Today I learned that there's a Randomize Text button in Photoshop/Illustrator.
February 2, 2012 1:56 PM Subscribe
...wait, you mean there are club flyers that don't look like this?
posted by griphus at 2:03 PM on February 2, 2012 [7 favorites]
posted by griphus at 2:03 PM on February 2, 2012 [7 favorites]
I thought they intentionally made them ugly. I remember walking out of Toronto raves in the 90s, generally not-sober, and there'd be small armies of people handing out flyers. I only kept the ones that were bad enough to make me giggle.
posted by mannequito at 2:05 PM on February 2, 2012
posted by mannequito at 2:05 PM on February 2, 2012
Ah, the '90s, when everyone was pirating Kai's Power Tools and font-sets and cheap inkjets were everywhere, and... wait, did that say 2011?
wat.
posted by Slap*Happy at 2:06 PM on February 2, 2012 [10 favorites]
wat.
posted by Slap*Happy at 2:06 PM on February 2, 2012 [10 favorites]
Danny G loves tricking. Wolf loves Aeropostale.
posted by Babblesort at 2:10 PM on February 2, 2012 [2 favorites]
posted by Babblesort at 2:10 PM on February 2, 2012 [2 favorites]
Needs more fractals and dope leaves.
posted by Artw at 2:11 PM on February 2, 2012 [4 favorites]
posted by Artw at 2:11 PM on February 2, 2012 [4 favorites]
There used to be an all-ages punk venue in my neighborhood, years back, called the Temple because it was the basement of a synagogue. So I hope the temple being referred to in "Temple Party" is something along the lines of "Temple Ben Zion."
posted by griphus at 2:12 PM on February 2, 2012
posted by griphus at 2:12 PM on February 2, 2012
What do those "gang signs" mean that I always see suburban white kids doing in photos?
posted by Threeway Handshake at 2:14 PM on February 2, 2012
posted by Threeway Handshake at 2:14 PM on February 2, 2012
Oh god. I made a rave flier back in the day when I was a DJ. I found it during a move a few years ago and couldn't throw it away. Just.........so bad. Kinda a cross between MAKE THE LOGO BIGGER! and every possible filter Photoshop 5.0 had. Plus aliens and mushrooms (because it wasn't a party unless there were aliens and mushrooms on the flier).
posted by spikeleemajortomdickandharryconnickjrmints at 2:14 PM on February 2, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by spikeleemajortomdickandharryconnickjrmints at 2:14 PM on February 2, 2012 [1 favorite]
I don't see Bob Marley hovering in a cloud of spliff smoke - what madness is this?
posted by Artw at 2:17 PM on February 2, 2012
posted by Artw at 2:17 PM on February 2, 2012
What do those "gang signs" mean that I always see suburban white kids doing in photos?
They mean the person pictured is a fucking idiot.
posted by cmoj at 2:18 PM on February 2, 2012 [11 favorites]
They mean the person pictured is a fucking idiot.
posted by cmoj at 2:18 PM on February 2, 2012 [11 favorites]
Finding the worst club flyer is a game you loose just by playing.
posted by The Whelk at 2:18 PM on February 2, 2012
posted by The Whelk at 2:18 PM on February 2, 2012
Bad meaning Bad? Or Bad meaning Good?
posted by jontyjago at 2:19 PM on February 2, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by jontyjago at 2:19 PM on February 2, 2012 [1 favorite]
Ain't no party like an alien mushroom party cuz an alien mushroom party don't stop.
posted by murphy slaw at 2:21 PM on February 2, 2012 [4 favorites]
posted by murphy slaw at 2:21 PM on February 2, 2012 [4 favorites]
HAHAHA. My friends' parties and gigs are all over these.
Just so you guys know, these flyers are done by party kids with a lot of free time and a willingness to do it for free just like most of those DJs are playing for free.
There are some local crews that have good flyers, though:
This is the crew I used to throw parties with. (that was probably designed by an ex that got into a good art school on the basis of the flyers she did for us)..
And this is the party that I used to used to run their message board for, and used to DJ for.
A good friend of mine has been throwing classic undergrounds all up and down the east coast, and I really like his flyers.
More classic east coast rave flyers here.
And here.
posted by empath at 2:21 PM on February 2, 2012 [5 favorites]
Just so you guys know, these flyers are done by party kids with a lot of free time and a willingness to do it for free just like most of those DJs are playing for free.
There are some local crews that have good flyers, though:
This is the crew I used to throw parties with. (that was probably designed by an ex that got into a good art school on the basis of the flyers she did for us)..
And this is the party that I used to used to run their message board for, and used to DJ for.
A good friend of mine has been throwing classic undergrounds all up and down the east coast, and I really like his flyers.
More classic east coast rave flyers here.
And here.
posted by empath at 2:21 PM on February 2, 2012 [5 favorites]
And another thing, is a lot of the really bad ones are for parties where at best 50-100 people are going to show up. The really big ones spend the money to make the flyers look good.
posted by empath at 2:25 PM on February 2, 2012
posted by empath at 2:25 PM on February 2, 2012
I can't find it online, but my personal favourite rave flyer used this image.
posted by The Card Cheat at 2:34 PM on February 2, 2012
posted by The Card Cheat at 2:34 PM on February 2, 2012
Expensive flyer usually means surly security guards and $5 for a bottle of water in my experience. The one Bad Thing that almost all of these flyers have in common: including an address. Admittedly it's easier to dispense with that when you're trying the reach the same ~100 or so people rather than run it as a business.
posted by anigbrowl at 2:35 PM on February 2, 2012 [4 favorites]
posted by anigbrowl at 2:35 PM on February 2, 2012 [4 favorites]
In my day it was all driving around the countryside in a Fiat Panda looking for the right field, vision obscured by the fading light and the mist of dope smoke and lynx deodorant that made up the atmosphere within the car.
posted by Artw at 2:39 PM on February 2, 2012
posted by Artw at 2:39 PM on February 2, 2012
These were all very typical of flyers they used to hand out in my hometown in the mid to late 90s and early 2000s; but they all looked fine to me because all that was going to happen was that I was going to tear it into strips and use it as "filter".
posted by Hoopo at 2:40 PM on February 2, 2012
posted by Hoopo at 2:40 PM on February 2, 2012
A lot of the new ones just get posted on facebook, that's why they're not including the address, etc. They're not even printing out most of these.
posted by empath at 2:42 PM on February 2, 2012
posted by empath at 2:42 PM on February 2, 2012
I thought I had seen bad club flyers here in L.A.
I really had no idea...
posted by ShutterBun at 2:47 PM on February 2, 2012
I really had no idea...
posted by ShutterBun at 2:47 PM on February 2, 2012
Heh, when I saw this I thought it was about flyers for bad raves. Maybe there is a correlation, though.
posted by carter at 2:49 PM on February 2, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by carter at 2:49 PM on February 2, 2012 [1 favorite]
There's a nice archive of old rave flyers at rave.ca.
posted by exogenous at 3:02 PM on February 2, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by exogenous at 3:02 PM on February 2, 2012 [1 favorite]
Ah, the '90s, when everyone was pirating Kai's Power Tools and font-sets and cheap inkjets were everywhere, and... wait, did that say 2011?
I did a massive double take when I saw a QR code on one of them. Amazing how the aesthetic has remained so consistent. Most of them could be from the UK in the early '90s - all they're missing is absurd claims about the size of the PA and sophistication of the lightshow, and a beeper number to find out the address on the night.
In the mid-to-late '90s I used to make flyers that were bad in a different way: Helvetica or Akzidenz Grotesk (or, god knows what I was thinking, Impact), squish the type up a bit, perhaps add a small blurry photo of a gay skinhead. They were fucking terrible but I still have them all, and I like looking at them sometimes.
posted by jack_mo at 3:03 PM on February 2, 2012 [4 favorites]
I did a massive double take when I saw a QR code on one of them. Amazing how the aesthetic has remained so consistent. Most of them could be from the UK in the early '90s - all they're missing is absurd claims about the size of the PA and sophistication of the lightshow, and a beeper number to find out the address on the night.
In the mid-to-late '90s I used to make flyers that were bad in a different way: Helvetica or Akzidenz Grotesk (or, god knows what I was thinking, Impact), squish the type up a bit, perhaps add a small blurry photo of a gay skinhead. They were fucking terrible but I still have them all, and I like looking at them sometimes.
posted by jack_mo at 3:03 PM on February 2, 2012 [4 favorites]
I once freelanced for a guy who ran a dancehall club. After some e-mail contact he said he'd call me during the evening of day X, so from 6pm and onwards I waited and waited. After midnight I guessed he wasn't going to show so I went to bed.
At 1 AM he calls me, "Hey! Let's work on those flyers! So here's what I want.." What followed was about an hour of him uploading other people's flyers to the FTP we were cooperating off of and talking about inconsequential crap, 20 minutes of me trying to accommodate his needs while working on a single flyer, uploading it, and him adding more needs, looping. "Where's the bling?" he would ask at one point. "Oh," I would say, "how about this version?"
7 hours later he was satisfied. And I had produced a gawdy mess I that I will never include in any portfolio.
posted by pyrex at 3:38 PM on February 2, 2012 [2 favorites]
At 1 AM he calls me, "Hey! Let's work on those flyers! So here's what I want.." What followed was about an hour of him uploading other people's flyers to the FTP we were cooperating off of and talking about inconsequential crap, 20 minutes of me trying to accommodate his needs while working on a single flyer, uploading it, and him adding more needs, looping. "Where's the bling?" he would ask at one point. "Oh," I would say, "how about this version?"
7 hours later he was satisfied. And I had produced a gawdy mess I that I will never include in any portfolio.
posted by pyrex at 3:38 PM on February 2, 2012 [2 favorites]
There used to be an all-ages punk venue in my neighborhood, years back, called the Temple because it was the basement of a synagogue.
Holy crap! Playing at the temple was the first time I ever went to Brooklyn! I was sixteen and we were all excited because "The Temple" sounded like it would probably be a really awesome venue, with an air of occult mystery and the ambiance of danger that teenage hicks in a ska band perceived surrounded all of Brooklyn. Then it was the basement of a synagogue, and there were a bunch of frumpy Jewish mothers telling us to watch our step going down the stairs. I had totally forgotten about it until just now.
posted by Jon_Evil at 3:41 PM on February 2, 2012
Holy crap! Playing at the temple was the first time I ever went to Brooklyn! I was sixteen and we were all excited because "The Temple" sounded like it would probably be a really awesome venue, with an air of occult mystery and the ambiance of danger that teenage hicks in a ska band perceived surrounded all of Brooklyn. Then it was the basement of a synagogue, and there were a bunch of frumpy Jewish mothers telling us to watch our step going down the stairs. I had totally forgotten about it until just now.
posted by Jon_Evil at 3:41 PM on February 2, 2012
Oh I forgot to add, "bling" wasn't the only thing he wanted added; T 'n A were also top-priority items.
posted by pyrex at 3:54 PM on February 2, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by pyrex at 3:54 PM on February 2, 2012 [1 favorite]
This reminds me of my early days as a designer, making rave flyers for hopped up mouthbreathing goofballs that thought it was the height of visual wit to hide "e"'s and "420"s all over the place and shit.
Sigh. Bought a lot of Enyce with that ill-gotten cash.
Also took a lot of shit for refusing to bevel everything all the damn time.
posted by Senor Cardgage at 3:55 PM on February 2, 2012 [2 favorites]
Sigh. Bought a lot of Enyce with that ill-gotten cash.
Also took a lot of shit for refusing to bevel everything all the damn time.
posted by Senor Cardgage at 3:55 PM on February 2, 2012 [2 favorites]
This reminds me of my early days as a designer, making rave flyers for hopped up mouthbreathing goofballs that thought it was the height of visual wit to hide "e"'s and "420"s all over the place and shit.
A couple of guys I knew managed to sneak a photo of one of their dilated pupils with the letter 'e' under it into our high school yearbook.
posted by griphus at 4:15 PM on February 2, 2012 [2 favorites]
A couple of guys I knew managed to sneak a photo of one of their dilated pupils with the letter 'e' under it into our high school yearbook.
posted by griphus at 4:15 PM on February 2, 2012 [2 favorites]
More classic east coast rave flyers here.
Baltimore (and DC)!
Buzz > Sting, Rise, Fever, the Spot. Many, many good times. Some of the Buzz flyers were stunning.
Another Sting from this archive.
The boxes are buried in my messy basement but I kept hundreds of the Airline Industries creations from this era.
posted by erebora at 5:06 PM on February 2, 2012
Baltimore (and DC)!
Buzz > Sting, Rise, Fever, the Spot. Many, many good times. Some of the Buzz flyers were stunning.
Another Sting from this archive.
The boxes are buried in my messy basement but I kept hundreds of the Airline Industries creations from this era.
posted by erebora at 5:06 PM on February 2, 2012
Buzz > Sting, Rise, Fever, the Spot. Many, many good times. Some of the Buzz flyers were stunning.
Buzz was my church and my family for about half a decade. I would say that most of the best nights of my life where there. Don't think anyone else will ever top it. I have no doubt that it was the best party in the world on more weekends than not.
posted by empath at 6:05 PM on February 2, 2012
Buzz was my church and my family for about half a decade. I would say that most of the best nights of my life where there. Don't think anyone else will ever top it. I have no doubt that it was the best party in the world on more weekends than not.
posted by empath at 6:05 PM on February 2, 2012
I wish he accepted submissions, because I'd send in my absolute favourite godawful flyer. I saved it, not because I went to the party, but because I was impressed at how terrible and busy it was. I tried to read it twice but couldn't. If it's legible, the pricing scheme was also incredibly bad.
interior/exterior
posted by sunshinesky at 6:06 PM on February 2, 2012
interior/exterior
posted by sunshinesky at 6:06 PM on February 2, 2012
Buzz was my church and my family for about half a decade.
Bet we bumped elbows ;)
posted by erebora at 6:35 PM on February 2, 2012
Bet we bumped elbows ;)
posted by erebora at 6:35 PM on February 2, 2012
interior/exterior
That flyer isn't the worst I've seen by a country mile, but ... did they really name their electro band Heaven 7?
Also amusing how, like gay bars, dance clubs tend to recycle names from town to town. Boston also had a Buzz, Rise, and The Spot in the '90s.
posted by mykescipark at 6:38 PM on February 2, 2012
That flyer isn't the worst I've seen by a country mile, but ... did they really name their electro band Heaven 7?
Also amusing how, like gay bars, dance clubs tend to recycle names from town to town. Boston also had a Buzz, Rise, and The Spot in the '90s.
posted by mykescipark at 6:38 PM on February 2, 2012
Baltimore (and DC)!
I bet this is going to take you back.
Scott Henry DJing at the DC Armory.
posted by empath at 7:46 PM on February 2, 2012
I bet this is going to take you back.
Scott Henry DJing at the DC Armory.
posted by empath at 7:46 PM on February 2, 2012
I have one that took place on Friday the 13th, in 1997. It had a badly drawn hockey mask on a purple background. Actually, I have several of those, can't bring myself to toss them. I wish I still had the one my friend & I played at. There was a guy on the bill named DJ Muppet Fucker.
posted by broken wheelchair at 8:53 AM on February 3, 2012
posted by broken wheelchair at 8:53 AM on February 3, 2012
So funny, the first one on this page is from right here in Norfolk!
posted by daHIFI at 9:41 AM on February 3, 2012
posted by daHIFI at 9:41 AM on February 3, 2012
hehe, I just messaged the admin of the VA Pressure page on Facebook to let him know of the dubious honor they have received. I don't think theirs is anywhere close to those others on there.
Any also, most of these are not rave flyers. Hip hop/reggae flyers have traditionally been the busiest glaring monstrosities of the event promotion world.
posted by daHIFI at 9:47 AM on February 3, 2012
Any also, most of these are not rave flyers. Hip hop/reggae flyers have traditionally been the busiest glaring monstrosities of the event promotion world.
posted by daHIFI at 9:47 AM on February 3, 2012
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posted by echo target at 2:03 PM on February 2, 2012