Did you hear the one about the Spoon show that almost didn’t happen in Tucson?
Well guess what: it DID end up happening and Border Action Network (BAN), BorderAction.org, benefited from the gig. Austin band Spoon, who agreed to play a show at the Rialto (thanks to Curtis McCrary, the club’s promoter) rather than boycott doing business in Arizona in response to controversial SB 1070, commissioned a local artist to do a poster promoting the event; in turn, all proceeds from poster sales went to benefit BAN and Derechos Hermanos (DerechosHumanosAZ.net).
That Tucson artist was designer Ryan Trayte, whose multi-faceted job at the Rialto served as the conduit for the poster project. Trayte, who does design, marketing and ticketing at the downtown venue, has been designing gig posters for Rialto shows since Beck played there in 2006.
“I decided to do my own poster and show it to Curtis (McCrary), the (Rialto) GM, and to Beck himself. The both liked it, and Curtis had me do more design from then on,” Trayte explained about the genesis.
Trayte, whose personal business is Saywells Design (SaywellsDesign.com), has an obsession with gig posters. “My home office is riddled with them,” he says, and his Rialto work includes posters for national acts like Wilco, Neko Case, Los Lobos, My Morning Jacket, The Temptations and the Indigo Girls.
“My first screen printed, limited edition work was Ryan Adams in January 2008. Since then I’ve done 17 of those special screen print designs.” Local business Iron Horse Graphics has hand-pulled the screens for Trayte’s poster and tee shirt designs ever since that show and local bands Sergio Mendoza Y La Orquestra and Calexico have also tapped Trayte for his creative regional flair.
“I like to try to blend what the band is about with what Tucson is about,” Trayte says about his work. “I feel like it’s always a meeting of regional cultures -- the band and their music representing one, the theater and crowd representing Tucson. Calexico really helped guide my style, since I’ve done a lot of work with them and they’re just so Tucson.”
Prime examples of the designer’s muse-in-action are the Miracle Mile motel sign motif of his poster for the 2009 Wilco gig at Centennial Hall and the Calexico & Friends holiday show poster depicting the Old Pueblo in a snow globe.
“I usually start in my sketch book by writing and drawing a bunch of ideas I think might work,” Trayte says in defining his creative process. “I choose which one I’ll pursue, fish for any needed inspiration or source material, then scan what I’ve drawn or just jump straight to the computer. After many hours designing digitally, I call it done and make the color separations for screen printing.”
From there, it’s off to the printer, where the designs are hand-pulled on a small manual press. The result: homegrown Tucson collaborative art.
Trayte is currently on deadline creating the poster for Calexico’s 2010 Dance of the Dead extravaganza, which takes place after the All-Souls Procession on November 7 at the Rialto - guaranteed to inspire you to march right out there and celebrate the spirit of the Old Pueblo with your fellow Tucson artists, creators, and kindred souls.
