18 March 21 - 27, 2024 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents “I definitely feel [things] have gotten more feminine,” says illustrator, writer and promoter Jessi Pereira. “In the post-COVID world, I’d say there are more women who have stepped up to run shows. The female talent has certainly increased from when I first entered the scene. It was super male- dominated, and now the scene has softened up a bit, so to speak.” Pereira, who works under Jessi Supreme, began creating flyers for the Paradise party she made with DJ Sober in 2021. Mimicking a classic Xerox look, her hand-drawn style pulls from the ‘80s and ‘90s, as well as early- 2000s stock photos and 3-D animated art. Because of her work in the city’s nightlife, she was asked by Silver Surfer to model for the band’s upcoming album cover. Spinster Records booker Priscilla Ruiz, who also serves as the shop and venue’s flyer artist, believes that being a woman in the in- dustry gave her an artistic superpower. “However you identify, men and women definitely have different viewpoints, and our minds think differently,” she says. “I think women or feminine people tend to think more emotionally and more straightfor- wardly. It’s like, let’s get to the point, let’s make it cute, let’s make it fun. Let’s tap into the emotion of the band, see what they’re about, and put it on paper.” Riot Girls. I n her former role as daytime manager of Three Links, Kaia Bellanca was in charge of marketing, promotions and the mailing list. It was a natural pivot to making the graph- ics to promote the Deep Ellum bar’s endless array of punk rock shows. The artist, who “grew up watching a metric ton of music videos,” began creating her imag- ery during the glory days of MySpace. Today, she pairs hand-crafted collages with digital ac- cents, drawing inspiration from classic punk logos and Riot grrrrl imagery. During her nearly-10-year tenure at Three Links, she made flyers and posters for Amyl and the Sniffers, The Gorehounds and Tripping Daisy, as well as album covers for Lizzie Boredom, Responsible Johnny and American Shit Storm. “I like to keep a little bit of lowbrow in- spiration in there,” Bellanca says of her splashy, hyper-colored look, which brands like Dr. Martens have also commissioned. “I like it when things are a little bit dirty or might make people uncomfortable. I like the weird and the shocking.” Also unafraid to explore controversial imagery is local artist Michelle Spearman. With an aesthetic drawn from pulp novels and classic Playboy magazines, the self- taught Spearman creates 1970s airbrush- style art digitally on her iPad. Her sexy designs have adorned everything from flyers for DJ Sober to an album cover for Pearl Earl, as well as packaging for corporate cli- ents such as Vacation sunscreen. Channeling the sensuousness, cheeki- ness and sleaziness of the disco era, Spear- man’s glossy bums, lips and cleavage effortlessly subvert the male gaze. She sees her embrace of the female form as a no-duh way to show empowerment. Collaborating with musicians who share her strong vision results in an equally strong work of art, like the recent belt buckle accent she created for Kitty Cohen’s upcoming album Hellcat. “The musicians I worked with have a very strong vision for what they want, and I really like that and try to honor that as closely as possible because they’re artists themselves,” Spearman says. Having a musician drive the creative bus is the preferred methodology for most al- bum and flyer artists. “Anytime I’ve had a label or a manager approach me, that never worked out,” Spearman says. “I think that the label might not see as much value in the artwork as the musicians themselves. Everyone who’s ap- proached me says it’s worth the money if the vision is done correctly, but when I work with the label, it’s more business-y.” Digital Overground I n the 1990s, it was hard to stroll a down- town street without seeing layers of promotional imagery stapled to every telephone pole. Chris Lewellyn, owner of Lewellyn’s Print Shop, says it might be his own fault that flyers have moved — more or less permanently — out of a physical space. “It’s kind of funny because the reason you can’t put flyers on telephone poles is be- cause of the stuff I did in the ‘90s,” says Lewellyn, who started his musical career working at Last Beat Records in 1996. “That was how I promoted all our bands, so all that covering was me in a sense. Every week, I went out and put up 150 flyers or posters, and over time, it really grew and became way too much, so I’m sorry about that!” By the late 1990s, a city ordinance banned posters and papers affixed to utility and tele- phone poles, driving the distribution of flyers to bars, restaurants and concerts. Today, the easiest way to promote a show or DJ night is via social media, meaning artists must create work that also pops in the digital world. Dallas-based flyer artist Taylor Smith (who has designed for Parquet Courts, Thee Oh Sees, Sheer Mag and The Coathangers, among others) says, “I think there are less shows and bands in general post-pandemic. Things have gone more digital and less print-based. Seeing a show poster in person to scale … is so much better than a phone screen, yet I feel like it’s a lost art at this point. I remember being in my early 20s and going to bigger shows, and there was always a unique show poster for sale, usu- ally screen-printed. Most things are just digital and all ad-based these days, [but] luckily, a lot of new hardcore and metal bands seem to be carrying the torch when it comes to original artwork and designs.” “The digital thing has changed [the indus- try] a lot,” Bellanca says. “People don’t put as much of their marketing budget into printing things. Sometimes, it’s a little bit sad — I’m going to make this flyer, and it’s never going to be a collectible item because it’s digital. But I don’t think flyers are gone forever. One thing that’s really cool about London is you still see flyers promoting everything from RuPaul’s new book to a local punk band.” Lewellyn Print Shop’s Chris Lewellyn, who has employed the talents of artists such as Hunter Moehring, says he noticed the shift to digital starting in the early 2000s. “Now it’s about the Instagram post or the TikTok post. Before, things were so associated with the venue — it’s changed a lot. Now we design an image that’s on a CD or a flyer, and we’ll also do it for a Facebook post, Instagram post and maybe a header on a website.” Although social media has taken away a lot of the tactile aspects of the art, highlight- ing one’s work on a platform like Instagram means a larger audience can discover an art- ist’s output. Will Rhoten, aka DJ Sober, also works as a graphic designer and has created artwork for The Burning Hotels and Nina Sky. He says that social channels are now crucial for people to discover his work. “A hundred percent Instagram is a big factor in how people discover you, and to that point, I do all the flyers for a big New York party called Tiki Disco,” he says. “I started making flyers for a guy in Berlin be- cause he followed Tiki Disco. As much as we curse social media, there are so many oppor- tunities that can happen that wouldn’t have happened before. But with the digital thing, a lot of people see that all day, every day, so your stuff needs to stand out even more.” “Everybody’s scrolling, scrolling, scroll- ing, scrolling through TikTok, through Ins- tagram, through X,” adds Priscilla Ruiz. “We’re just constantly scrolling, so it’s even more important to have something eye- catching so people stop and look at it and [realize] there’s an event going on.” Art and Commerce F lyer and album artists are under- standably tight-lipped about their rates. Still, the cost of an average flier design can start as low as one hundred dollars and go up to the thousands, depending on the client’s budget and the eventual use. Some artists will craft a flyer for a band they love just for the exposure. If a design is to be trans- ferred into multiple sizes and media (a T- shirt, a screen-printed poster), rates inevitably rise. However, most artists say they prefer to accept a flat fee, even if an image will live on for the length of a tour or album. But as baby bands play for tips and even legacy acts rely on merchandise sales and Kaia Bellanca Amyl and the Sniffers poster by Kaia Bellanca. Michelle Spearman Michelle Spearman’s flyer for DJ Sober Elle Caerbert Elle Caerbert’s album art for SEA/SONS. Mike Brooks Hunter Moehring, a musician in the band FIT, was influenced by his father, an illustrator for Seattle’s historic Eagles Auditorium in the 1960s. Music to Your Eyes from p17
