REM, Nirvana and More From ‘America’s Poster Champion’ Mike King

Portland-based artist Mike King has been creating gig posters for bands since the mid 1970s. What began as a means of promoting his own bands’ shows turned into a prolific career. He gets paid now, but to begin he worked “in exchange for tickets to the shows, and for beers”.

King has worked on posters for such scintillating acts as Nirvana, R.E.M., The Dandy Warhols, The Wipers, Smegma, Cryptic Slaughter and more. He’s designed album artworks, advertising, merchandise and what he calls “a variety of other crap” for Blondie, Iggy Pop, Mavis Staples, Trombone Shorty, The Pixies and others.

King says he’s influenced by “cartoons, early Soviet art, the ads in comic books, matchbooks, ’60s movie posters, Victorian advertising, the smile on a small child’s face.” He maps out a design on the computer and then “attempts to screenprint it”.

 

“There’s thieving going on in all directions at once. Culture’s like that. It’s this constant reciprocal plunder.”

– Mike King

 

“I’d rather know how a band visually represents itself than listen to the music. I’m enamoured with culture on all levels. I like live theatre, and I like ‘The Hills.’ I like all kinds of music: indie rock, Jewish music, jazz music, classic rock, metal, country-western.”

– Mike King

 

“In the mid seventies I was going to high school, listening to a lot of music (much of it bad) and was trying to draw comics while wishing I was a rock star. Drawing comics and playing music were lofty goals indeed for someone like myself with marginal drawing skill and no musical ability until one evening in the spring of 1977 … I saw the Sex Pistols on TV and everything changed. Before the year was out I was playing music (terribly) and instead of drawing comics I directed my artistic energy into making flyers for my band and others. It took a few years before the music scene in Portland got past bands putting on the shows themselves to promoters or club owners doing shows. At first I did flyers in exchange for admission but eventually I was able to actually get paid to make them and so, though I never really planned to be one, I became a graphic designer. I didn’t retire as a »musician« until 1990.”

– Mike King in HHV Mag

 

Some of his work is now on show at the exhibition titled Copy/Paste/Print/Repeat at New York’s Poster House. And you can order posters of his work at his website.