Event · Illustration & poster
Yampa Valley Summer Jam —
one poster, every lineup
The challenge
Yampa Valley Brewing runs a taproom in Craig, Colorado — The Barrel Room — and every summer it hosts Summer Jam, a run of live music across the season. Different bands, different nights, all summer. One poster wouldn't do it, and drawing a fresh one for every lineup would be a waste. What the show needed was a poster that could change its mind about who's playing without being redrawn.
The face
So the poster is built in two parts. The top is fixed and illustrated: Colorado peaks in stained-glass colour, a burst of sunrays, the brewery's stag-skull mark, the date and the room. That part never moves — it's the world the night lives in. The bottom is a slot. Three band names, the genres, the local sponsors — swap them and the poster is ready for the next show, everything above untouched.
The look is chosen to match the sound. Sunbursts, hand-inked mountains, a warm retro palette — an old gig poster for americana, alt-country and folk rock. It reads like the music it announces. Draw the world once; drop the lineup in each week.
The world
The posters went up around town — taped to a barn wall, stuck by the door of The Barrel Room, pinned inside above the taps, stacked on the bar with the tape and scissors still out. Sponsored by the neighbours: Moffat Ridge Electric, Sand Wash Radio 93.7, North Fork Tire & Tow. A poster for one place, made by and for the people who live there.
The result
One illustrated frame carried a whole season of Summer Jam — a new lineup dropped in for each show, the mountains and the mark staying put. Draw the world once; let the schedule change.
Want one of these
for your own range?
Tell me what you're making and what comes after it. I'll tell you which chapter it is — and if it isn't a fit, I'll say so.