Flatstock follow-up and photos

The Hero booth at Flatstock 21 at Pitchfork Music Festival

Sorry for the late post, but things have been crazy since we've gotten back! We had a fabulous time in Chicago filled with a super rad road trip, great friends, huge root beers, great music, posters, vodka smoothies, expensive ok-ish bloody marys, zoo trips, and so much more. We always love to hang out with all of our amazingly talented friends from all over North America, live the carnie lifestyle for a few days and to meet a ton of people that geek out over design and printing the way we all do.

Thank you to everyone that came out, said 'hi', bought posters, bought us ice cream (I'm looking at you phoondaddy), Dan Crosshair and the API for putting together another successful Flatstock and an extra special thanks to Grizzly Bear and Blitzen Trapper for hiring us to do the exclusive posters for their shows at Pitchfork. We are of course fans of both bands so they were super fun gigs for us and it was a pleasure to hear both of them live again, too.

Here are just a few of the highlights from the trip - you can see all of our photos from the trip in our Flickr set.

Us and Strawberryluna with our HUGE root beers from a rad old timey drive in somewhere in Indiana

Us on our day off in Chicago


A visit to Delicious Design League's new HQ

Our booth neighbor (our forever neighbor) Strawberryluna

Flaming Lips at the end of Sunday night at Pitchfork

Friends. Lincoln Park Zoo

A stop off on our drive home to a Fireworks Warehouse in Indiana. My first time. I got Wonder Hands!!

Pitchfork Music Festival Exclusive Posters for Grizzly Bear and Blitzen Trapper

We were lucky enough to work with two great bands, Grizzly Bear and Blitzen Trapper, to create posters for their Pitchfork Music Festival 2009 performances.

These posters will be available exclusively from us at our booth at Flatstock 21 during Pitchfork, Saturday July 18 and Sunday July 19. Read more about these events here.

Get yours before they sell out!! If any copies remain after the festival they will be available in the Hero web store after Monday July 20 (but we make no promises).

Grizzly Bear

Blitzen Trapper

Hero at Pitchfork Music Festival & Flatstock 21

Hero will once again be in Chicago this upcoming weekend for Flatstock 21!!! Flatstock 21 is being held at Pitchfork Music Festival in Union Park. Saturday & Sunday July 18th & 19th, noon to 10pm both days!!!

Poster artists from around the world will be pitching tents in Union Park for the world famous convention sponsored by the American Poster Institute, dedicated to the promotion of music poster art and design worldwide. Come grab posters and hear the stories behind them straight from the artist. Since beginning in 2003, Flatstock has presented 20 events in the U.S. and Europe and has become the epicenter of the current phenomenon in handmade poster art.

FLATSTOCK is free for everyone with a Pitchfork Music Festival pass so if you are gonna be there, make sure to pass through Flatstock. Show up early and be ready to be overwhelmed with amazing posters (you might want to bring some dough too since you won't want to leave empty handed.) FLATSTOCK is an all-ages event.

Be sure to stop by the Hero tent and say 'HI!' We have a bunch of new posters, including some brand new artprints, exclusive posters for two Pitchfork 2009 performers, and lots of other fun things!

This years Pitchfork Festival has an phenomenal lineup including: The Flaming Lips, Built to Spill, The National, Grizzly Bear, Blitzen Trapper, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, The Thermals and so much more. Go to pitchforkmusicfestival.com to check out what's happening this year.

A little bit more about what Flatstock is:

The FLATSTOCK poster show series is presented by the American Poster Institute (API). It is an ongoing series of exhibitions featuring the work of many of the most popular concert poster artists working today.

The API is a nonprofit corporation dedicated to serving poster artists and promoting the art form. Both the API and its FLATSTOCK series were organized in 2002 as a result of conversations between interested artists and supporters frequenting the popular web site GigPosters.com. The best concert posters have always captured both the essence of the music they promoted and the spirit of the time in which they were produced. This is as true today as it was in San Francisco during the Sixties.

The FLATSTOCK shows provide the general public with an ongoing series of opportunities to see fine poster art in person and to meet the artists who've created it -- they provide the API with a way to present the poster artists collectively while showcasing the breadth of individual styles they represent.

Flatstock 17 at Pitchfork Music Festival Chicago - Photos

A rainy start

The Hero Booth

The Hero booth at night

Mike Klay and Beth

The "kid" being forced (paid) to eat a huge piece of Mexican spicy pickled cauliflower

Us

Strawberryluna

Doublnaut

Mike Budai

So it was a rough start to the weekend on Saturday when we were setting up at Union Park in horrid down pouring rain for hours on end, with a HUGE pool of water in the back of our tent. But eventually it cleared up on Saturday stayed beautiful and we had a great weekend. Really humid and hot, but dry none the less.

It was our best Flatstock ye, we met a lot of great people, had a great road trip and hung with some of our favorite friends from all over the country.

Here are a few photos that we took and a few taken by Josh Rickun. Here is a link to the entire album that he took. http://www.flickr.com/photos/28853723@N03/

Hero at Pitchfork Music Festival & Flatstock Poster Show

(Hero's Flatstock 17 poster - available at Pitchfork)

If you are in Chicago this weekend, HERO will have a booth at the Pitchfork Music Festival, selling posters, tees, merchandise and more. Stop by and check it out.

The Flatstock Poster show will take place Sat and Sun at the event, featuring over 40 poster artists from around the world.

Pitchfork Music Festival - Flatstock
July 18-19-20, 2008
Union Park, Chicago, IL.

Find more information, event and band line up at www.pitchforkmusicfestival.com

The FLATSTOCK poster show series is presented by the American Poster Institute (API). It is an ongoing series of exhibitions featuring the work of many of the most popular concert poster artists working today.