David Edward Byrd (born April 4, 1941) is an American graphic artist, designer, illustrator and painter. Many of his design are considered to have helped define the look of rock and roll music starting in the 1960s. He is most well known for his poster designs, including his rock posters for the

Fillmore East The Fillmore East was rock promoter Bill Graham's rock venue on Second Avenue near East 6th Street in the (at the time) Lower East Side neighborhood, now called the East Village neighborhood of the borough of Manhattan of New York City. I ...

as well as his

Broadway theatre Broadway theatre,Although ''theater'' is generally the spelling for this common noun in the United States (see American and British English spelling differences), 130 of the 144 extant and extinct Broadway venues use (used) the spelling ''Th ...

posters.

Early life

David Byrd was born April 4, 1941, in what is now Cleveland, Tennessee and was raised in Miami Beach, Florida.

Education

He graduated from

Miami Beach High School Miami Beach Senior High School (Beach High, MBSH) is a secondary school located at 2231 Prairie Avenue Miami Beach, Florida, across from the Miami Beach Convention Center and Botanical Garden. It is located at the corner of Prairie Avenue and D ...

in 1959, attended the

Boston Museum School The School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University (Museum School, SMFA at Tufts, or SMFA; formerly the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) is the art school of Tufts University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusett ...

for a year and then

Carnegie-Mellon University Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. One of its predecessors was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools; it became the Carnegie Institute of Technology ...

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Western Pennsylvania, the second-most populous city in Pennsylva ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

where he received a BFA in Painting and Design in 1964 and an MFA in Painting and Printmaking in 1966. From 1970 to 1979, Byrd taught at the Pratt Institute and the

School of Visual Arts The School of Visual Arts New York City (SVA NYC) is a private for-profit art school in New York City. It was founded in 1947 and is a member of the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design. History This school was started by ...

. After receiving his BFA, Byrd moved to Pittsburgh to work at WQED-TV, where he did design for the nascent ''

Mister Rogers' Neighborhood ''Mister Rogers' Neighborhood'' (sometimes shortened to ''Mister Rogers'') is an American half-hour educational children's television series that ran from 1968 to 2001, and was created and hosted by Fred Rogers. The series ''Misterogers'' deb ...

'' show. He was subsequently asked back to Carnegie-Mellon to complete his graduate work.

Rock Posters

In 1968, a number of college classmates (including Joshua White of Joshua Light Show) encouraged rock promoter Bill Graham to hire Byrd to create posters for the newly opened

Ballroom in

Manhattan's East Village The East Village is a neighborhood on the East Side (Manhattan), East Side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is roughly defined as the area east of the Bowery and Third Avenue, between 14th Street (Manhattan), 14th Street on the north and ...

. Byrd was reportedly hired on the spot after showing his

portfolio Portfolio may refer to: Objects * Portfolio (briefcase), a type of briefcase Collections * Portfolio (finance), a collection of assets held by an institution or a private individual * Artist's portfolio, a sample of an artist's work or a c ...

to Bill Graham and signed on as the exclusive poster and program designer, beginning with a poster for the upcoming Traffic event. In the period 1968 to 1973, he and

Fantasy Unlimited Fantasy Unlimited was a multimedia artists collective in New York. History The collective was founded by Peter Nevard in 1967. One of the co-founders was David Edward Byrd, whom Peter knew from art school. The collective lived and worked on a f ...

created posters for Jimi Hendrix,

Iron Butterfly Iron Butterfly is an American rock band formed in San Diego, California, in 1966. They are best known for the 1968 hit " In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida", providing a dramatic sound that led the way towards the development of hard rock and heavy metal musi ...

, Jefferson Airplane,

Ravi Shankar Ravi Shankar (; born Robindro Shaunkor Chowdhury, sometimes spelled as Rabindra Shankar Chowdhury; 7 April 1920 – 11 December 2012) was an Indian sitarist and composer. A sitar virtuoso, he became the world's best-known export of North In ...

Traffic Traffic comprises pedestrians, vehicles, ridden or herded animals, trains, and other conveyances that use public ways (roads) for travel and transportation. Traffic laws govern and regulate traffic, while rules of the road include traffi ...

, and Bill Graham favorite the Grateful Dead. The poster that Byrd created for Bill Graham's Fillmore East, for the

Jimi Hendrix Experience James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942September 18, 1970) was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. Although his mainstream career spanned only four years, he is widely regarded as one of the most ...

, was voted #8 in the Top 25 Rock Posters by ''

Billboard Magazine ''Billboard'' (stylized as ''billboard'') is an American music and entertainment magazine published weekly by Penske Media Corporation. The magazine provides music charts, news, video, opinion, reviews, events, and style related to the musi ...

''. Byrd also created the poster for

The Rolling Stones American Tour 1969 The Rolling Stones' 1969 Tour of the United States took place in November 1969. With Ike & Tina Turner, Terry Reid, and B.B. King (replaced on some dates by Chuck Berry) as the supporting acts, rock critic Robert Christgau called it "history's ...

. When the four members of the rock band

KISS A kiss is the touch or pressing of one's lips against another person or an object. Cultural connotations of kissing vary widely. Depending on the culture and context, a kiss can express sentiments of love, passion, romance, sexual attraction, ...

released individual solo albums in 1978, Byrd was hired to create an individual poster for each album, designed in such a way so they all could be hung together as a

mural A mural is any piece of graphic artwork that is painted or applied directly to a wall, ceiling or other permanent substrate. Mural techniques include fresco, mosaic, graffiti and marouflage. Word mural in art The word ''mural'' is a Spani ...

. Byrd worked with

The Who The Who are an English rock band formed in London in 1964. Their classic lineup consisted of lead singer Roger Daltrey, guitarist and singer Pete Townshend, bass guitarist and singer John Entwistle, and drummer Keith Moon. They are considered ...

for their rock opera ''

Tommy Tommy may refer to: People * Tommy (given name) * Tommy Atkins, or just Tommy, a slang term for a common soldier in the British Army Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''Tommy'' (1931 film), a Soviet drama film * ''Tommy'' (1975 fil ...

,'' designing the poster for the band's 1971 performance at the Metropolitan Opera House.

Original Woodstock Festival Poster

In 1969, Byrd created the original poster for

Woodstock Woodstock Music and Art Fair, commonly referred to as Woodstock, was a music festival held during August 15–18, 1969, on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York, United States, southwest of the town of Woodstock. Billed as "an Aq ...

, but as the festival was subsequently moved and Byrd (then on vacation on the Caribbean island of Saint Martin) could not be reached, his original design went unused.

Broadway Posters

He designed posters for notable stage musicals including ''

Follies ''Follies'' is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by James Goldman. The plot takes place in a crumbling Broadway theater, now scheduled for demolition, previously home to a musical revue (based on the ''Ziegfeld Fol ...

'', ''

Godspell ''Godspell'' is a musical composed by Stephen Schwartz with book by John-Michael Tebelak. The show is structured as a series of parables, primarily based on the Gospel of Matthew, interspersed with music mostly set to lyrics from traditional hym ...

'', '' The Robber Bridegroom'', ''

The Grand Tour ''The Grand Tour'' is a British motoring television series, created by Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, James May and Andy Wilman, made for Amazon exclusively for its online streaming service Amazon Prime Video, and premiered on 18 November ...

'', '' The Survival of St. Joan'', '' Jesus Christ Superstar'', '' Little Shop of Horrors'', and others.

Move to Los Angeles - Van Halen, Warner Bros.

In 1981, Byrd came to Los Angeles to work as the Art Director for the Fair Warning Tour for

Van Halen Van Halen ( ) was an American rock band formed in Pasadena, California, in 1972. Credited with "restoring hard rock to the forefront of the music scene", Van Halen was known for its energetic live shows and for the virtuosity of its lead gu ...

. After that he did more poster creations in and around Los Angeles for, among others, The Mark Taper Forum, The

Ahmanson Theatre The Ahmanson Theatre is one of the four main venues that compose the Los Angeles Music Center. History The theatre was built as a result of a donation from Howard F. Ahmanson Sr, the founder of H.F. Ahmanson & Co., an insurance and savings and ...

, The Doolittle Theatre (in Hollywood, CA), and The Pasadena Playhouse. From 1991 to 2002, Byrd was Senior Illustrator at

Warner Brothers Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...

Creative Services, creating illustrations, backgrounds and style guides for all the Looney Tunes and

Hanna–Barbera Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc. ( ) was an American animation studio and production company which was active from 1957 to 2001. It was founded on July 7, 1957, by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera following the decision of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to c ...

characters. His other tasks included working with writer

J. K. Rowling Joanne Rowling ( "rolling"; born 31 July 1965), also known by her pen name J. K. Rowling, is a British author and philanthropist. She wrote ''Harry Potter'', a seven-volume children's fantasy series published from 1997 to 2007. The ser ...

on the first three books to make a visual cornerstone for the '' Harry Potter'' films that were to follow.

Gay Advocacy and Design

In 1976, Byrd illustrated the cover of the first edition of Christopher Street Magazine, the first gay literary magazine. From 1984 to 1986, he was Art Director of the national gay news magazine '' The Advocate''.

Personal life

In 1985, David began Byrd/Beserra Studios, with his partner Jolino Beserra, a noted Mosaic Artist.

Accolades and awards

In 1973, Byrd along with several other prominent illustrators, received a

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pr ...

for the album design and packaging of Tommy (by The Who). In 2007, the

Ringling College of Art and Design Ringling College of Art and Design (RCAD) is a private art and design school in Sarasota, Florida. It was founded by Ludd M. Spivey as an art school in 1931 as a remote branch of Southern College but separated by 1933. History The origins of ...

presented a retrospective of the work of Byrd's work.

References

External links

David Edward Byrd's website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Byrd, David Edward 1941 births Living people people from Cleveland, Tennessee people from Miami Beach, Florida Album-cover and concert-poster artists American graphic designers American poster artists American illustrators Carnegie Mellon University College of Fine Arts alumni Miami Beach Senior High School alumni