Dan Stiles is an American graphic artist and graphic designer, known for his rock posters. He is based in

Portland, Oregon Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...

Early life

Stiles is originally from

Ann Arbor, Michigan Ann Arbor is a city in Washtenaw County, Michigan, United States, and its county seat. The 2020 United States census, 2020 census recorded its population to be 123,851, making it the List of municipalities in Michigan, fifth-most populous cit ...

. He attended the

University of Oregon The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a Public university, public research university in Eugene, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1876, the university is organized into nine colleges and schools and offers 420 undergraduate and gra ...

(UO) in Eugene, later noting that he had "used college as an excuse to move to the Northwest" to pursue music and snowboarding. After several years working in the Pacific Northwest he moved to San Francisco in 1996 to study design at the

California College of the Arts The California College of the Arts (CCA) is a private art school in San Francisco, California. It was founded in Berkeley, California in 1907 and moved to a historic estate in Oakland, California in 1922. In 1996, it opened a second campus in ...

(CCA). He lived and worked in San Francisco for 7 years, before returning to Portland, Oregon in 2001.

Career

While at UO, he began his career as an artist by drawing rock posters. Soon, Stiles learned how to silkscreen posters and moved into digital illustration. Stiles has since remarked on how digital creation is a more freeing process. "With a computer... you can draw all of this stuff and then... throw tout, keep going," he remarked in an interview with WeMake. After gaining notoriety with his poster art, Stiles attracted the attention of brands like Nike, AT&T, Birch Fabrics, IBM, and the X Games. He has also worked on projects for bands like Band of Horses, Feist, Death Cab for Cutie, Vampire Weekend, Hot Chip, and Arcade Fire.

PowerHouse Books PowerHouse Books (stylized as powerHouse Books) is an independent publisher of art and photography books founded in 1995 by Daniel Power, in Brooklyn, New York, Brooklyn, with its headquarters in Industry City, Brooklyn, Industry City. PowerHous ...

released a monograph of his work entitled ''One Thing Leads to Another'' (2015). Stiles has also authored several books with POW!, the children's division of

powerHouse Books PowerHouse Books (stylized as powerHouse Books) is an independent publisher of art and photography books founded in 1995 by Daniel Power, in Brooklyn, New York, Brooklyn, with its headquarters in Industry City, Brooklyn, Industry City. PowerHous ...

. These include ''Put on Your Shoes!'', ''Baby's First Book Blocks'', and ''Today I'm Going to Wear...'' Stiles appears in the rock poster documentary film, ''

Just like Being There ''Just Like Being There'' is a 2012 documentary film on the American gig poster scene, directed by Scout Shannon. Content Gig posters are a part of the independent music scene. Created specifically for a specific show, the artist tries to captu ...

'' (2012).

Style

Stiles utilizes colorful geometric shapes in a style that has been described as "punk rock modern" and "pop folk." He is usually allowed a fair amount of creative control in his work; Stiles told WeMake that bands often tell him to "just do something cool." According to Stiles, each of his posters has its own significance, as he views them as "his children."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stiles, Dan 1970s births Living people Year of birth missing (living people) American graphic artists American graphic designers American album-cover and concert-poster artists Artists from Ann Arbor, Michigan Artists from Portland, Oregon California College of the Arts alumni University of Oregon alumni