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Looking for some inspiration for the Always Summer Poster Show + Mixtape? Check out these artists as they explain their process for creating posters about their favorite summer songs. Learn more about AIGA Jacksonville’s Always Summer Weekend, and register your poster at aigajacksonville.org.

Bryant Hardwick is the Creative Manager of Corporate Communications at Crowley Maritime Corporation. A love of all things musical and visual, he has been a frequent participant in AIGA events, including past Always Summer Poster Shows. Last year he took home the 2nd place trophy for his rendition of "Sonny Feeling" by Wilco.

"I've always had a weird fascination with catchy, upbeat songs that have dark lyrics. "Sonny Feeling" is about a girl that keeps putting herself in dangerous situations, and how it eventually catches up to her."

  "What I enjoyed most about this poster was intentionally misinterpreting the lyrics. Although the song is about life consequences and waiting for the other shoe to drop, I couldn't stop picturing one shoe leaving its mate in search of a solo adventure. Sounds crazy, but I wanted to create a new song about the relationship between two sole mates."

  "I look forward to this show every year because it excites and horrifies me at the same time… an interesting feeling, by the way. There's an endless supply of artistic talent in this town, and I'm reminded of that every year at the poster show. It's an honor to have my work displayed with my contemporaries, and it's a constant reminder that I always have room for improvement."

Join us on Saturday, September 28th for AIGA Jacksonville’s Always Summer Poster Show. If you'd like to submit a poster, sign up online to get a discounted entry fee with a free print of your poster. If you'd like to attend the event as a spectator, reserve your ticket today and save $5!

This year’s Always Summer Poster Show is sponsored by DXM Marketing, a leader in Custom Direct Marketing Solutions, Digital & Offset Printing, Wide Format, Print-on-Demand Collaterals, Bindery & Finishing, Web Display, and Email Broadcasting. Learn more about their mission and services at their website.  And check out their beautiful poster prints at the show!

Looking for some inspiration for the Always Summer Poster Show + Mixtape? Check out these artists as they explain their process for creating posters about their favorite summer songs. Learn more about AIGA Jacksonville’s Always Summer Weekend, and register your poster at aigajacksonville.org.

Nikki Haywood is the Junior Graphic Designer at BroadBased Communication. She has participated in many AIGA events throughout the years, including the last two years of the Always Summer Poster Show. Today she's giving us an inside look on the process behind creating her poster for last year's event.

"Last year I chose a Minus the Bear song "Steel and Blood" because their new album had just debuted and I had been playing it non-stop. It was a catchy tune with a sweet beat, so I decided it would be appropriate for the show. The lyrics are really metaphorical and I felt like I could interpret the song in an interesting way."

"Initially, I just began sketching a few things. I knew I wanted the style to be illustrated in a somewhat whimsical, almost realistic way in Illustrator,and because the lyrics are centered around a car accident I didn't want it to be morbid! I decided to play with the themes of the title...steel vs. blood, death vs. life, fabricated vs. real, hard vs. soft, machine vs. organic, plain vs. beautiful, night vs. day, etc. The imagery is of crushed car and a young couple in love laying on a blanket is separated by a tree. The tree causes the viewer to question if it is there symbolizing the life and excitement of the couple, or the cause of the dramatic accident, or both."

"I entered the poster show the previous year (2011) during my poster design class at UNF because it was a requirement. Last year (2012), I entered because I really wanted to, and I really enjoy the medium of a poster. It is such a great way to make something someone will actually pay attention to-- that is, if you're doing it right. Plus, now I have a ton of awesome art hanging on the wall of my apartment."

Join us on Saturday, September 28th for AIGA Jacksonville’s Always Summer Poster Show. If you'd like to submit a poster, sign up online to get a discounted entry fee with a free print of your poster. If you'd like to attend the event as a spectator, reserve your ticket today and save $5!

This year’s Always Summer Poster Show is sponsored by DXM Marketing, a leader in Custom Direct Marketing Solutions, Digital & Offset Printing, Wide Format, Print-on-Demand Collaterals, Bindery & Finishing, Web Display, and Email Broadcasting. Learn more about their mission and services at their website.  And check out their beautiful poster prints at the show!

Looking for some inspiration for the Always Summer Poster Show + Mixtape? Check out these artists as they explain their process for creating posters about their favorite summer songs. Learn more about AIGA Jacksonville’s Always Summer Weekend, and register your poster at aigajacksonville.org.

Andrew Fallon is a Director at TigerLily Media. While his day usually consists of artful animation work, he took a step out of the 4D realm and into the 2D for last year's show. As a director that doesn't typically do poster design, he's proud to say this was the first one he had ever designed and printed.

"That song resonated with me because I was going through a big change in my personal life at that time. I really connected with the overall feel of the song, but a particular line really stood out ("you think you can do this without me but I know I can do this without you"). I started with that idea and worked outwards from there."

"I actually liked designing from a pre-set song. It comes natural to me since it's how I work as a director. It can be challenging because so much imagery can come from a song it's hard to narrow down to just one idea/image. I had the idea of man walking away from his past and went from there. Somehow I ended up with the idea of him pulling this ooze out from within himself.

I'm not terribly talented at drawing so I kept the silhouette pretty simple. I liked the idea of a low contrast image for the base with the ooze being this colorful really cheap Photoshop looking metallic filter effect. Like the first time someone messed with filters in Photoshop. The ooze itself is comprised of old photos from a past life that were digitally altered to be glitches and fragments. I initially opened up the jpeg's in a text editor and started randomly deleting lines of code to get the glitch effect. This worked pretty well on small parts but would've taken too long for the whole image. I ended up using a different method to achieve the effect.

Overall it went surprisingly smooth from start-to-finish. I'm generally not content with art/design pieces I work on and I was pretty proud of this piece so that's good!"

"I've always gone to the show and I know a lot of people who participate. Varick Rosete really pushed me over the edge to get involved with the poster show (and AIGA as a whole). Even though I don't do design full-time I really enjoyed the experience and will probably do another this year. It's also good to push yourself and do things outside of your comfort zone, which this fell squarely in."

Looking for some inspiration for the Always Summer Poster Show + Mixtape? Check out these artists as they explain their process for creating posters about their favorite summer songs. Learn more about AIGA Jacksonville’s Always Summer Weekend, and register your poster at aigajacksonville.org.

Sean Collins is a UX/UI Designer that wowed the crowd last year with his especially bold poster submission. For those of you that missed it, the poster featured a photographic portrait of Sean dressed as Cleopatra. Headdress, eyeliner, and all. Here's an inside look at Sean's poster and what ultimately led him to win the grand prize at the 2012 show!

"I chose Pyramids by Frank Ocean because it's a rad song. I knew it was going to be my poster song the instant I decided I was going to participate. It came out around the time of my birthday in the beginning of summer, so it was this perfect summery slow jam song. It was on constant repeat for a good few months."

"In the past few poster shows, I had always attempted to use illustration to convey the message of the songs and was constantly displeased with the outcome. So this time, I decided to try something different and go with a photography approach instead. For the main image, I knew I wanted to do something that looked kind of serious but was funny and a bit off at the same time. The song is about a stripper named Cleopatra who works at a club called The Pyramids so I took a photo of myself wearing a wig and some make-up. It's funny because I'm a 30 year old with a mustache. See what I did there? Anyway, I did some research on the style that I wanted and went to work."

"I've participated in almost all of the poster shows in the past, and truthfully, I almost didn't participate in this one. Because I was so displeased with what I had done in the years' past, I pretty much gave up on it. But my wife, Sarah, convinced me otherwise and told me that I should just try something different. And that's what I did."

Join us on Saturday, September 28th for AIGA Jacksonville’s Always Summer Poster Show. If you'd like to submit a poster, sign up online to get a discounted entry fee with a free print of your poster. If you'd like to attend the event as a spectator, reserve your ticket today and save $5!

This year’s Always Summer Poster Show is sponsored by DXM Marketing, a leader in Custom Direct Marketing Solutions, Digital & Offset Printing, Wide Format, Print-on-Demand Collaterals, Bindery & Finishing, Web Display, and Email Broadcasting. Learn more about their mission and services at their website.  And check out their beautiful poster prints at the show!