In Spring of 2017, I was tapped by the good people at Nakatomi Inc. to take a swing at a couple VIP posters for Nashville rock superstars Kings of Leon. The brief was pretty open: no drugs or violence (pretty standard ask from major touring acts) and if possible could I work cherries into the motif somehow. Apparently cherries have long been a visual trademark of KoL. I’d never really worked with anything like that before but thought, “sure, why not? It’ll be a challenge at the very least.”
I wanted to approach the cherry thing as a means to try something more clever than just a visual edition as an afterthought. The cherries would need to be integral to the theme, and where possible, drive the imagery.
May 20, 2017 • Holmdel, New Jersey
The first poster of three, a 12×18″ three color screenprint referencing the feel of 70s “good old boy” car flicks. Convoy, Grand Theft Auto, Smokey and the Bandit, et al.
I had been watching a lot of classic Burt movies like Hooper and drive-in exploitation films like 1977’s The Van and it all came together as this homage. Smokies, CB’s, custom vans, bridge jumps, car wrecks, hot pursuits, police choppers…it’s all here. The band wanted artists on this tour to try to work in cherries as a part of the visual motif if possible which is how I arrived at the Porky’s referencing “Cherry 4-Ever” van (also based loosely on The Van’s famous “Straight Arrow” tricked out Dodge Tradesman show van).
Purchase this one at Nakatomi Inc
August 24, 2017 • Mountain View, CA
A 12×18″ three color screenprint designed to recall a mid-80s VHS cassette cover for a cheesy erotic thriller or new wave slasher flick. Something with Eric Roberts in the late 80s/early 90s golden age of Cinemax. A further challenge was keeping this from looking too slick and photoshopped. A bit of Warhol in the posterization.
Sorry, but this one is SOLD OUT
August 26, 2017 • The Gorge, Washington
A 12×18″ three color screenprint meant to replicate the look and feel of Topps chewing gum wax outer wrappers for trading cards. 
As the band wanted us to work cherries into our artwork, I found a way to do just that while also incorporating something spacier and 70s, while also including some of the land that surrounds the beautiful Gorge Amphitheater in George, Washington. I’ve recently been exploring a pet affection for 1970’s airbrushed space art (as most successfully achieved so far in my album cover for Sacramento’s Life in 24 Frames’ CTRL+Z) and this was a look and feel I felt could really jibe well with the spirit of Kings of Leon.
Sorry, but this one is SOLD OUT
October 27, 2017 • West Palm Beach, Florida
After designing three posters for their summer tour, the band asked me to come back and have a go at a couple of their fall dates. This was a bit of a challenge as I felt like I had exhausted every good concept I could come up with to incorporate cherries, a visual element that the band really wanted to include in all the posters for this tour. While it would be easy to simply add a cherry here or there just to meet that goal, I’m always driven to attempt (at least) to be clever. So I went back to the well and came up with two concepts: this one, where I imagined the band in a paint-by-numbers scene poolside in the location of the show with one marker (Cherry Red) left open to give the composition some depth and direction. Further, I left the coloring mostly unfinished to bring the viewer in to it and make it feel a bit more energetic and interactive.
Purchase this one at Nakatomi Inc
October 28, 2017 • Tampa, Florida
So I went back to the well and came up with two concepts: One of which is this, where I imagine a 7″ 45RPM single shaped like a pair of cherries, pressed onto cherry red vinyl, with 7″ picture sleeve referencing the show’s location: Tampa, Florida and stylized silhouette of the band.
I always like to add little details when doing a meta reference, so you’ll notice that the date of the show is repeated as the duration of the song on the record’s label, as well as in the mock RCA logo (KOL). Plus there’s no way I was going to not include the 45 adapter as well.
Purchase this one at Nakatomi Inc
See many more of my gigposters, record covers, festival branding and much more at my other site decabet.com
