the text was just a contrasting color choice for a bold presentation. Plus I have always loved the red and teal color combo. Chuck prints most of the posters and mixes the inks as close as he can to the artwork provided but from screen to paper they are often very different due to the physical properties of the inks and papers used.
See the poster even bigger at ironforgepress.tumblr.com
