XX Merge Festival Poster
DESCRIPTION
XX Merge Festival Poster
CLIENT
DATE
April – June 2009
DESIGN CREDITS
Maggie Fost, Merge Records Art Director
PRINT CREDITS
TYPE CREDITS
Futura
(Distorted) Helvetica press-type |
QUANTITY PRODUCED
1,000
PRODUCTION COST
$1,568
PRODUCTION TIME
2 Weeks
DIMENSIONS: WIDTH × HEIGHT × DEPTH
12 in × 18 in
PRINT METHOD
Offset, Letterpress
PAPER STOCK
Starwhite Natural, 80 lb Cover
NUMBER OF COLORS
Offset: 1 Spot
Letterpress: 2 Spot |
IMAGES HAVE BEEN PHOTOGRAPHED BY UCLLC: www.underconsideration.com
To celebrate their 20th anniversary, Merge Records — who released Arcade Fire's debut record Funeral — held a four-night, thirty-three-band festival, XX Merge, in their hometown of North Carolina this past July. To commemorate the occasion, their art department — who keep a wonderful process blog — created this special edition offset and letterpress poster. The poster features a hand-made paper set replica of the Cat's Cradle, the venue where the festival was held, and is sprinkled with fun lettering of all the bands' names. The festival logo (XX Merge) is letterpressed in red, adding a visual and tactile punch to the already cool poster. Merge Records' art director Maggie Fost shares more on the paper set she built:
It's a model of the Cat's Cradle, a legendary rock club in Carrboro, North Carolina where much Merge history has taken place and where the whole festival took place. I went to the club in the middle of the day and took photos of the stage so that my model would be representative. It worked! It was very gratifying that when fans saw the poster, they immediately knew it was the Cradle. I added the trees to give it a sense of fantasy and to suggest North Carolina in the summer. The model is literally made of posterboard and scotch tape.
The trees ended up being realized life-size for the stage by Dave Doernberg, who made them out of foamboard in New York and shipped them down, spraypainting them glossy red outside the club hours before the first band took the stage.
Dave Wofford of Horse & Buggy Press in action.
The poster-inspired set at Cat's Cradle.
Festival merchandise.
Comments
Are the band names at the bottom fonts or hand lettering?
Hi Soda and Candy: The band names are all hand-lettered. Thanks for asking. Cheers, Maggie
Great Poster!
What a terrific use of Form and grace — Maggie's work is always top-notch and I have been following her Merge career with joy. Here's to bringing interest and fun into graphic design!
F**K Yes!!
Simply awesome.
...and jealous.
A beautiful Poster indeed, and what a truthful representation of Cat Cradle's stage... I've been fortunate to play there twice, and the vibe/sound of that place is out of this world.
This is one beautiful poster!
I absolutely love the font treatment and the image. Great setup and great execution.
Many thanks to our ADV × 3 partners
