Sonnenzimmer

I’ve been seeing a lot of Sonnenzimmer around the interwebs, for good reason – their work is really fantastic. The Chicago-based duo, Nick Butcher and Nadine Nakanishi, teamed up in 2006 to create (amongst other things) pleasantly minimalist posters for a variety of purposes. While all their work is very good, their music posters really tickle my fancy.

Here’s a couple of samples – if you have the time to peruse their site, I strongly encourage you to do so.

EDIT (June 8): Nick and Nadine just let me know that they are currently working on a kickstarter-funded limited-edition book project, “Warp and Weft: Poster Construction by Sonnenzimmer“. Look like a cool project!

Sonnenzimmer - Neko case poster, 2011

Sonnenzimmer - Neko Case poster, 2011

Poetry commissioned this poster for Neko Case‘s concert in conjunction with the opening of Poetry Foundation’s building. It was to function as a gig poster and broadside. A huge challenge printing an essay in 9 point type over the course of 350 posters, keeping it legible, integrating it with the image. With a still life in mind, that hints, through symbolism, at the text’s content, we found pop! We had a blast typesetting the rag. Good thing, the hyphenation zone worked out.

Sonnenzimmer - Throbbing Gristle poster, 2009

Sonnenzimmer - Throbbing Gristle poster, 2009

It’s a honor to make a poster for such sonic pioneers! We wanted this poster to reflect Throbbing Gristle’s harsh and epic music, yet still make it nice to look at. We improvised our entire way through this 5-color poster using discarded films from the Waiting Out The Rain Poster and some old painting scraps we had laying around. We just went color by color. The blob breaking out of the frame really sets this one apart from our more tightly constrained pieces. This poster was for the gig in the Logan Square Auditorium, Chicago.