how's it hangin'?

I’m not sure of the first concert poster I bought – I think it might have been from a Pearl Jam show in New Orleans at Tad Gormley Stadium in 1995. I thought it was so cool to have a groovy piece of art that is specific to a show I attended – with the even the date, location and opening band. Since that first one, I’ve purchased all the “gig posters” I could find whenever I actually attended the show.

In addition to Pearl Jam, I have posters from Beck, The Decemberists, The Raveonettes, Ambulance LTD, Bright Eyes, Interpol, Wilco and Cat Power.

Brad and I went to a really cool art show earlier this summer at the House of Blues, and it totally reignited my passion for these posters. Brad even bought me The Art of Modern Rock, an awesome coffeetable book that celebrates this art form that is kicking and scratching its way into the spotlight of being labeled the “It” thing this year.

OK, so Brad and I have all these cool posters, but we’re perplexed about how to hang them. Framing them would cost us about the gross national product of Guam, and we need to save our money for important things like mortgages, car payments and Coachella.

I was clicking around the net yesterday and came upon a blog wherein the author described he was struggling with this very same issue, and he asked his readers to offer up some suggestions. They did. Here are a few of their ideas – some of which are better than others:

postertack – the sticky, gummy stuff you can hang posters with. “It'll stick to your poster and stick to the wall. Then you don't have to put holes in your beautiful posters.”

I used to use this stuff, and it literally took the paint off my wall.

“you could try laminating things..__I have this pretty oddly shaped strokes poster that I didn't want to mess up, and I ended up finding this plastic slip cover thing that fit perfectly.”

Laminate a whole poster? I’ve never seen a lamination machine that big!

“framing it yourself is pretty cheap. (go to a craft store and find a frame for cheap.)

Maybe, but I think it’s probably still too expensive. Plus, it’s not a Monet or Gaugin; it should be more fun and DIY-ish.

“You can use adhesive corners - http://www.lineco.com/item.cfm?itemnum=L533-0020. They don't adhere to your posters in any way, just your wall - you just slot your posters into them and voila! The only tricky bit is making sure that when you put the adhesive corners on a wall (presuming you do this (measuring and sticking) and then put the poster in later), the corners are aligned with each other correctly, or you might slightly bend some of your poster (in particular the corners) getting it to fit in the slots. If you're careful though, this can be avoided fairly easily :D"

Fairly easily? That sounds like it would take me all day and a lot of expletives.

“Get those cheap clip frames. They are simple and can look sharp. http://www.eldridgeacrylics.com/clipframe.htm. Any good frame store will have them.

“I had the same problem for a while. I love my screenprints. I use what I like to call "magic clothespins"Take some of these 3m things and cut them in half. stick it to the back of a wooden clothespin (not plastic because those are too rough) making sure the little "pull to remove" tab is sticking out the bottom or something. stick it to the wall and clip up your print. I use one on each corner for big prints. or just one in the middle for smaller ones. Hope that helps."

Interesting!!

“I've got some rare trade ads that I frame with those really cheap frames, I think someone mentioned them above. They're like 3 bucks a frame, and Wal-Mart has em.”

Stop. You lost me at Wal-Mart.

“I suggest BINDER CLIPS - big or small depending the popster size. you use your choice of tacks to hold the binder clips to the wall and then clip the poster. minimal and effective."

Now we’re talking. This could be cool.

“you should mat it. you can either have it done professionally (and relatively cheaply) or do it yourself. you take a piece of nice black matboard and cut out a section 1/2 inch smaller than the actual poster. you center the picture and cut out a sturdy piece of something (say, cardboard) the same size as the poster to be the backing. then you tape the cardboard over the back of that, this sort of makes a little container/recess for the poster to set in. i did it all the time for my art class. it's like a sandwich. matboard, picture, backing.”

Sounds cool, but I’m not sure if I can trust a lunatic who thinks matting is cheap. I paid almost $50 just for matting for one of my frames to showcase my photos from Paris. (I really like saying “my photos from Paris.)

Hmmm, that whole clothespin notion is intriguing to me. I’ll have to think more about his. I’ll let you know.