Patti Smith

 

I feel kind of awkward giving an introduction to anything having to do with Patti Smith. She's a punk icon, and her legend goes far beyond my storytelling abilities. Suffice to say, Patti Smith dropped out of the same college that I attended in New Jersey. She was invited back to the college for a one night show on a seemingly arbitrary date. It was billed as an "intimate" show (read: full-sized concert hall), geared more toward the poetry of Patti and her close friend and fellow Rowan alumni, Janet Hamill.

Bill Freind, the professor usually in charge of scheduling performances and poetry readings for the university asked me to come up with posters to promote it. I came up with the idea of using a browned paper with a lot of character, combined with a few stylistic choices that echoed the work of Glaser and others from the era. I was going for an entire "things that have aged well" theme; the paper, the design elements, and the artist.

Knowing the university's budget, I knew I'd have to print on laser paper instead of a brown cardstock with tooth. What I didn't anticipate was the fact that anything with a budget of more than twenty dollars at the university was subject to review by a large, clueless committee. Needless to say, they didn't use my poster.