Brian Ewing is an illustrator and designer whos appeared in Hustler and The New Yorker. Hes designed skateboard decks and t-shirts, sunglasses for Anarchy Eyewear and shoes from Draven. Its the music posters that are how most people know Ewings work, though. Even if his name isnt familiar, youve likely seen his work. Hes the resident poster artist of the Warped Tour and has crafted over one hundred posters for bands ranging from Rob Zombie to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs to Coheed & Cambria.
Dark Horse has just released a new book of Ewings art, Dont Hold Your Breath which has the subtitle Nothing New From Brian Ewing. Its highly unlikely that youve seen all the posters, but even if you have theres still plenty of material that make the book worthwhile including sketches and designs, Ewing detailing his process and the stories behind the work, and tributes from artists and musicians and a forward by Warped Tour founder Kevin Lyman. I talked with Ewing after he returned from the San Diego Comic-con, where the book debuted, and after he covered from the nerd flu that affects too many of us afterwards.
ALEX DUEBEN: So how did you get started doing poster art and what is it about posters that really appeal to you?
BRIAN EWING: I got started after seeing posters by Coop, Kozik, Hess and TAZ in the pages of Juxtapoz magazine and at Rushmor Records (my local record shop) in Milwaukee, WI. I was there one day when the owner pulled out a Superchunk poster by Coop and a Big Chief poster by Kozik. It was kinda like the scene from Sixteen Candles when Anthony Micheal Hall presents Molly Ringwalds chonies to his nerd buddies. That day stuck with me for the rest of my life. So did the movie.
Once my friends started bands I was their go-to-guy for fliers. I just did them for fun and so I could get into bars before I was 21.
The appeal to me was particularly with what Kozik and Coop were doing. Theyre styles and subject matter rung every bell in my brain. It was dangerous, sexy and oh so wrong. And it seemed to me that their favorite bands were mine also. If not, I gave the bands a listen and was won over because they did a poster for them. Im still inspired by looking at their work. And very happen to have befriended them as well.
As a kid I dreamt of drawing comic books or being an illustrator. With Rock Posters I was able to do both but with more freedom and control. I get to own the rights to the artwork and explore subject matter and technique the way I want to.
AD: Has music always been really big for you? Did you ever play?
BE: Hell yeah! As a kid I LOVED music! Everything was new to me and I really took to Heavy Metal and Punk Rock right out the gate. It wasnt my older brother or sisters music. It was mine and I was hooked by all the album art and t shirt graphics and cute girls that would go to the shows.
Im still friends with the guys I grew up with and we spent most of our teenage time (and money) on buying albums and comic books since we were way too nerdy for the ladies. I still talk to the guy that sold me my first Ramones album way back when I was twelve.
I, like every other kid, thought someone in the band did all the album art.
Music is very important to me, and most people really. It gave me an identity and something to relate to as a teenager.
I was in a couple bands for five minutes but never really had the personality to be up there singing. I just wanted to be in the bands so I could do all the artwork. I lucked out, because doing posters made it possible to hang out with bands, watch shows from the side of the stage and go on tours. But I get to do it all on my terms as an artist and not a musician.
AD: Most poster art is very utilitarian - band, venue, date - but there's this really great tradition of poster art, not just in rock, but going back further. What's the challenge in trying to create a real work of art?
BE: Rock posters changed and became more creative in the Sixties with Girffin, Moscoso, Tuten and so on. Go Hippies! Poster art had been going strong since the Art Nouveau and Secession movements.
My job is to make the poster legible and spell the band names correctly. After that most bands let you do what you want. So then I think more about the bands fans than the band. Because they know more about the music than the band does. Im a huge fan of Coheed & Cambria. So if I saw a poster with a dragonfly on it, I wouldnt be that impressed. But if someone listened to the music and interpreted one of their songs or album successfully then that would make me happy. Id buy the poster and go to the show.
The challenge now is to maintain a style/identity while trying to go further with both. To be excited and to push myself with drawing and printing. I feel that after all this time Im going through another art puberty. I have ideas and techniques that Im trying to get across. Sometimes I get it right away and other times its a little awkward and takes a few tries to get whats in my noggin onto paper.
AD: How did the book Don't Hold Your Breath happen?
BE: Rich Black asked me to write the foreword to his book Futura that Dark Horse published a few years ago. Its pretty rad it comes with 3D glasses! After that Chris Warner, the editor, asked me if I wanted to do a book. I was at the San Diego Comic Con in 2008 when he asked. I shouldve bought a lottery ticket that day. A few minutes later he handed me a ticket to a Dark Horse/Lucasfilm party. I snuck my buddy Andrew Bawidamann into the party and we proceeded to uh...get loaded and surprisingly we didnt get kicked out after a table of champagne glasses mysteriously got knocked over. So keep that between us.
Around the same time Tara McPherson and Frank Kozik had introduced me to folks at Dark Horse which helped tremendously.
The book almost didnt get published. Because of the economy many publishers had to cut back on some projects. Mine was one of them. During that time I was reaching out to clients and friends in the music industry and asked for their help to promote the book when it came out. Everybody was very helpful. I also asked my friend Crankbunny to create a trailer for the book and that really helped convince the publisher.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqcaGLPgdD8
AD: What did you want the book to be? The layout and the sketches you include, you really seemed to be going for something different than we see in a lot of poster or art books. Plus you designed the book as well.
BE: I thought the best thing to do... was to do the opposite. I love the other books Dark Horse published on Rock Posters. Kozik, McPherson, R. Black and Stainboy are my friends and colleagues. Im very proud to share shelf space with them. But I didnt want to have a book that couldnt be discerned from the other books.
So yeah I included a lot of sketches and anecdotes to give people an idea of how I worked on some of the posters. Sometimes I explained the process of how I drew a poster and sometimes I talked about my interactions with the bands that the posters was created for. For instance, I mention the time when the Melvins took me to Disneyland. That was a lot of fun!
To top it off I asked friends like The Bouncing Souls, Coheed & Cambria, Taking Back Sunday, Coop, Kozik, Missy Suicide, Meow Suicide, Steve Niles, Tim Bradstreet, Tara McPherson, MunkOne and a bunch more folks to write a few lines about the posters in the book. That meant a lot for my heroes them to take the time to write something.
Having Kevin Lyman write the foreword really meant the world to me. Hes been running one of the most successful music tours for over 15 years now. I have a lot of respect for him. He can work in the music business and still have a soul. Not an easy feat.
Im really happy to hear that people enjoy the sketches. To me thats just PORN. I love seeing the process of other artists. You can learn a lot about the artists methods by just looking at their sketches. So thats why I designed the book that way. I treated it as a book Id want to own. Its also a love letter to my friends and family. They were very important to my growth as an artist. I wouldnt be who I am without them.
Some people are surprised that I designed the book myself. It was something that I needed to cross off my Nerd List. It was a goal of mine to learn how to do that. Ive designed my own signature shoes, sunglasses, shirts, belts, hoodies and packaging. So why not learn how to design a book.
AD: You did a piece for Revolver about how you made the Revolver Golden Gods poster which was just an amazing step by step how to that everyone whos interested should check out. Were you essentially trying to teach a younger you how to do this, just laying out the process like that?
BE: Wow...thanks! Either I was trying to teach a younger me how its done or remind an older me in case I forget. I really tried my best because it was for a buddy of mine, Josh Bernstein. He art directed the poster. And Luther Davis of Axelle Fine Arts printed the job.
Im a nerd. I like reading tutorials and learning something new. Ive read a lot of bad tutorials and how-to books and didnt want to add to the dreck. I spent most of my life teaching myself how to use the materials and software Im abusing now. They werent teaching it in school and when I started out most of my art heroes didnt know how to use email. So I had to figure everything out myself and make sense of the process. I didnt give away all my secrets. But I did want to show people how they can make a piece of art for $5 by just using a pencil, paper, pen and ink. Young artists seem to have more excuses for NOT drawing or creating art. I was hoping that I could simplify some of that and motivate a few of them to start working.
I always get asked what programs I use to draw a poster. I think a lot of people are blown away when they see something done by hand. Thats not vector? I feel that a lot of vector art is cold and lacks personality. Hitting command > shift > V - will probably make a piece look flawless but not always good. There are always exceptions to the rule. Ragnar, Ray Frenden and Bawidamann are vector artists that always amaze me.
AD: Besides posters you do a lot of other stuff like the Anarchy Artist series of sunglasses, drawing for the New Yorker. Do you see a time when you'll leave posters by the wayside?
BE: I dont think I could. The rock posters are big-assed business cards! It was the posters that got me out there and working on different projects. I got lucky. I jumped in when nobody was looking at rock posters as a career anymore and I just went with it. Im happy that I get to pick and choose my projects but I always feel that the rock posters offer a lot of freedom I may not get with the new projects.
With that said..Im happy to be getting hired to do different projects. Clients see what I can do with the rock posters and want me to bring it to their project. Its crazy that some big budget client is asking me for suggestions on how to make their project more appealing. Really? Youre going to let me draw skulls all over this? How many zeros on my check? Alrighty.
I always feel like I snuck in through a window or something. I never finished school and I went after jobs that required a degree. I keep waiting for security to tap me on the shoulder, tell me to put the beer down and get the fuck out.
AD: Any bands still out there you'd love to work but haven't?
BE: Metallica, Slayer, Danzig, Kid Cuddi, Nachtmystium, Anything Josh Homme is doing, same thing for Dave Grohl, Same thing for Pharrel Williams, Kanye West, Sleigh Bells, WhoMadeWho, The Klaxons, Henry Rollins, NICK CAVE!!!, Tom Waits, Mariachi El Bronx, anything Matt Skiba does, Dropkick Murphys, Trent Reznor, anything with Mike Patton, Gaslight Anthem, Atmosphere, Tiger Army, Leonard Cohen, Dragonforce, Millencolin, Rancid, Detroit Cobras, Beirut, the Dwarves, Voi Vod, P.O.S., Arcade Fire, The Damned, Alexisonfire, Iron Maiden...pretty obvious list. I could go on for days.
AD: How are you adjusting to life in New York after living in California for years?
BE: I fucking LOVE it. I moved to LA at the end of 1999 from Minneapolis, and that was total culture shock for the first few months.
By the time I got to New York in 2008, I knew what to expect. Living here has been a challenge. Its expensive, everything moves at a faster pace and there are Seasons. Its not 70 degrees all year-round. I feel like I hafta earn my place here and Im thankful for it. I work harder and have bigger expectations of myself as an artist and as an adult. If I stayed in California, I would have just kept going with the flow, not felt challenged and eventually getting really bored with everything. My friends ask me why I moved here and the easiest response is because I could. I wanted the challenge. I get to reinvent myself and burn a lot of baggage I carried around with me. A lot of people are afraid to do that. Fuck it.
AD: I have to ask. Why are there so many posters with skulls?
BE: I blame my strict Catholic upbringing. There are a lot of skulls in Religious art. I also blame Pushead. His album covers and artwork in Thrasher Magazine blew my mind as a kid and left an impression on me I will never wash off. Skulls are universal and appeal to so many people.
Ive been focusing more on drawing pin-up now. But I still like to draw skulls here and there.
AD: So people are going to read this interview, check out the artwork and go, screw the book, I want that poster on my wall. Where do they go, what can they do or are they condemned to scream at ebay sellers with sky high prices?
BE: Well garsh...if youre gonna make me get all shameless...then folks can check out my website http://www.BRIANEWING.com
Not sure if the redesign will be up by the time this is live but the new site will have all of the tutorials Ive written and be easier to navigate.
Otherwise Im planning a book tour soon to get the word out about the book and Ill have some new and old prints with me available so I can buy PB&J sandwiches and cheap beer to sustain myself.
Dark Horse has just released a new book of Ewings art, Dont Hold Your Breath which has the subtitle Nothing New From Brian Ewing. Its highly unlikely that youve seen all the posters, but even if you have theres still plenty of material that make the book worthwhile including sketches and designs, Ewing detailing his process and the stories behind the work, and tributes from artists and musicians and a forward by Warped Tour founder Kevin Lyman. I talked with Ewing after he returned from the San Diego Comic-con, where the book debuted, and after he covered from the nerd flu that affects too many of us afterwards.
ALEX DUEBEN: So how did you get started doing poster art and what is it about posters that really appeal to you?
BRIAN EWING: I got started after seeing posters by Coop, Kozik, Hess and TAZ in the pages of Juxtapoz magazine and at Rushmor Records (my local record shop) in Milwaukee, WI. I was there one day when the owner pulled out a Superchunk poster by Coop and a Big Chief poster by Kozik. It was kinda like the scene from Sixteen Candles when Anthony Micheal Hall presents Molly Ringwalds chonies to his nerd buddies. That day stuck with me for the rest of my life. So did the movie.
Once my friends started bands I was their go-to-guy for fliers. I just did them for fun and so I could get into bars before I was 21.
The appeal to me was particularly with what Kozik and Coop were doing. Theyre styles and subject matter rung every bell in my brain. It was dangerous, sexy and oh so wrong. And it seemed to me that their favorite bands were mine also. If not, I gave the bands a listen and was won over because they did a poster for them. Im still inspired by looking at their work. And very happen to have befriended them as well.
As a kid I dreamt of drawing comic books or being an illustrator. With Rock Posters I was able to do both but with more freedom and control. I get to own the rights to the artwork and explore subject matter and technique the way I want to.
AD: Has music always been really big for you? Did you ever play?
BE: Hell yeah! As a kid I LOVED music! Everything was new to me and I really took to Heavy Metal and Punk Rock right out the gate. It wasnt my older brother or sisters music. It was mine and I was hooked by all the album art and t shirt graphics and cute girls that would go to the shows.
Im still friends with the guys I grew up with and we spent most of our teenage time (and money) on buying albums and comic books since we were way too nerdy for the ladies. I still talk to the guy that sold me my first Ramones album way back when I was twelve.
I, like every other kid, thought someone in the band did all the album art.
Music is very important to me, and most people really. It gave me an identity and something to relate to as a teenager.
I was in a couple bands for five minutes but never really had the personality to be up there singing. I just wanted to be in the bands so I could do all the artwork. I lucked out, because doing posters made it possible to hang out with bands, watch shows from the side of the stage and go on tours. But I get to do it all on my terms as an artist and not a musician.
AD: Most poster art is very utilitarian - band, venue, date - but there's this really great tradition of poster art, not just in rock, but going back further. What's the challenge in trying to create a real work of art?
BE: Rock posters changed and became more creative in the Sixties with Girffin, Moscoso, Tuten and so on. Go Hippies! Poster art had been going strong since the Art Nouveau and Secession movements.
My job is to make the poster legible and spell the band names correctly. After that most bands let you do what you want. So then I think more about the bands fans than the band. Because they know more about the music than the band does. Im a huge fan of Coheed & Cambria. So if I saw a poster with a dragonfly on it, I wouldnt be that impressed. But if someone listened to the music and interpreted one of their songs or album successfully then that would make me happy. Id buy the poster and go to the show.
The challenge now is to maintain a style/identity while trying to go further with both. To be excited and to push myself with drawing and printing. I feel that after all this time Im going through another art puberty. I have ideas and techniques that Im trying to get across. Sometimes I get it right away and other times its a little awkward and takes a few tries to get whats in my noggin onto paper.
AD: How did the book Don't Hold Your Breath happen?
BE: Rich Black asked me to write the foreword to his book Futura that Dark Horse published a few years ago. Its pretty rad it comes with 3D glasses! After that Chris Warner, the editor, asked me if I wanted to do a book. I was at the San Diego Comic Con in 2008 when he asked. I shouldve bought a lottery ticket that day. A few minutes later he handed me a ticket to a Dark Horse/Lucasfilm party. I snuck my buddy Andrew Bawidamann into the party and we proceeded to uh...get loaded and surprisingly we didnt get kicked out after a table of champagne glasses mysteriously got knocked over. So keep that between us.
Around the same time Tara McPherson and Frank Kozik had introduced me to folks at Dark Horse which helped tremendously.
The book almost didnt get published. Because of the economy many publishers had to cut back on some projects. Mine was one of them. During that time I was reaching out to clients and friends in the music industry and asked for their help to promote the book when it came out. Everybody was very helpful. I also asked my friend Crankbunny to create a trailer for the book and that really helped convince the publisher.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqcaGLPgdD8
AD: What did you want the book to be? The layout and the sketches you include, you really seemed to be going for something different than we see in a lot of poster or art books. Plus you designed the book as well.
BE: I thought the best thing to do... was to do the opposite. I love the other books Dark Horse published on Rock Posters. Kozik, McPherson, R. Black and Stainboy are my friends and colleagues. Im very proud to share shelf space with them. But I didnt want to have a book that couldnt be discerned from the other books.
So yeah I included a lot of sketches and anecdotes to give people an idea of how I worked on some of the posters. Sometimes I explained the process of how I drew a poster and sometimes I talked about my interactions with the bands that the posters was created for. For instance, I mention the time when the Melvins took me to Disneyland. That was a lot of fun!
To top it off I asked friends like The Bouncing Souls, Coheed & Cambria, Taking Back Sunday, Coop, Kozik, Missy Suicide, Meow Suicide, Steve Niles, Tim Bradstreet, Tara McPherson, MunkOne and a bunch more folks to write a few lines about the posters in the book. That meant a lot for my heroes them to take the time to write something.
Having Kevin Lyman write the foreword really meant the world to me. Hes been running one of the most successful music tours for over 15 years now. I have a lot of respect for him. He can work in the music business and still have a soul. Not an easy feat.
Im really happy to hear that people enjoy the sketches. To me thats just PORN. I love seeing the process of other artists. You can learn a lot about the artists methods by just looking at their sketches. So thats why I designed the book that way. I treated it as a book Id want to own. Its also a love letter to my friends and family. They were very important to my growth as an artist. I wouldnt be who I am without them.
Some people are surprised that I designed the book myself. It was something that I needed to cross off my Nerd List. It was a goal of mine to learn how to do that. Ive designed my own signature shoes, sunglasses, shirts, belts, hoodies and packaging. So why not learn how to design a book.
AD: You did a piece for Revolver about how you made the Revolver Golden Gods poster which was just an amazing step by step how to that everyone whos interested should check out. Were you essentially trying to teach a younger you how to do this, just laying out the process like that?
BE: Wow...thanks! Either I was trying to teach a younger me how its done or remind an older me in case I forget. I really tried my best because it was for a buddy of mine, Josh Bernstein. He art directed the poster. And Luther Davis of Axelle Fine Arts printed the job.
Im a nerd. I like reading tutorials and learning something new. Ive read a lot of bad tutorials and how-to books and didnt want to add to the dreck. I spent most of my life teaching myself how to use the materials and software Im abusing now. They werent teaching it in school and when I started out most of my art heroes didnt know how to use email. So I had to figure everything out myself and make sense of the process. I didnt give away all my secrets. But I did want to show people how they can make a piece of art for $5 by just using a pencil, paper, pen and ink. Young artists seem to have more excuses for NOT drawing or creating art. I was hoping that I could simplify some of that and motivate a few of them to start working.
I always get asked what programs I use to draw a poster. I think a lot of people are blown away when they see something done by hand. Thats not vector? I feel that a lot of vector art is cold and lacks personality. Hitting command > shift > V - will probably make a piece look flawless but not always good. There are always exceptions to the rule. Ragnar, Ray Frenden and Bawidamann are vector artists that always amaze me.
AD: Besides posters you do a lot of other stuff like the Anarchy Artist series of sunglasses, drawing for the New Yorker. Do you see a time when you'll leave posters by the wayside?
BE: I dont think I could. The rock posters are big-assed business cards! It was the posters that got me out there and working on different projects. I got lucky. I jumped in when nobody was looking at rock posters as a career anymore and I just went with it. Im happy that I get to pick and choose my projects but I always feel that the rock posters offer a lot of freedom I may not get with the new projects.
With that said..Im happy to be getting hired to do different projects. Clients see what I can do with the rock posters and want me to bring it to their project. Its crazy that some big budget client is asking me for suggestions on how to make their project more appealing. Really? Youre going to let me draw skulls all over this? How many zeros on my check? Alrighty.
I always feel like I snuck in through a window or something. I never finished school and I went after jobs that required a degree. I keep waiting for security to tap me on the shoulder, tell me to put the beer down and get the fuck out.
AD: Any bands still out there you'd love to work but haven't?
BE: Metallica, Slayer, Danzig, Kid Cuddi, Nachtmystium, Anything Josh Homme is doing, same thing for Dave Grohl, Same thing for Pharrel Williams, Kanye West, Sleigh Bells, WhoMadeWho, The Klaxons, Henry Rollins, NICK CAVE!!!, Tom Waits, Mariachi El Bronx, anything Matt Skiba does, Dropkick Murphys, Trent Reznor, anything with Mike Patton, Gaslight Anthem, Atmosphere, Tiger Army, Leonard Cohen, Dragonforce, Millencolin, Rancid, Detroit Cobras, Beirut, the Dwarves, Voi Vod, P.O.S., Arcade Fire, The Damned, Alexisonfire, Iron Maiden...pretty obvious list. I could go on for days.
AD: How are you adjusting to life in New York after living in California for years?
BE: I fucking LOVE it. I moved to LA at the end of 1999 from Minneapolis, and that was total culture shock for the first few months.
By the time I got to New York in 2008, I knew what to expect. Living here has been a challenge. Its expensive, everything moves at a faster pace and there are Seasons. Its not 70 degrees all year-round. I feel like I hafta earn my place here and Im thankful for it. I work harder and have bigger expectations of myself as an artist and as an adult. If I stayed in California, I would have just kept going with the flow, not felt challenged and eventually getting really bored with everything. My friends ask me why I moved here and the easiest response is because I could. I wanted the challenge. I get to reinvent myself and burn a lot of baggage I carried around with me. A lot of people are afraid to do that. Fuck it.
AD: I have to ask. Why are there so many posters with skulls?
BE: I blame my strict Catholic upbringing. There are a lot of skulls in Religious art. I also blame Pushead. His album covers and artwork in Thrasher Magazine blew my mind as a kid and left an impression on me I will never wash off. Skulls are universal and appeal to so many people.
Ive been focusing more on drawing pin-up now. But I still like to draw skulls here and there.
AD: So people are going to read this interview, check out the artwork and go, screw the book, I want that poster on my wall. Where do they go, what can they do or are they condemned to scream at ebay sellers with sky high prices?
BE: Well garsh...if youre gonna make me get all shameless...then folks can check out my website http://www.BRIANEWING.com
Not sure if the redesign will be up by the time this is live but the new site will have all of the tutorials Ive written and be easier to navigate.
Otherwise Im planning a book tour soon to get the word out about the book and Ill have some new and old prints with me available so I can buy PB&J sandwiches and cheap beer to sustain myself.