COMMISSION — TOUR POSTER, CHRIS CATALYST VS THE MIDDLENIGHT MEN

“I’m looking for a poster design for a little tour my band and The Middlenight Men are doing in May. I was wondering if it might be cool to have a drawing of me and Nick their singer squaring up for a fight.” - brief from Chris Catalyst.

This poster marks the third time I’ve worked for Chris Catalyst, the previous two occasions being a t-shirt design (Mad in England) and stickers as a freebie for his ‘Waiting in the Sky’ Bowie cover album.

Chris provided me with a preliminary rough sketch of how he wanted things arranged on the poster. I leaned into the boxing theme by adding the ring and the mic, the gloves, and choosing to use the font I did for ‘Co-Headline’ as I wanted it to look like a sports scoreboard. The QR codes are links to both bands websites, and I leant again into the ‘fight’ theme by making the dates look like they’re being displayed on a ticket. The Middlenight Men have a ‘superhero’ theme in a lot of their songs and album covers, so I took inspiration from that when adding elements to their side of the poster.

The orange background, which goes from a vibrant orange to a golden yellow, was chosen to be eye-catching but also working in cohesion with the rest of the colours used. In advertisement, orange is stimulatory, and conveys excitement and enthusiasm.

The poster was changed to a CYMK, which gives more authentic colours for printing. Once bleeds were added, the poster was sent to Chris and they went on to be printed en masse. They were sold at the tour dates, signed by both artists. From discussion with the merch seller, the posters were a hit among their fans.

Above images are the original tour poster, and the two alternate versions for promoting on social media.