09 Squad19 Creative Union

(Close)

Two decades of graphic noise.

Squad19 wasn't planned. It was a survival mechanism born from the first internet bubble burst. Three interactive designers suddenly found ourselves unemployed. The other two left. I kept the name.

The Fortune 500 freelance work kept the lights on, but the poster work was something else entirely.

I was at a coffee shop and saw a flyer from an illustrator named DWITT. We got to talking about gigposters and Kozik, who just hung out on Gigposters.com talking to people like it was nothing. So we set up a press in my basement and started making things, trading notes with the likes of Kozik, Art Chantry, heavy hitters, and up-and-comers from around the world.

A student of mine harassed First Avenue long enough that they handed over the monthly calendar. We screenprinted the poster, got comps, and sold what we could at the merch table. That covered ink and paper. There was no real money in it, but that wasn't the point. The point was making cool things for bands. It worked out. Those posters are part of why Carmichael Lynch hired me for Harley-Davidson, and why Harley called again later. Sqaud19 posters ended up featured in Graphic Noise at MCAD, the Minnesota History Museum, and MPOP, as well as a number of publications.

We organized local competitors into S.P.A.M. (Sexy Poster Artists of Minnesota) and launched Plaster the Town. We built a community out of people who were going to make things whether anyone showed up or not. The work quickly became a launchpad for massive, community-driven charity art exhibitions. We ran This Side Up, where every artist got a two-by-two square of cardboard, turning it into a show and a published book where all proceeds went to help the local homeless population. Then came FUEL, a food-shelf benefit show that ran for two years.

Our absolute peak was Toys in the Attic. Three consecutive years. A curated group show, toy drive, and full gallery production where every single dollar and entry fee went directly to Toys for Tots. It was an event people actually showed up for: artists, collectors, the community, and the biggest thing Squad19 ever produced.

Still proud of that one.

Facebook killed Gigposters.com and that whole community evaporated overnight. The forum culture and the shared knowledge between artists across the country was gone. I kept Squad19 alive as a freelance vehicle, taking the skills I had and doing it under my own banner for high-level agency contract work, including designing key assets for the Harley-Davidson 110th Anniversary.

At the same time, screenprinting skateboard decks was something I'd always wanted to figure out, so I figured it out. I scavenged used boards, sanded them down, and ran them through the press. Once I knew how, the question was what to do next. I formed a crew of groms my sons' age, and that led me to doing work supporting Be A Boarder.

The formal collective is gone and the landscape has changed, but the press in the basement never really stopped. I still print and I still make things by hand.

The ink is dry on the Squad19 chapter, but the maker mentality isn't. The store is still open.

Client
Squad19 (personal brand) // 2000 - 2020

Role
Founder / Creative Director

Selected Publications

Art of Modern Rock | Chronicle Books
Art of Modern Rock Mini #1: A–Z | Chronicle Books
Art of Modern Rock Mini #2: Poster Girls | Chronicle Books
Gigposters Vol. 1: Rock Show Art of the 21st Century | MBI Publishing
Rock Paper Show: Flatstock Vol. 1 | Soundscreen Design
Panda Meat: Source Book Vol. 1 | Soft Skull Press
A Fist Full of Rock & Roll | Digital Webbing

Selected Exhibitions

Graphic Noise | Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD)
Flatstock (Exhibitor) | American Poster Institute
Permanent Archive & Group Exhibitions | Minnesota History Museum
Group Exhibition | Museum of Pop Culture (MPOP)

Work
Hand-Pulled Screenprinting
Curated Gallery Exhibitions
Community Support

(Return to Projects)

2000 - 2020