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Archives for September 2009

September 30, 2009 By squirt

Firehouse-Goldenvoice Series Anniversary: One Year / 70 Rock Posters

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It’s been a hectic, hard-working year establishing the Firehouse-Goldenvoice Poster Series, art directing and printing all these great posters, with my friend and partner Ron Donovan. Yes, it has been a year, and we are nearing poster number 70.

If you do the math that’s more than one poster a week. Add that to the other posters we produce (read Eric Clapton and Van Morrison to name but two) while at work on the Firehouse-Goldenvoice Series, it’s been a busy year!

Little did we know what a cool year we would have at the Firehouse in 2009. When Chris Shaw introduced us to his landlord Victor Hanson – who was daring enough to rent to us – Chris set us up and we got the new Firehouse studio. We began to call it Hangar 18, the secret military installation in Dayton, Ohio (my hometown) where alien technology is reverse engineered.

After our awesome trip to the United Kingdom in 2008 – organized by the genius of Marc Malakie, founder of Station 4 Gallery, his impeccable site for art prints produced by the Firehouse crew – including the great Emory Douglas – we set to work on the idea of this Series.

The Firehouse-Goldenvoice Series has also brought out the best in Firehouse; the best in me as well, my artwork, and I hope, brought many new faces here to check out my new designs.

The Firehouse-Goldenvoice Series has also brought out the best in all of the fine poster artists who have been invited to take this crazy ride with me and Ron Don. Thanks to everyone included in the series thus far:

Chuck Sperry – Ron Donovan – Malleus (IT) – Dave Hunter – Alexandra Fischer – Chris Shaw – Dennis Loren – Martin Bedford (UK) – Aaron Farmer – Reuben Rude – Gregg Gordon – Jeff Ross – John Howard – Alan Hynes – Frank Zio – Zoltron – Mike King – Scott Johnson

Thanks to David Lefkowitz of Goldenvoice Presents for inviting Firehouse Kustom Rockart Company to produce this poster series, and for having the vision to know it was the right thing at the right time.

We have been fortunate to show this series in quite a few exhibits in the last year including:

TRPS Festival of Posters – San Francisco 2008

Art of Musical Maintanance – Portland 2008

Lucky 13 – Alameda 2008

Varnish Fine Art – San Francisco 2009

Ogilvy West – San Francisco 2009

TRPS Rock Art By The Bay – San Francisco 2009

The Best of The East Bay – Oakland Museum 2009

Lucky 13 – Alameda 2009

Rock Art Revulsion – Sacramento 2009

And soon TRPS Festival of Posters – San Francisco 2009

There have been quite a few Poster of the Week awards on Expressobeans – that makes me proud – thanks for everyones’ support! There have been many emergency runs to the paper and ink suppliers, thanks to George Gamboa (KAW!) and Stephen Abramson.

Thanks to the Firehouse buddy-studio Political Gridlock run by Jon-Paul Bail has been a constant source of creativity, ideas (and emergency ink!) at the Firehouse – without JP no cool graffiti, no political compass and no fun!

And many kind thanks to Lulu Ehrhard, one of the very best printers in the Bay Area.

What would a workday at Firehouse be like without a visit from JC Hall of Ideal Posters with his daughter Anjelica along for the ride, who has supported us through many years and made “Bowlio” an international silkscreen superstar; Or without a neighborly visit from Flipper Ted (the band not a poster dealer). And thanks to Chela from PsPrint for the offsets and friendly break from work.

Many thanks and a great big shout out to Nick Cernak (Cernak I/O) who created Firehouse Kustom Rockart Company’s first fully functional website, Hangar 18, and gave me the foundation and design for this site you are reading right here.

Sometimes the Firehouse seems like a cast of characters from a movie – thanks to Merle Becker for committing some of this to film in her brilliant documentary, “American Artifact: The Rise of American Rock Poster Art,” which came out last year while all this was going down.

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On this occasion, Firehouse-Goldenvoice’s first anniversary, I thought it would be cool to revisit my Mogwai poster, and move it here to my new site – begin to move all the posters I’ve done for the Series here – little by little.

Also supplies are getting mighty low on most of my Firehouse-Goldenvoice Series posters from the last year and thought it best to move them here while I still have some to show.

Here’s some posters included in my updated posts:

– English Beat

– Phoenix

– Neko Case

– Mogwai

Filed Under: News, Site Tagged With: Aaron Farmer, Alan Hynes, Alexandra Fischer, Chris Shaw, Chuck Sperry, Dave Hunter, Dennis Loren, Frank Zio, Gregg Gordon, Jeff Ross, John Howard, Malleus, Martin Bedford, Mike King, Nick Cernak, Reuben Rude, Ron Donovan, Scott Johnson, Zoltron

September 30, 2009 By squirt

Mogwai and Dead Meadow at the Regency Poster

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I designed the 39th gig poster in the Firehouse-Goldenvoice Series for the Mogwai concert on May 17, 2009 at The Regency Ballroom in San Francisco, California with special guests Dead Meadow.

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I used a blue-tinted silver and layered process color over it and got great results. This one shimmers and shines.

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Mogwai • Dead Meadow

Firehouse Goldenvoice Series Number 39

Editon of 200

4 colors on 14 point cover stock

30 x 23

Signed and Numbered

SOLD OUT

Filed Under: Rock Posters Tagged With: Dead Meadow, Mogwai, Regency

September 27, 2009 By squirt

Gov’t Mule Warfield Posters by Sperry and Hunter

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Dave Hunter and I created and printed a two-up poster for Gov’t Mule when they played Friday and Saturday, September 25 and 26, 2009 at the Warfield, Firehouse Goldenvoice Poster Series numbers 66 and 67.

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These were printed together on one parent sheet and cut apart, so the challenge was to bring out the best in each artist while sharing the same color palette. We chose to print a heavy silver metallic and tint the silver with three custom mixed primary colors and black.

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Both posters are available here in a limited offering.

A very limited release of uncut sheets containing both posters will be made at TRPS Festival of Poster at the Hall of Flowers in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park on Saturday, October 10, from 10 am to 6pm.

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Gov’t Mule

Firehouse Goldenvoice Series Numbers 66 and 67

Editon of 225

5 colors on heavy cover stock

22″ x 16″

Signed and Numbered

Gov’t Mule SF 09 Sperry –

single poster – FHGV #67

Sold Out – Thank You!

Gov’t Mule SF 09 Hunter Sperry –

set of two posters – FHGV #66 & #67

Sold Out – Thank You!

Filed Under: Rock Posters Tagged With: Chuck Sperry, Dave Hunter, Gov't Mule, The Warfield

September 27, 2009 By squirt

Ogilvy Extends Firehouse Show through October

Rock the Streets

American Artifact: The Rise of American Rock Poster Art - Movie Poster
American Artifact: The Rise of American Rock Poster Art - Movie Poster

The Rise of American Rock Poster Art

Chuck Sperry and Ron Donovan of The Firehouse Kustom Rockart Company have been presenting an overview of their most recent hand printed silkscreen poster work at Ogilvy in San Francisco.

  • The Eric Clapton series of ten posters – most recently for two internationally famous venues: Budokan, Tokyo & The Royal Albert Hall, London.
  • The Firehouse Goldenvoice series #1 – 40 – Rock art posters produced by The Firehouse for The Warfield and Regency Grand Ballroom from September 2008 through June 2009.
  • Original mixed media & installation pieces
  • American Artifact movie pre-release film trailer featuring The Firehouse. The American Artifact world premiere will be June 20, 2009 at The Red Vic Theater on Haight Street, San Francisco. Visit americanartifactmovie.com for complete screening & ticket information.

firehouse-show

Original run: June 4 to August 4, 2009

Show has been extended through October 2009

Enjoy the rare opportunity to visit ad agency Ogilvy’s art gallery, usually only seen by employees and clients. Rather than adorn it’s walls with traditional corporate-approved artwork, the creative forces at the agency have commissioned a who’s who of pop-artists to adorn their hallways with challenging new art.

Ogilvy
111 Sutter Street

10th Floor
SF, CA 94104

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Ogilvy, Rock the Streets

September 24, 2009 By squirt

Phoenix Poster Wins Award

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I was working late last night finishing two posters for the Friday and Saturday concerts at the Warfield featuring Gov’t Mule; Dave Hunter and I each designed a poster and printed them together as a two-up (more news on that poster soon!). That’s when I got the news that my Phoenix Poster had won Expresso Beans Poster of the Week.

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Dave was taking photos of the Gov’t Mule two-up poster with his iphone to send a progress report to Ron Donovan who is out in Hawaii on a family visit. Dave suddenly got a text message from George Gamboa and said, “Dude! Phoenix just got Poster of the Week.”

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Thanks everyone! That’s awesome news – your continued support keeps the presses happily running over at Hangar 18.

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Here’s a link to my original post for my Phoenix poster with ordering information

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Expresso Beans, Phoenix, The Soft Pack, The Warfield

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About Chuck Sperry

Chuck Sperry lives in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco, where he’s made his particular style of rock poster designs for over 20 years. He operates Hangar 18, a silkscreen print studio, located in Oakland. Learn More…

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Sperry Books: “Color x Color” • “Helikon” • “Chthoneon” • “Idyllion”

Latest Blog Posts

  • Sperry Solo “Universal” Coming to Paris
  • Sperry in Popland 2025 at KochxBos Gallery, Amsterdam
  • Chuck Sperry’s Alice Donut Poster
  • Chuck Sperry’s “The Mystic” & “Iphigenia” Blotters • 
Online Release with EQL
  • Available Now: Chuck Sperry’s Newest Protest Art Poster

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