Graphic designers conceptualize bands' work independently

Hours of labor and gallons of paint are used in the creation of the perfect rock poster. Featuring a purple grotesque image of a bird-like monster, a flyer duct taped to a pole in front of the Canopy Club entrance advertises Mordechai in the Mirror’s upcoming show this Saturday at The Red Herring. Walls of abandoned construction sites have become canvases for bands to promote their work for decades. Mordechai in the Mirror’s most recent flyer can be seen taped over dozens of other posters advertising previous shows from bands like Santa and Common Flow.

Forming the right imagery to represent a band requires a mutual understanding between designers, band members, and promoters. It is a symbiotic relationship based on trust and respect. Bands trust artists to conceptualize their work, while artists use their music as inspiration for their imagery. Most poster artists work under loose guidelines, but rarely under the strict supervision of band members and promoters.

“By an initial band putting up [your] poster, they’re advertising your work as long as you put your name on it,” said graphic design and painting student Matthew Harlan. “Bands want to get themselves out there, too,” said Harlan, explaining the mutually beneficial relationship between poster designers and music artists.

Harlan has been creating silk screen posters for nearly a year. His work is known for its childlike and playful images. His latest poster for a local band named Santa embodies the theme of good versus evil through a dichotomy between a child playing a board game and an adult holding a gun while robbing someone. The two bodies are mirror images of each other. “[Like silk screening] things overlap and intersect,” said Harlan. “This good and this evil intersect with each other, [and] I could use silk screening printing to relay that.”

The poster’s theme is a reference to a conflict between Santa and a venue director. “They weren’t initially going to play the show, but they got guilted into it,” said Harlan. Harlan explains that many venue directors have power over a band’s recognition in a community. Pulling out of the show could have reflected poorly on Santa’s image, which forced them to stay. Harlan used this conflict for the imagery of the band’s poster.

“You can get away with things being a little bit campy and grotesque because there’s something playful about the medium,” said Harlan. Throughout his short, but successful silk screening career, Harlan has interpreted bands’ works successfully. “It’s a trusting relationship. They like what I do,” said Harlan.

John Vogl 25, is a graphic designer who has turned the rock poster tradition into a one-man business from his basement in St. Louis. His studio, the Bungaloo, is the source of posters for bands like Celebration Day and Elsinore.

Combining the arts of silk screen printing, illustration and lithography, Vogl creates limited edition posters displaying intricate and colorful imagery like abstracted landscapes and cartoon animals.

“I think bands and promoters…tend to enjoy an outside interpretation of what it is that they do,” said Vogl. His interpretation process ranges from listening to his clients’ CDs to doing something as random as cleaning the shower. “I don’t want to pigeonhole myself with a process,” he said. “When the right idea comes along, I’ll know it’s there.”

Like Harlan, Vogl’s combines the arts of drawing, graphic design, and print making. “[Designing posters] is an interesting opportunity to conceptualize a body of work from a band,” said Vogl. Creating imagery to promote a band is a give-and-take relationship that Vogl describes as a necessary exchange. Although he admits that he is nervous “about ninety-nine percent of the time,” he does not let this discourage him from creating his own imagery.

“The whole show poster scene is a very small niche,” said Vogl. “Being such a niche there’s not a whole lot of money involved and the turnaround is quick.” To operate on a quick timeline and small budget, Vogl thinks it is much more efficient and effective to work on the imagery alone. “I’m only a one-man shop,” he said.

While Vogl has turned his appreciation for rock flyers into a business, Harlan struggles to balance his print making with his schoolwork. “I have things due for my painting class and things due for graphic design and then I have this passion I want to do on the weekends,” said Harlan.

Poster making is a time-consuming process. The interpretation process has lasted Vogl days. After an idea is finalized, it can take up to 8 hours mapping out the design, and an entire day to complete the printing process.

“It’s really exciting. You’re standing up and you’re actually doing this work and you’re ending up with a product,” said Harlan. ““I really enjoy it. It’s very real.”

Harkening back to the traditions of print making, poster artists only create limited editions of their work. “The appeal is that there are only so many out there – the idea of putting a cap allows you to define the value of the poster,” said Vogl.

Mordechai in the Mirror’s band member, David Samuel is the graphic designer responsible for the bizarre bird monsters found on their flyers. Unlike Vogl and Harlan, Samuel spends little time on conceptualizing his band’s imagery. He admits that most of the imagery on his flyers are quick doodles which he has morphed into intricate posters.

Although they start as random doodles, “when you put color to them, they start to mean something,” said Samuel. Most of his images’ coloring is done on Photoshop using low opacity brushes and custom colors. The technique creates a rich watercolor effect.

The images are based on stream of consciousness doodling. “A big philosophy of mine is that I like to do it in pen because…you have to work with your mistakes,” said Samuel. He relates this idea to the philosophy of the band’s music.

“The music is based on loops, and the loops are made on the fly,” he said. “If there’s a weird off timing or weird mistake, it’s locked in the loop forever.”

The art of rock posters has created a tight link between the art and music world. “Shows should be an artistic experience,” said Samuel. “Both visually and auditory-ly.”

Contaminated groundwater posing health risks for Fifth and Hill residents

Champaign County Health Care Consumers representatives urged Champaign City Council at Tuesday night’s City Council Meeting to amend the Ground Water Restriction Ordinance passed the summer of 2007. According to CCHCC representative Claudia Lennhoff, Ameren’s December report reveals shocking information identifying the vaporization of 20 different toxins in the city’s ground water. However, the ordinance does not protect citizens from inhaling the toxins. This is has been a lasting concern for Champaign’s Fifth and Hill residents, even though the property is 40 to 50 feet away from the neighborhood’s residential area.

CCHCC’s primary concern is the ordinance’s failure to protect citizens from directly contacting and inhaling the toxins produced my Ameren. Ameren’s report quotes “it is using an institutional control to remediate the toxic ground water,” but Lennhoff claims that simply preventing ingestion of the toxins does not suffice as protection.

“Vaporization doesn’t stop at these boundaries,” said Lennhoff. Ameren failed to test outside of its boundaries, which suggests that the toxin vaporization could potentially hurt the Champaign residents.

The ordinance only prohibits residents from drinking the contaminated water. However, Ameren’s report indicated toxins can reach residents through other pathways, like inhalation and contact. Lennhoff claimed homes are forced to deal with flooding annually, putting people in direct contact with contaminated ground water. Additionally, water run-off into Boneyard Creek has potential to contaminate gardens that produce fruits and vegetables bought and consumed by the community.

Long term exposure to these toxins could cause serious health detriments like neurological and reproductive disorders, cancers and asthmas.

Amending the ordinance to include all three pathways of contamination – ingestion, inhalation, and direct contact – will force Ameren to clean up the toxins from the water. Though safety standards for benzene contamination in the ground water is five parts per billion, the southern end of the property showed a thousand parts per billion of benzene present in the ground water.

“On the surface, the ordinance is common sense,” said Lennhoff, “but its use is what is objectionable – its use is allowing Ameren off the hook from cleaning the contaminated ground water. It seems the real intent of this ordinance is to protect Ameren from incurring the costs of doing a thorough, and therefore costly, clean-up job.”

The data on Ameren’s website was not available in 2007, suggesting that Champaign City Council and Illinois EPA were not aware of the extent of contamination and the possibility of soil vaporization. However, the new data indicates that failure to amend the ordinance could jeopardize the health and well being of Champaign citizens in the area.

According to Lennhoff the problem dates back to nearly 20 years ago. Many residents that lived in the area previously have reporting sicknesses that could be caused by the contaminated vapors. It is a frequently neglected neighborhood in the City Council agenda.

The toxins have been building up since the Ameren plant first came into existence in the late 1830s. Buildup of contaminants over this period of time has the potential to affect day care centers, schools, and homes in the area surrounding the plant.

Ameren claims that a thorough clean-up will be disruptive. Lennhoff counteracted the statement in front of City Council saying, “people are willing to be disruptive”. According to CHHC representatives, illnesses and cancers are far more disruptive to a neighborhood.

“Who is being protected here?” questioned Lennhoff. She urged City Council to attend the Ameren open house which will be discussing its reports.

Reports and fact sheets related to this issue can be found on Ameren’s website. CHHC representatives also encourage citizens to attend Ameren open house to voice their concerns about the well being of Champaign residents.