I’ve worked on the last several Floodstock posters and it’s a project I really look forward to each year.

Geoff and Del give me a lot of freedom to create basically whatever I want. Of course there are constraints and required information but I have a lot of latitude. For this year’s poster, I had the notion to use metallic ink again. The idea of a steel resonator guitar gave me the perfect subject matter to explore.

The first line of the title track from Paul Simon’s Graceland was on repeat in my head as I worked on this: “The Mississippi Delta was shining like a National Guitar…”. It evokes such a clear image in my head! Although I knew I wouldn’t be able to re-create the exact effect of a highly polished steel guitar, I thought the metallic ink would provide a unique visual element. I had a pretty clear idea of how this would turn out and I was really excited about it. I actually consider this one of the best Floodstock concepts I’ve had. Which is why it stung a bit more as I realized it wasn’t going to happen. (Just to clarify, I always deliver a digital version of the poster to promote Floodstock ahead of time. The screen printed posters are for sale on the day of the event.)

Where it Went Wrong

Instead of shooting the screens for this year’s poster myself, I thought I’d try outsourcing it. I contacted a local screen printing shop and they said they could clean, coat and shoot the screens for a reasonable fee. Perfect! They had to prioritize their orders before getting to my screens — fair enough — but they were taking a while and I was running out of time to print the posters. Finally they called. I happily picked up my screens and was surprised when they said “no charge!”

I use a high mesh count screen and rigorously check to make sure the small details of the design will reproduce, so I was confident the image would expose well. I started printing but discovered pretty quickly that there were problems with the screens. A good portion of the design on the dark green screen either didn’t get exposed or wasn’t blown out. On top of that, it was quite a bit off when trying to register it against the light green. A closer look at the screen revealed they shot the screen with two pieces of film (not in and of itself a problem, but it simply didn’t register). My heart sank as I realized there wouldn’t be enough time to re-shoot the screens and print them in time.

Another failure: I decided to use a lighter weight paper than I typically do in order to facilitate packing individual posters in tubes, rather than shipping them flat. Unfortunately, the heavy ink coverage on the light green screen caused each poster to curl. This was incidental as I’d already resigned myself to the fact that I couldn’t fulfill the order.

My Bad

I want to be clear that ultimately, I am to blame for this failure. I should have left myself more time to produce the posters and I should have tested the paper stock ahead of time too. It is certainly disheartening to come to the realization that I won’t be able to make good on a promise, but I’ve also become pretty good at letting go of something I have invested a lot of time in. So there’s that.