For as long as I have been doing posters, I have been getting to know the various artists and their back stories. Poster artists are a great community and we share a lot of experiences together. It would be nice, I thought, to share some of that with everyone.

I’ve decided to start interviewing people involved in posters about what they were doing for work before going into posters full time. The stories are quite interesting and I plan to start posting a few interviews periodically as I get them. See the previous interviews with Tyler Stout and Todd Slater.

ROB JONES INTERVIEW

The third interview I am pleased to post is with Rob Jones. For years, he’s been behind the scenes of a lot of things and his strong direction is a large part of Mondo’s driving force. We’ve had some great discussions about many things, often at 3 AM, so I hope this interview can give you a taste of this very unique individual. His extraordinary work has won him a Grammy. Please check him out at animalrummy.com

Avett Brothers

The King’s Lead Hat (Star Wars Print)

Rob Jones winning the Grammy (Box Package Design) for The White Stripes’ “Under Great White Northern Lights”

Q: What kind of job did you have before becoming involved in posters (please explain the position, the responsibilities, the uniform, the hours, how long did work there, etc)?

A: After college I did storyboard work. That was shitty but not very interesting. The worst job I had (and I was happy to have it) was working the line for a summer at the Combos factory in Albany, Georgia.

I squatted on a little catwalk that spanned the width of the dough extruder. It was like 50 or less little Play-Doh fun factories pushing out tubes of dough to make Combos. They were cooked a little so they would keep their shape, so I’m squatting in front of an oven. What’s behind me. The cutter and another fucking oven giving the dough the big bake. My job was to make sure the dough came out right for each of the 50 or so lines. If it didn’t, I broke it off and let the extruder shit itself into a giant plastic bin (there were a few of them lined up under there. When the dough corrected itself, I fed it back into the cutter.

I’d do this all day. At the end of my shift, I’d have to empty the waste barrels.

Q: How did you get that job (apply, friend hooked it up, family business, indentured servitude)?

A: My pop was the manager of the plant. Plant employees could get summer jobs for their kids. I was happy to work there because it was good pay.

Q: What was your least favorite part of the job (douchey boss, lame customers, hard labor)? Any interesting stories?

A: Some weeks there would be special flavor productions that required 12 hour days. Breakfast, drive time, lunch hour, and a couple of smoke breaks off the clock meant I was doing shit for about 15 hours before getting home. My weeks during these periods would be work, watching an episode of Simon & Simon, sleep, repeat. I really looked forward all day to seeing that episode of Simon & Simon.

Another thing, that pizza flavoring is in giant sacks and just permeates your hair when you walk by it.

Q: Did you quit or get fired?

A: Summer was up and I went back to school. The next summer I got bumped up to an office job. I wrote a check writing program and played Nancy Drew and discovered a undelivered 100K bag of almonds that the plant had already paid for (the Combos plant was also responsible for nut processing for all other Mars plants).

Q: Despite how unrelated that job was, is there anything that you learned on that job that you still apply to what you are doing in posters/prints today?

A: It really made me hate that blue grey luminescent color the sky turns right before sunrise. That’s when I’d be driving to work. I block out the windows in my office so I don’t have to see it when I’m up through the morning as it still bums me out. It’s like the color of Nico’s voice.

Q: Are you in a better place now, doing posters and prints or was that job your true calling?

A: I’m set doing this. I can masturbate in my office and no one cares.

JUSTIN SANTORA INTERVIEW

The fourth interview is from Justin Santora. He’s been a good friend to me and hanging out in Germany with him was a real adventure. Recently, we were both surprised to learn that our families knew each other, as my parents were friends with his aunt. Justin is one of the loudest voices in posters and his work is outstanding. He’s earned the respect of everyone I know in posters and I eagerly anticipate his new work. Seeing is believing at justinsantora.com

Iron & Wine

But Two More Will Take Its Place

Ween

Q: What kind of job did you have before becoming involved in posters (please explain the position, the responsibilities, the uniform, the hours, how long did work there, etc)?

A: This was a few years before I started making posters, but one of my jobs in college was that I worked at a fishing store. I worked behind the counter for usually something like six to eight hours at a time, four days a week. Other employees would take turns doing stock work, taking out the garbage, miscellaneous cleaning, and things like that. It was a pretty relaxed job for the most part, and I would daydream about skateboarding or draw on the backs of repair slips when things got slow.

Q: How did you get that job (apply, friend hooked it up, family business, indentured servitude)?

A: I walked into the place and asked if they were hiring. They gave me an application to fill out, and they asked me when I could start. There was a pretty fast turnover there because they hired a lot of bored teenagers who would quit or get fired pretty often.

Q: What was your least favorite part of the job (douchey boss, lame customers, hard labor)? Any interesting stories?

A: One thing I really disliked about the job was the sometimes pervasive attitude of sexism and racism in that environment, which admittedly should come as little surprise. People who have such stupidly unsatisfying lives that they actually hold racist beliefs tend to assume that everyone has such a worldview, so I had to put up with some pretty annoying comments from time to time.

Most of the people I worked with were easy to get along with for the most part, and there are even a few that I still remember as being really, really cool people. I remember this old man named Chuck who used to work there one day a week. He had all these old stories about musky fishing, and everyone loved him.

There was also a kid I worked with whose weirdness cannot even be described here. He once called into work saying that he would not make it in because he had gotten into a fight with his (also creepy) uncle while he was driving him to work and he had jumped out of the car. Cars could be heard blowing by him in the background on the phone. He made up a lot of stories, but we were pretty sure that day he actually called the store from the side of the road.

Q: Did you quit or get fired?

A: As I was trying to prepare for finals and book a month long tour for my old band, they began scheduling me more hours than I wanted to work. That, and that whole atmosphere was starting to get really old. I ended up quitting and feeling extremely relieved.

Q: Despite how unrelated that job was, is there anything that you learned on that job that you still apply to what you are doing in posters/prints today?

A: One thing I’ll always remember about this job is how irritating hierarchies are and how being an adult doesn’t necessarily make you mature. I think encountering things like being condescended to and treated as an entry level employee long after I’d been working there and getting paid a rate that was disproportionate to how much I was expected to care about the work have all been integral to the path I’ve chosen in life. Figuring out what you don’t want can help you determine what you do want.

Q: Are you in a better place now, doing posters and prints or was that job your true calling?

A: The fishing store job was never supposed to be much more than a stop along the way. I was twenty years old and still earning my degree. At that time, I wasn’t really sure what I would do after college other than vague ideas about being a high school art teacher (which I didn’t end up doing). I never would have guessed I would start making screen printed posters and paintings for a living, but I most certainly can’t complain. Incidentally, I would start learning about vegetarianism and become vegan about sixth months after quitting my job in the fishing store.

For as long as I have been doing posters, I have been getting to know the various artists and their back stories. Poster artists are a great community and we share a lot of experiences together. It would be nice, I thought, to share some of that with everyone.

I’ve decided to start interviewing people involved in posters about what they were doing for work before going into posters full time. The stories are quite interesting and I plan to start posting a few interviews periodically as I get them.

TYLER STOUT INTERVIEW

The first interview I am pleased to post is from Tyler Stout. For years, Tyler has been at the top of many a poster fanatic’s pile and will probably continue to do so. He has done posters for some of the awesomest movies and bands, as well as some great art prints, shown respectively below. Please check out more of his work at tstout.com

Iron Man 2

Flight of the Conchords

Le Loup de fer

Q: What kind of job did you have before becoming involved in posters (please explain the position, the responsibilities, the uniform, the hours, how long did work there, etc)?

A: I was a video store clerk. I worked for 2 years at Moyer’s First Stop Video, then another few years at Blockbuster. Which was less cool.

My responsibilities . . . I checked out videos to people. I examined their photo i.d’s, I recommended films based on films they previously had seen and enjoyed. I organized videos according to category. We had both thriller and horror. Both sci fi and fantasy. Cult was the wildcard. Family. Kids. Drama. Documentary. Foreign. We had it all.

Q: How did you get that job (apply, friend hooked it up, family business, indentured servitude)?

A: I rented 20 videos a week until they eventually said ‘you seem lonely, would you like a job here?’

Q: What was your least favorite part of the job (douchey boss, lame customers, hard labor)? Any interesting stories?

A: When Blockbuster bought us out, that was very sad. They dumbed things down a bit, were much more strict about things. We used to be able to play videos in the store, any video we wanted. They made us play prepackaged demo reels that were terrible. They got rid of movies. Just a sad dumbing down of a nice little video store.

Q: Did you quit or get fired?

A: I quit, due to moving 250 miles away. Then I got a job in my new city at another Blockbuster, and quit because they wouldn’t let me have Christmas off. Which was typically their busiest time of year, so it was understandable that they’d want me to work. But I was young and foolish.

Q: Despite how unrelated that job was, is there anything that you learned on that job that you still apply to what you are doing in posters/prints today?

A: Hmm…..well I guess working at a video store isn’t completely unrelated to my current job. But I did learn how to fix vhs tapes quite easily, a lost art. I also learned the importance of dusting and organizing.

Q: Are you in a better place now, doing posters and prints or was that job your true calling?

A: It was a much more fun and carefree job than being self employed. Plus I got all the free movies I wanted. Which was something back in the nineties / early 2000’s. Now its no big deal, but back then, it was a golden ticket opportunity.

TODD SLATER INTERVIEW

The second interview is with Todd Slater, someone who has been in posters for a long time. In addition to being a stand up guy, his work output is very impressive. Some great examples of his work are posters for are shown below. Please see more of Todd’s work at toddslater.net

Close Encounters of the Third Kind

Interpol

The Dead Weather

Q: What kind of job did you have before becoming involved in posters (please explain the position, the responsibilities, the uniform, the hours, how long did work there, etc)? 

A: I’ve talked about being an assistant to the assistant at the Movie Theater with my wife Kristie in an interview with Mitch from omgposters.com.  And I’ve also talked in several interviews about working at a t-shirt shop in Nacogdoches after college so I’m gonna have to go back further for this one.

I wore my share of hats while in high school and college.  The summer that I turned 16 my father said to me: ”Alright, you’re getting a job today. Do NOT come home until you have a job, understand”? No one would offer me full time summer work so I ended up working 25 hours a week at Pacific Sunwear and Bealls department store. I think working 40+ hours a week was my parent’s way of keeping me out of trouble.  To say I hated it would be an understatement. Due to a lack of (failure of) training, I never fully understood how to work the cash register at Bealls. It was so bad that if I ran into any resistance and no one was there to assist me I’d  just remove the sensors and throw everything into a bag.  Then I’d just send my happy customers on their way.  Sometimes people would just stare at me like, what the fuxx is wrong with this kid?  But, no one ever complained about their free clothes, bras, ties and what not. I didn’t even know how to tie my own tie, but I was supposed to measure men for suits. I laugh just thinking about it. After 3 months my sales were so bad that I was informed I would be getting a pay decrease.  I started off at $5.50 an hour and was taken down to $5.25 which was the minimum wage at the time.  My mother was pretty mortified by the whole thing and still won’t shop there.

Q: How did you get that job (apply, friend hooked it up, family business, indentured servitude)?

A: My mother shopped at Bealls and was friendly with many of the employees, she got my foot in the door.  I still feel bad for embarrassing her.  I totally get the idea of teaching kids responsibility, I just don’t think most 16 year old boys are ready for that.  My friend Wedge Smith and I actually made a sincere effort to get hired at Victoria’s Secret.  We took the applications home, filled them out, proofread each other’s work for spelling and grammatical errors. We then headed back to the mall to turn them in wearing casual suits, made no jokes and were very polite.  Again, there are very few jobs 16 year old boys can do successfully.

In 2003 my Dad got me an interview at GSD&M in Austin (big ad-firm, handles Southwest Airlines) and I was absolutely set on doing the interview in bare feet.  I thought it would somehow how set me apart from the crowd.  I’d be memorable (for all the wrong reasons).  Luckily, my father managed to convince me that it was a terrible idea.  Now that I think of it, I probably currently work at the only job in the world that I’m qualified to do.  

Q: What was your least favorite part of the job (douchey boss, lame customers, hard labor)? Any interesting stories?

A: Twice a year we did this huge store wide inventory at Bealls. It was miserable and it lasted all night.  The employees literally had to count every item in their sections to ensure the place wasn’t being robbed blind.  There was literally thousands of items to count by hand.  The people who were doing the auditing were miserable people too and just wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible.  I’d count like 336 ties and they’d inform me that there should be exactly 441 of them.  I knew there was no way I gave out over 100 ties, I still don’t know what happened to all that missing stock, but, I’d ‘count’ them again and ‘magically’ end up with 437 ties.  (Some shrinkage was acceptable so I would never give the exact amount that we were supposed to have.)  The saddest part is that someone after me probably tried to do it right and was left with a total train wreck.  Or who knows, there’s probably another 16 year old carrying the torch for me right now.

Q: Did you quit or get fired?

A: I think technically I quit Bealls although it was sort of a mutual breakup.  Both Bealls and Pacific Sunwear had one day a week where you were “on call”.  It meant that you were supposed to call in an hour before the start of the shift to see if you needed to come in.  It was rare that either store would need you to come in but when they did need you they really needed you… maybe someone had flaked on their shift or maybe the crowds were heavy that day.  Since I was working 50 hours a week I usually had to call in while working a shift at my other job.  I called Pacific Sunwear while working at Bealls and on this particular day they really needed me.  I told my manager at Pac Sun, that I couldn’t come in since I was working at my other job.  She was pretty confused on why I even bothered calling in and just let me slide.  I was worried that I might actually lose the job at Pac Sun so when I went to lunch at Bealls I never came back.  I went straight to the Mall with hopes of mending fences with Pac Sun.  You’d think that would be enough to get me fired at Bealls but they were so desperate for workers that they said I could stay.  I reluctantly said okay, but never came in for another shift there.  They called me at home a bunch and I finally let them know I was done.  I think they were ready to be done with me that point anyway.  My parents still required  that I work full time so I made myself very available to cover any and all shifts at Pac Sun and usually ended up making up the hours.  Some weeks I even exceeded the hours that the managers worked.  Ultimately, I choose Pac Sun over Bealls because the females were closer to my age there and I didn’t have to wear a suit and tie.  

“Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes.”  - Henry David Thoreau

Q: Despite how unrelated that job was, is there anything that you learned on that job that you still apply to what you are doing in posters/prints today?

A: Nothing.  I knew that I didn’t want to pump gas for the man.  But I knew that before I started those jobs.

Q: Are you in a better place now, doing posters and prints or was that job your true calling?

A: Absolutely in a better place now.  I’m passionate about making prints and am focused on having a long art career.