Event: Happy Ending Fridays at Fortune Sound Club
Poster designer: Randy Laybourne
Raised among the rain and dark woods of northern British Columbia, Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»ex-pat Randy Laybourne resides in sunny San Diego now. But the graphic designer still keeps his soggy mitts on a few local gigs, including a painstaking, paper cut-out-inspired poster series for Fortune Sound Club's weekly wind-down, Happy Ending Fridays. The Courier interviewed Laybourne via email about his posters, Mr. T and minor X-Acto knife injuries.
Courier: The posters you design for the Fortune Sound Club look like construction paper cut-out art. Do you actually hand cut the shapes or is it a computer effect?
Laybourne: All the shapes are cut by hand. Only the type and logos are added in Illustrator after the photo is taken.
Courier: What materials did you use and how long does it take you to hand cut everything?
Laybourne: I've had a box of Color-aid sheets that I bought at Pearl Paint in NYC for about 10 years. I never had a real use for them but the colours are amazing. It took about four to five hours for each construction, then another hour or two to do the type.
Courier: What inspired you to design the posters for this particular night with cut-outs?
Laybourne: I did a whole series for Happy Ending Fridays, I think about five flyers and two monthly posters. Garret Louie, one of the co-owners of Fortune, just said he wanted something crazy and fun. I just wanted to see how some of the characters I draw might look slightly more 3-D. The past year I've been trying to add dimension to my personal art so this tied in nicely.
Courier: Did you suffer any poster related injuries?
Laybourne: I was careful with the X-Acto blade but might have done a nick here and there.
Courier: Were you an artistic kid in elementary school?
Laybourne: Yeah, I've been drawing forever. I had a Mr. T comic going when I was in Grade 5.
Courier: Do you follow any strict dos and don'ts when it comes to designing a poster?
Laybourne: The main do is to get it done in time for it to get on the street in time for the event.
Courier: Where's the strangest place you've seen one of your posters?
Laybourne: It is always great to see them overtop other posters, especially if it's a bigger name event. I don't put them up so anytime I get to see one is a surprise.
Courier: What makes a poster good or bad?
Laybourne: It kind of depends what the poster is for. If it is a big hip-hop event, the super basic ones with florescent colours work really well, since they are so garish. I think a bad poster is one that is boring. One that just has a cruddy photo with the bands or DJ name big. A bit of flavour in the photo, art and design makes it more interesting for sure. I also like when a poster is messed with by someone on the street. Adding moustaches is always funny.
To see more of Laybourne's work, go to lookforwardtothepast.com.
Do you want your gig poster considered for poster of the week? Email a high-res version to [email protected].
