What: Babylon Rock 'n' Roll Dance Party at the Waldorf Hotel, Feb. 17
Poster designer: Daniel Fazio
Ever since the Waldorf Hotel underwent a facelift, blood transfusion and hot stone massage a little over a year ago, the 64-year-old East Hastings landmark and vintage tiki bar has become a veritable hotspot for Vancouver's hip and discerning. Re-imagined as a creative compound where art, music, film, food and stylish coifs meet, the hotel, perhaps not surprisingly, even has its own brand and design manager. That would be Daniel Fazio. With a background in graphic design, the former magazine and T-shirt company art director who also ran an art gallery in Toronto has been working with the Waldorf since September 2010 when he was hired to help with the rebrand and relaunch of the hotel.
Fazio creates most of the Waldorf's promotional material, including its posters, which he says are meant to reflect the dreamy, nostalgic and exotic feel of the hotel and the eclectic programming on offer. "We try and find a nice balance between the retro and the now," he says. All of which can be seen in his recent poster for the Waldorf's Babylon rock 'n' roll dance party, complete with go-go-dancer-friendly fonts and a gun-toting femme fatale lifted from an old men's magazine, meant to evoke the boozy sophistication of 1960s and '70s night clubs, which the evening is modeled after. Incidentally, Fazio says his own firearms experience is limited to a brief dalliance with laser tag.
As for his overall approach to his poster design, Fazio prefers to keep things simple and direct. "I use limited colour pallettes, big readable letter forms and simple eye-catching graphics," he says. "I think you need to think of the audience. They are going to be reading your poster from cars and buses or seeing it wrapped around a poles."
Do you want your gig poster considered for poster of the week? Email a high-res version to [email protected].
