79 DJG DESIGN
Music blaring, lights lit—this is the basement setting in which Danny Gibson fervently composed his poster for the band DeVotchKa upon their visit to his hometown of Kansas City. Though only a few people were lucky enough to see the poster, for Gibson that’s not what it’s about.

“Sometimes I just make them for the heck of it,” he explains. “If I wasn’t personally attached to my work then I would quit design altogether. I felt an intense passion [for the] power displayed by DeVotchKa.” He identifies the poster’s central figure as a centaur that “wears a skirt made of her ex-lovers’ hides, trophies of ones she’s conquered … she definitely means business.” So does Gibson, but in a non-corporate, personable sort of way. “I preferred something that felt like a human being was responsible for it.” Smudges, marks, thumb prints and so on are evidence of the human element. What’s more, his design is also funny. “Good design to me is defined by something that moves me,” says Gibson, “something with heart and identifiable to the human spirit. And the majority of the time it’s gotta have great humor!” by Lara Bullock