39. METHANE STUDIOS
Mark McDevitt of Methane Studios sticks to this rule of thumb in poster design: Theft is the highest praise. If your fans will swipe your work off the streets, you’re on to something great.

For the Von Bondies show, he mulled over multiple ideas and finally melted them all together into one delicious image. As Mc- Devitt describes it, “I was influenced by an old Russian poster I’d seen, with another mouth handled diΩerently. I love the graphic quality of old jazz albums from the 1940s and ’50s. And then there’s the Rolling Stones logo. So this is Russia meeting a psychedelic theme.” McDevitt felt the image fit the band’s sound—a garage-influenced, White Stripes feel—without caging them in.

“I’m not a fan of really literal design interpretations,” he adds. “If you do a Radiohead poster, say, and use a radio for a head, well, that’s not a really far stretch. I don’t want to regurgitate what’s on the album cover, either.” Silkscreening gives the poster a rich matte texture.

But did it pass muster with the fans? McDevitt laughs. “I saw a guy look at the poster, look left, then right, and then just pulled it right off the pole. That’s a pretty big compliment.” Jude Stewart