The Avett Brothers at Red Rocks
Every artist who makes concert posters dreams of getting a gig at Red Rocks Amphitheatre. If you don’t know what Red Rocks is you’ve probably been living under a rock, and not one of the ones at Red Rocks. The amphitheatre just outside of Denver, Colorado, was carved out of giant monolithic sandstones and has to be one of the most incredible and beautiful atmospheres to listen and watch live music at. And they pack the schedule with incredible acts at Red Rocks. Anyway, the Avett Brothers connected me with Superfan, an company that specializes in creating one of a kind fan experiences, to make exclusive VIP posters for their 3 night residency at Red Rocks in July of 2023.
The set of posters I designed was based on mid-20th century cowboy culture. Well, maybe less real life cowboys and more like the kids TV shows and pulp novels, the wallpaper and fabric patterns in the nursery, and the comic books. Instead of the typical triptych that’s one image broken up into three parts, I wanted to do it like three different episodes. The first poster shows the cowboy summiting a mountain with his horse and seeing Red Rocks for the first time. In the second poster he’s stopped for a little mid day lunch, and in the third he and his horse are relaxing, and he’s strumming some chords. And in each poster you can see a little mountain bluebird following along on the adventures. Okay, maybe this would make for boring TV, but I was more excited about these quiet moments in nature rather than any scenes of action packed adventure.
The whole set of posters was drawn by hand, and screenprinted (by hand as well) with a sort of low tech CMYK process, where the ink is transparent and new colours are created where the layers overlap.
Here are the initial concept sketches that were sent to the client for approval. Four different ideas for sets of posters were sent over, and this is the one that got picked!
These posters are all sold out but check the web shop for other Avett Bros prints!