Mike Nickells

For the opening event at Kansas City Design Week, AIGA KC had a gig poster show and viewing of the documentary Just Like Being There at the Vox Theater along with guest speakers Scout Shannon (the director) and the guys from local printshop and gig poster makers Vahalla Studios. The movie is a great behind the scenes look into the people and the growing culture behind the resurgence of the gig poster scene. Scout talks to and goes into the houses and print shops of a lot of the great artists making posters today along with some of the people who are starting to branch out into other genres with their work. He talks to such a long list of talented people I can’t list them all off for you here, but here is a few that really stuck out in my memory: Tyler Stout, Delicious Design League, Strawberry Luna, Jay Ryan, Daniel Danger and last but not least Kevin Tong. Just for your information since the movie has very little distribution you’ll probably have to wait for the DVD to come out in late April or keep an eye out for it on netflix. The Kansas City Design Week event was great with the poster show made up of work from the artists in the movie and getting a chance to ask questions of the director and the guys at Vahalla was interesting. If you weren’t able to go I highly suggest that you check out the movie on your own and look into the artists that he interviews in the documentary. A LOT OF TALENTED PEOPLE, I was both inspired and intimidated at the same time.