collylogic.com - Simon Collison's weblog

Official gig poster art by Chris Summerlin

2nd February 2008

Top Nottingham-based illustrator Chris Summerlin just delivered nine of his incredible gig posters in person. And a fine chap he is too. After ordering my prints, it turned out that Chris lived one street away from me in Sneinton! Small world.

Chris Summerlin posters

These are all genuine gig posters commissioned by the bands for some of their gigs in Nottingham, so they all mention fine venues such as The Social, Rescue Rooms, Rock City etc - and I even went to some of these gigs. One is even from a gig at Sneinton Hermitage!

As many of you know, I’m a huge music and illustration fan, so when the two combine I get excited. Trawl the web and you’ll find lots of gig poster sites (I’m also a fan of The Small Stakes folio), but there’s so much lame gig poster art out there or artwork not authorised by the bands, or made after the gigs, that to have these wonderful genuine prints is a bit of a coup.

Chris sells his posters as crisp A3 prints for around a fiver each, or he’ll do you a deal for bulk orders. All delivered carefully in strong cardboard tubes. Visit Chris Summerlin’s website to order prints or get in touch with him, or check out his Flickr poster art set. Chris is a freelance artist, and is available for commissions of all kinds. Word on the grapevine is that some commissioned artwork might just appear in my redesign later this year, but keep that to yourselves.

Simon Collison published this on 02/02/08, at 2:29 PM

Comments

Really nice works. It’s also nice when you had the pleasure to meet the author in person. I’m a bit of a music posters collector myslefs, so I really apreciate Chris’s work. Especially posters with a lighthouse and leaves are very appealing to me.

02/02 at 17:54 from Thomas O'Brian

These are utterly gorgeous. I particularly love the Low and Bardo Pond posters. But what do you do with nine A3 posters? Have you got a particularly big wall somewhere? I’m the proud owner of some British Sea Power posters which are not dissimilar in style, but to my shame they are still rolled up in their tube. What to do?

03/02 at 11:51 from Richard Rutter

Richard: I thought you’d like them. Well, I have so many empty frames in the cellar from the old art days, so I’ve dug a few perfectly-sized ones out and have tentatively propped three of these posters on the mantlepiece.

Next step is to fill the landing with loads of oddly framed artwork, posters and stuff. My house is just an end terrace, but its got a surprisingly large amount of empty wallspace, especially upstairs. I do think I’ve collected way too many pictures and prints over the years though.

And anyway, with prints so cheap it’d be rude to buy just eight or less!

03/02 at 17:25 from Simon Collison

Wow these are lovely.

Im always envious of the gig posters bands produce when touring the US, but I didn’t think bands actually bothered over here.

A good line-up you got there, I especially love Wilco :)

04/02 at 12:56 from Jason Cale

I feel like the caller on ‘Down The Line’ who calls a radio phone-in just to say he agrees with the other callers and then hangs up - but I thought I’d just post to say that I agree with the previous posts. Amazing illustration work.

P.S. I went to that Doves gig - I’m surprised I didn’t see one of those posters around town at the time. Great gig, by the way.

05/02 at 11:47 from Simon

Chris Summerlin it’s really artist. He should be over in Nottm with his band soon which does beg the question of who’ll end up doing the poster!

09/02 at 20:11 from Rezon

Note that comments are disabled 30 days after articles are published, or sooner if spammers target a particular post. Sorry...

Commenting is not available in this section entry.