PHOTOS
Alicia Grega-Pikul
Good design is communication in the blink of an eye. It stops you in your tracks, prevents you from turning the page. With hundreds, potentially thousands of ads competing for our attention on a daily basis, those that do catch our eye had better follow through. We want art. We want entertainment.
If you've been reading e.c./d.c. over the years, you've seen Bill Orner's designs. His are the fliers you've peeled off a post and taken home as a memento after the show. When invited to hang a collection of his rock posters at The Bog this month, Orner felt it fitting to throw a rock show opening to celebrate rather than the traditional wine and cheese reception. While the exhibit will be available for viewing starting at 6:30 p.m. on Friday, the main event won't start until 9 p.m. Scheduled to contribute along with Scranton's own Orner Brothers are a couple of nationally touring acts Orner described as "absolutely fantastic."
After a year or so trying to book J-Roddy Walston and the Business at Test Pattern, Orner recently heard from the Baltimore band about inserting a Scranton gig into its spring tour.
Its trend-free, refreshingly straight ahead rock tunes have been praised by Baltimore's City Paper for its "infectious, booty-shaking optimism," and can be sampled on MySpace.
Orner also booked Gringo Star (formerly known as A Fir-Ju Well) of Atlanta a few days after reading about them. Gringo Star also happens to be friends with J-Roddy Walston and the Business.
Admission is $5, drink specials are likely and posters will be available for purchase.
The self-taught graphic designer has made a conscious effort to exhibit work that hasn't been over-exposed through a few shows from Test Pattern and the Bog.
"Most of them will be posters that nobody's ever seen - ones I've done for people out of town or were for events that maybe never even happened," he chuckled.
Unless you were hanging out in Brooklyn last fall - or are a hardcore Lou Rogai/Lewis & Clarke groupie - you probably haven't seen the poster (pictured above) Orner made for last fall's La Societe Expeditionnaire label showcase co-sponsored by Skyscraper magazine and Solid PR at Union Pool and Sound Fix in the borough.
"It's a candelabrum with candles on it for each of the bands - I think we ended up having to add a band, but on the original design the number of candles matched the number of performers. And in the flames are hands pressed together, not necessarily praying, but Lou's vibe and attitude is about community and togetherness and peace and all that, so I put the hands in the flames of the candles to show these seven bands getting together to share some time and share a stage," Orner described.
Along with up to seven or eight posters blown-up in a large format and mounted, he's considering clusters of smaller works, including some plugs created for the Web that don't carry the resolution for larger prints.
"I'll have the big copies for sale and they're going to be priced to sell. I don't believe in charging an arm and a leg for something that's essentially digitally reproduced. But still, those big ones are expensive so I'll also have some small ones available for like $10 apiece," he said.
"The bottom line is, I would rather have people take my work home and hang it on their wall and in a couple of years look back and say, 'Oh I remember that show.' That means more to me than the money."