Designed By Monkeys Conor Oberst & Titus Andronicus Posters On Sale

 Designed by Monkeys is run my Michael Houghton and he has a couple of new posters he just released.

His new poster for Conor Oberst, M. Ward, and The Felice Brothers at the Phoenix Theater, Petaluma, California.

Mike talks design:

I’ve had this idea – the gramophone tank – for several years now. It’s a play on the Neutral Milk Hotel gramophone plane. I really wanted to draw it, and it had really just floated to the front of my creative line. This poster seemed like a really good fit with that idea, for another great show happening at The Phoenix.

All original illustration, including much of the custom type. The is 16 x 22-½ inch paper, 2 color screen print in black and metallic ink, numbered and signed.

Next is his poster for Titus Andronicus at the Phoenix Theater.

Mike on his idea for the poster:

Titus Andronicus’s new album, “The Most Lamentable Tragedy” is a pretty amazing, sprawling rock opera about mental health and depression. This is my symbolic take on the struggle with forces in your own brain – that there’s just this immense, immeasurable part of yourself underneath the surface, and that sometimes you’re a tiny boat on the surface, just riding out the storm. I wanted this Elder God to look like he was sad, lonely, and like he had just be trudging forever, and clearly thinking he always would be.It’s also, of course, a nod to Terry Gilliam’s “Time Bandits”. And a great big experiment for me in what can be done with mixing colors in screen printing, with semi-transparent inks and halftones.

 The poster is 17 x 24 inches, 4 color screen print, numbered and signed edition of 50.

Hit up his Etsy shop to buy the posters  https://www.etsy.com/shop/DesignedByMonkeys

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Designed by Monkeys Neutral Milk Hotel Petaluma Poster

Mike from Designed by Monkeys shot me an email about his new poster and I thought it was pretty cool looking. I have no idea who or what Neutral Milk Hotel is but I thought you guys might dig this poster from a new artist.

This limited edition poster is available for sale at designedbymonkeys.etsy.com. It is 11x19, and printed on French Paper, 140lb “Speckletone Madero Beach” (flecked) and letterpress style.  It is limited to a run of 300 posters, signed and numbered by the illustrator, after which the band info will be removed, and it will continue to be printed as an art print.

Illustration by Michael Houghton of Designed by Monkeys as a gig poster for Neutral Milk Hotel’s appearance at The Phoenix Theater, Petaluma, CA.

“I wanted to create something that was a dream-state portrait of [singer] Jeff Mangum,” says Houghton. “I really worked hard on finding the right balance between a straight likeness and something stylized – actually kind of drove myself a little crazy getting it just right. The birds and the roots of his beard are based loosely on the song ‘Little Birds”, which is in the ‘throw your daughter down the well’ tradition of folk music. It’s a really beautiful song.

“Neutral Milk Hotel’s album Aeroplane Over the Sea is my favorite album of all time,” continues Houghton. “It’s just gorgeous and soaring and has meant a lot to my life. I wanted to try to do something as a tribute to what their music has meant to me.”

Houghton is an illustrator and graphic designer, living in Santa Rosa, CA (better known to the rest of the world as “wine country”, an hour north of San Francisco).

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