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DEATHS FILM

1100 am ETJul 3 2015 ART

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mdashArt design by Justin Helton for Global MerchandisingServices trade amp copy 2015 Grateful Dead Productions

Grateful Dead lsquoFare Thee Wellrsquo Meetthe Artists Behind the Limited EditionPosters

FARE THEE WELL GRATEFUL DEAD

By JOHN JURGENSEN

This weekend offers Grateful Dead fanstheir last three chances to see the band livemdashand to scoop up official concertmerchandise

At Chicagorsquos Soldier Field stadium therewill be 22 different pieces of 50thanniversary apparel available from skullshyandshylightning bolt tieshydye Tshyshirts todancing bear onesies along withtchotchkes like coffee mugs and pins in fivestyles But the swag that hardcorecollectors are salivating most over are theconcert posters sold exclusively at thevenue which in most cases are differentthan the ones hawked at last weekendrsquosDead dates in Santa Clara Calif

For the grand ldquoFare Thee Wellrdquo finale inChicago the band commissioned ninedifferent posters and two triptychs(consisting of a three intershyconnectedposters) Most have been printed in limitededitions ofmdashwait for itmdash2015 and will besold for up to $70 each

ldquoIf we only had one or two designs wersquod need to print so many that it would be far lessspecialrdquo says Ted Mattes Creative Director for Global Merchandising Services Thecompany also makes merch for acts like One Direction and Motorhead and won theexclusive rights to produce gear for the Deadrsquos 50th anniversary concerts

Mattes recruited the artists who produced the posters including some who had notcreated stuff for the Dead or similar jam bands before such as UK illustrator RicheyBeckett (His poster featuring a nude maiden clutching an American flag is said to bebassist Phil Leshrsquos favorite)

ldquoThe thing that happens in this world is that the stuff for Govrsquot Mule starts to look thesame as Widespread Panic which looks the same as Furthur Irsquom not interested in thatrdquo

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Speakeasy is a blog covering media entertainment celebrityand the arts The publication is produced by Barbara Chaiand Jonathan Welsh with contributions from the Wall StreetJournal staff and others Write to us at speakeasywsjcomor follow us on Twitter at WSJSpeakeasy or individuallybarbarachai

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Songs of the SummerAccording to Twitter

mdashArtdesign by Mike DuBois for Global MerchandisingServices trade amp copy 2015 Grateful Dead Productions

Mattes says Still the Dead inspired some of rockrsquos most famous iconography and fanswant to see those skeletons roses and flying eyeballs in their souvenirs Mattes adds ldquoAtthe end of the day itrsquos commerce And Deadheads in general are quite pickyrdquo

They can also be obsessive when it comesto Dead symbolism Mike DuBois aWoodstock NY artist who created his firstofficial design for the Dead in 1986 sayshe has been fielding nonshystop questionssince last weekrsquos premiere in Santa Claraof a holographic poster featuring an UncleSam skeleton riding down a golden road ona motorcycle Not only do fans want signedcopies they also what him to decode thesymbols such as the appearance of JerryGarciarsquos handprint on a pyramid

DuBois says he incorporated imagesinspired by about 15 different songs intothat poster assembling them ldquolike apuzzlerdquo As for the handprint itrsquos not a clueabout a secret Garcia tomb in Egypt oranything else ldquoIt just worked there in thecomposition Itrsquos completely randomrdquo hesays

For the holographic piece (printed by GoodThoughts Printing in Boulder Colo) hedrew and painted much of it by hand then

scanned it into a computer and used a digital drawing tablet to finish it His triptych whichincludes one poster for each of the three Chicago concerts took him a couple months tocomplete and was handshydrawn with pen and ink then colored using a computer

New York artist Taylor Swope first got the idea for her postermdashfeaturing the Uncle Samskeleton giving a female skeleton a ride on a Harleymdash11 years ago after watching aremastered version of ldquoThe Grateful Dead Movierdquo which included an animated version ofCycle Sam

ldquoBut I was a beginner artist at the timerdquo Swope recalls ldquoI didnrsquot know how to drawskeletons or rosesrdquo Her design skills bloomed along with her apparel company LittleHippie which specializes in licensed Dead gear for kids

She has two pieces of official apparel at the ldquoFare Thee Wellrdquo concerts a childrenrsquos Tshyshirtand a womenrsquos tank top After her poster idea also got approved she had to crank it outon deadline By then she had learned a lot by sketching from books of flowers and ananatomical skeleton she had purchased ldquoThe kicker is then I had to learn how to draw amotorcyclerdquo she says

With most official products artists make money off each item they sell and pay apercentage to the Dead through a license administered by Rhino Entertainment The dealfor the ldquoFare Thee Wellrdquo concert merchandise works differently The artists were paid a flatfee for their designs up front They also get to keep a small batch of ldquoartist proofsrdquo thatthey can sign and sell at a premium after the concerts are over

Justin Helton whose Status Serigraph studio is based in Knoxville Tenn has created artfor everyone from Phish to Queens of the Stone Age but he says ldquoFare Thee Wellrdquo isthe biggest project he has ever worked on He contributed three tshyshirts and three posterstotal for the Santa Clara and Chicago shows

The job allowed him to create something for his musical heroes including Phishrsquos TreyAnastasio who is handling lead guitar for the Dead Helton also got to let loose with visualpalette that is very particular to the Dead ldquoA lot of bands donrsquot respond well to skeletonsItrsquos such a loaded imagerdquo he says

In his work he incorporates found imagery and old engravings created in the 19th centuryHis Chicago poster features the city skyline and a skeleton tipping a top hat as he sails offin a hotshyair balloon loaded with roses

The 34shyyearshyold artist says he put a lot of pressure on himself to perfect the illustrationsknowing theyrsquod be joining a long lineage that goes back to the lsquo60s when Bay Area artistssuch as Stanley ldquoMouserdquo Miller and Rick Griffin helped define the artform

Helton says ldquoThey had a huge hand in showing me what poster art even was when I wasyoungerrdquo

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Articles Comments

mdashArtdesign by Taylor Swope for Global MerchandisingServices trade amp copy 2015 Grateful Dead Productions

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