The art of gig poster design

Posters are still an important way for bands to connect with fans, by engaging them for one-off gigs or whole tours, but rather than being flyposted the posters in the Flyposting show are painstakingly handcrafted pieces sold at gigs as collectables.

Leeds City College head of graphics and photography Tony Baker has collected the posters and co-curated the exhibition with Gallery Munro House.

Baker says, ‘They’re always exquisitely designed and printed on top quality paper – generally in three colours – and there are unlikely to be more than 100 prints; sometimes there are just 30.’

We’ve plucked out a few highlights. Handcooked poster has worked on Manic Street Preachers, Biffy Clyro and this naughty Pulp poster.

Jacknife has designed this beautiful three-colour poster for Johnny Flynn’s The Country Mile Tour using greenish nighttime hues to capture a daunting journey over a spurious distance.

The same artist has created this Public Service Broadcasting poster on a blitz theme, with an obvious nod to broadcasting in an effort to echo PSB’s penchant for sampling clipped Queen’s English tones of old.

Everything on display at the exhibition is either official merchandise or has been band-approved.

This year the show moves to Gallery Munro House, Duke Street, Leeds, LS9 8AG where it runs until 22 Feb.