MADE Does Flatstock 84
When your friends are in town, you make it a point to visit them. And when your ‘town’ is ‘Texas’, and your friend is Aaron Draplin, and he’s hanging out with your other friends, Industry Printshop, AND it’s during South by Southwest, it is mandatory to pay everyone a visit. Tom and Seth headed down to see what was happening at Flatstock 84.
Music, Posters, and Printing
Flatstock is an annual event that features the world’s top poster artists and printmakers displaying their work. The event takes place at the Austin Convention Center each year as a part of the SXSW Music Festival. The three-day event showcases more than 100 artists from all over the world, selling their hand-printed gig posters, art prints, and other merchandise. The event also features music performances and workshops on poster printing and design.
Forward Thinking
It is a vision of MADE to unite the flat stock and apparel decorating communities because so much goes hand in hand between the two trades. Rock shirts and gig posters are one of the core influences of the culture here at MADE; last year, we had the opportunity to live print the official design of Flatstock 77 (designed by Lil Tuffy) on shirts alongside our poster printing friends. Industry Printshop is a shining example of how the two apex- and we’ll have more on that in an upcoming post that will include a tour of their shop!
Live Printing
Our dear friend Andy McDougall (poster printing legend of Wachiay Studio) could not make it down from British Columbia this year. Still, he instructed us to stop by the Exceptional Papers, Inc. booth. We did right as his friend/ sidekick Jonathan Rebolloso was laying down the final color for the Flatstock live print. This print was complex in that the paper Jonathan was using was a holographic foil. To make the ink work, he used Speedball’s Stick-A-Poo Joy Juice (developed by our friend Andy) to help the ink cure to the substrate. The true appreciation here is for time. This was the fourth color of the print, and Jonathan had been working on these prints all day, air-curing them at the booth for attendees to pick up once finally ready.
DDC
Draplin was on full display, inviting every single person at the event into his booth and giving them a tour of the DDC offerings. This was his first Flatstock to attend and vend. There was an energy of newness in the DDC/ Industry Printshop booth. When we asked how the show was going for him he said,
‘I’ve been a fan of this stuff a lotta lotta years, so to be able to come hangout with Industry, show my stuff, bump some elbows and make a ton of new friends, be confused by all the bands I don’t know about that have a million cool posters, it’s been awesome!’
All in all it was a great time, checking out legendary printers and every aspect of design. What will come of this? We’ll keep you posted on our events page– there might be some poster printing at the lab on the horizon. Check out the Gallery below for more Flatstock visuals.
