FLORAFAUNA
November 2, 2009 - By Bobby Solomon - Category: Art & Design & Illustration
FLORAFAUNA is Minneapolis based design/screen printing studio who make some of the best concert posters I’ve seen in a while. I posted the Wilco poster on the top left on my Twitter the other day but I really felt like they deserved their own post after digging through their archive. All of their posters are extremely well done as you can see above, and as far as I saw they were all priced around $20 – $30. I seriously want ALL of their posters.
Bobby
Comments
If you've got something to say, keep it positive.What is that book one? I want that! I can’t find it!
@Kyle – That posters is for The Books, and you find it by clicking here: http://www.gigposters.com/poster/118197_Books.html
I like the Wilco 2009 Fall Tour poster, but it’s missing West Virginia…
That book image looks like a complete rip off of a Brock Davis design from his “under” series.
THIS
Shame on you florafauna
@Eric – We don’t know if they copied anything, though I agree with you, it’s quite similar. Here’s FLORAFAUNA’s blog post about creating The Books poster:
http://www.florafaunaworld.com/blog/E04615/it%27s%20all%20about%20the%20books
Based on the flickr data, Brock created his in June. 2 months before the Flora piece. Brock is highly respected and his work, that piece in particular, has circulated on hundreds of blogs. FF either ripped it off and didn’t htink anyone would notice, or they were inspired subconciously. either way. it’s a rip. i’m a designer and it’s hard for me to come up with ideas. so when I see what i consider a blatant copy, I am compelled to blow the whistle. I also went to gigposters.com. Apparently, FF has a history of copying designs.
Had FF not already been busted 2 times on gigposters.com for blatant theft/plagarism, one might believe that this is indeed a coincidence.
Unfortunately such is not the case.
His Fleet Foxes and Handsom Furs posters have been called out and subsequently removed from Gigposters.com yet remain on his site as examples of “his” work.
In the case of Fleet Foxes he went as far as to lie about it and then later give up and confess.
He is a repeat offender.
While one poster can potentially be written off as a coincidence, FF has done it quite consistently, and when called out has been very unapologetic about ripping people off. FF is the very definition of a hack designer.
Another piece FF ripped off was this poster, which has since been removed from gigposters.com
http://forum.expressobeans.com/viewtopic.php?t=24239
Images comparing the OG work
http://www.andrewholder.net/assets/images/large/mtn-town.jpg
to his poster
http://www.florafaunaworld.com/work_images/ABEC49.JPG
Another controversy was FF’s handsome furs poster
http://www.florafaunaworld.com/work_images/E770F5.JPG
which, because again it was taken down from gigposters.com – I am unable to find the original piece it was based on. But again it was a contemporary piece by a contemporary artist who FF blatantly lifted from.
The fact that FF keeps doing it, and gets rewarded with recognition because of it, is discouraging, and sends a terrible message to up and coming designers.
Very important stuff here…if people who make money off of others craft aren’t identified, it really does bring the whole design community down. Paul Gardener is consistently acknowledged, yet most people don’t know about his theft history. It is certainly damaging to the integrity of the artists he is hired to represent, especially because it is so hard for the management of bands to know enough about design to be able to identify whether or not they are getting the product they are paying for. I’m sure The Books weren’t aware of Gardener’s reputation with theft before they hired him.
[...] Minneapolis truly is a rock poster design mecca with Lonny Unitus, Aesthetic Apparatus, FLORAFAUNA and Chuck Ungemach among others calling it [...]
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http://www.flickr.com/photos/24140210@N05/4221965733/in/photostream/
His Wilco fall tour poster’s source material has been discovered:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/24140210@N05/4153813768/