Skyway 2003

This image started life as a poster for a Command Collective show. This was a few months after the Capitol Garage show and was a continuation of the themes established with the Command poster. I recall this being the first “big” show where people actually showed up, the place felt packed. Our friend Jay Howell let us play at the coffee shop he worked at, Espresso Metro on K St. It was right in the middle of midtown and at this time there was a very vibrant indie music scene going on in Sacramento. This show and others later that year always felt like an important moment to me, culturally it felt like they brought together a really interesting group of people.

On a conceptual level I was really trying to find a way to break through the rigid confines of pure graphic design and incorporate some more painterly effects. I wanted an airy, open feel that captured the spirit of that summer. I did some paint strokes on foamcore (fig.1), scanned them in, vector traced them and used them to create organic edges and distressing on the shapes. I used this set of brush strokes for most of the edging and distressing you see in work from this period and on.