First:
We got a new website!
Click here to check it out!

RSS subscribers, you’ll need to update your feeds. Here’s the new feed:
http://dogandponyshowprints.com/blog/rss.xml

We’ll probably be shutting down this ole’ WordPress for good soon.

We promise we’ll update more than once a year, dear readers. Thanks for sticking with us. Tons of more exciting news to come!

Awesome! See you over there.
Dog & Pony Showprints

By now you’re hopefully all aware of the devastation that has occurred in Haiti in the past couple of weeks. In an effort to help, we’ve teamed up with the incredible Mike Fretto (who also happens to run ROSA LOVES) for a little project. He created an amazing fundraiser t-shirt, and we’ve printed a poster inspired by that shirt. Both are available through Fretto’s Merchline storefront.

100% of the proceeds from the shirt and print will be donated to a hard-working group in Haiti called Partners In Health. PIH’s mission is to provide a preferential option for the poor in health care. Since the earthquake on January 12th, PIH has begun treating the injured and continue to be a powerful force in the fight to save lives in the affected areas.

BIG thanks to Mr. Fretto for setting all this up, and the generous folks at Merchline for generously donating free online storefront space, shipping, and other sale fees!

If you’d like to donate more to support PIH’s efforts and contribute to much needed resources, they could really use our help! Donate here.

– Sean & Tim, Dog & Pony Showprints

For more info, go here! We’ll see you at the show!

Lucero posters are up in the shop!

As a special bonus we didn’t expect, they included some words about our work, too! The lovely people at Print asked us a series of questions and said that if it was interesting enough and if they had room, they’d include some of the answers. They did…So awesome!

Anyway, check out a few photos down below, but it’s way better in print. Not sure when the annual actually hits stands, but pick one up when you can – there’s some seriously inspiring work in there.

AIGA Jacksonville puts on some seriously awesome events. I was lucky enough to help organize and set up this year’s membership drive, Always Summer, a poster show celebrating summer jams. The idea was to have local designers and artists select songs that represented summer to them and then design a poster based on that. We set up shop in an old retail space in the Jacksonville Landing, complete with 50 some odd posters, a pair of DJ’s spinning the tunes, delicious beer from Bold City Brewery, food from Native Sun, and a cast of characters talking about the benefits of AIGA membership.

The event was a huge success and was a fantastic way to end the summer. You’ll see posters that Tim & I created in the photos below (taken by Tiffany Manning), but we’ll get around to taking photos of the posters up close sooner or later.

Extra kudos to Patrick Carter (pictured above) and AIGA Jax president Varick Rosete for taking the lead on getting the show together and making sure everything ran smoothly. Great job, dudes.

-Sean
Dog & Pony

Check out that little guy! Say hello to the yet-to-be-named-or-even-born child of Tim & Jen McGugan! I’m calling him Doogan for now.

Holy cow, right? Due early next year, this will be the McGugan’s first child. Tim claims that he (the kid) will be the first man on mars or end up figuring out how many licks it really does take to get to center of a tootsie pop. We’ll keep you posted on those things.

So let’s give a round of applause to Tim, he’s finally a real boy!

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On that note, now’s a good time to enlighten you all on our plans for the future of Dog & Pony. With Tim’s reduced role (you know…getting married, buying a house, remodeling said house from the ground up, having a kid, etc.), you may have noticed more and more collaborations on the latest posters. All of this has really made us re-evaluate the spirit of Dog & Pony and what the future means.

Unfortunately, there aren’t a lot of people doing these posters (or screen printing for fun) in North Florida, and yet I still find myself surrounded by incredibly talented people that WANT to do just that. I don’t want to hog – and frankly can’t handle – all of the awesome work that Dog & Pony has allowed me to work on, so I’ve tapped these talented folks to contribute in their own individual ways. From Karen Kurycki’s amazing watercolors to Eric Blair, Kendrick Kidd and Caitlin Robinson’s ridiculous illustrations, and Crystal Floyd’s beautiful photos. These people are so so amazing at what they do, and working them is a true honor. Every poster becomes a whole new experience.

Sure Tim & I will take on our own poster designs, but from here on out we’d like to approach every project as a possible opportunity to work with friends…or someone that may just be a great fit for that project.

If you don’t mind my rambling, I’d like to give you a quick example. I was recently given the task of designing a poster for a very special Halloween screening of the 1922 silent Dutch film Häxan by my dear friend Tim Massett – who runs a small independent theatre in Duluth, Minnesota. This is an insane film about witchcraft/witch hunting/the devil. I highly recommend watching it sometime, or at least reading about it. Now, I love witchcraft as much as the next guy (…right…?), but someone who may be able to give me a little more insight and visual inspiration would be the extremely talented Clay Doran and his monsterly persona, Squid Dust. His work speaks for itself, he’s perfect for it! And for as long as we’ve been friends, we’ve never collaborated. So now’s the time. You’ll see the poster soon. It’s as insane as (if not a little bit more insane than) the film.

I guess the long-short of all of this is that Dog & Pony is naturally evolving into a collective of sorts. A very loosely organized group of incredibly talented creative folks creating awesome printed goods for awesome people.

And that’s that.
Keep Moving Forward.
–Sean Tucker/Dog & Pony Showprints

We teamed up with the always amazing Eric Blair to create a poster for The Decemberists recent appearance at the beautiful St. Augustine Amphitheatre. It was loosely inspired by the song “The Rake” from their newest album The Hazards of Love. It was an interesting and time-consuming experience dissecting the very complex album with Eric and deciding what the focus of the poster should be.

It ended up being a 4-color print with some blue house paint, magenta ink, transparent black ink and a lovely flat black house paint. Printing went off without a hitch.

The show itself was fantastic. The band played through The Hazards of Love in full before going into some older fan favorites. They also threw in a ridiculous rendition of Heart’s “Crazy on You” with Shara Wordon and Becky Stark on lead vocals. The ladies stole the show throughout the evening. All in all a great experience, as usual.

My Morning Jacket released their critically acclaimed album “Z” in 2005. I have to admit, I slept on this one. Maybe it was the other incredible music that came out that summer…or maybe the album was a grower that I couldn’t wrap my head around at the time. Either way, it took 4 years, but I finally get it.

Jim James and Co. made a ridiculously amazing record with catchy hooks, tight melodies, all out guitar jams, and a few slow burners in there for good measure. The band doesn’t take themselves too seriously, and everything on the album feels completely natural. Not to mention it has a pretty stellar album cover.

Have a listen to “Lay Low” – a fantastic 6-minute tune that highlights everything I love about the album. James’ reverbed near-falsetto voice over the minimalistic opening, a super tight rhythm section, dueling guitars, and a full-bodied and sprawling last-half of the track.

I always seem to point out that you need to listen to these records in their entirety to get the full effect of awesomeness that I’m talking about, and it holds true with this one too. So do it, and do it now.

My Morning Jacket’s Z on iTunes and Amazon.

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In Dog & Pony news, we’re sorry about the lack of updates. Stuff has been happening, we just need to get around to documenting it for yous guys. Here’s the short list of what’s to come:

• The Decemberists
• Tim’s future
• Always Summer poster show
• Häxan

A few months back, we were contacted by Lucero‘s management to create a poster for a stop of their upcoming tour. We were honored to make something for these alt/country/punk legends. How convenient that their closest stop to us was Café Eleven! Considering our dear relationship with folks at the Café, we jumped at the opportunity.

We passed the Tallahassee date over to our good buddies at Halftone Def. You should see the poster they did, its awesome…oh here it is! It’s always fun to see how different designers approach the same band’s music, but it’s especially fun when the other designers are your best good friends.

Anyway, check out what we came up with:

And some details:

It’s a spiffy 4-color print: white & orange inks, brown house paint, and transparent ghosty white ink. The photo was taken by the lovely Crystal Floyd. We’ve been looking for a way to use one of her incredible shots from her many visits to creepy abandoned buildings, airplane graveyards, salvage yards and the beautiful great outdoors. We were thrilled when she said we could use this awesome shot of a Nash Rambler becoming one with the earth.

Half of the edition went to Lucero, and the other half will be sold at the show in November. Whatever’s left after that will be up in our shop.

More exciting stuff coming up!