Lil Tuffy (born July 29, 1972, in

Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

) is an American artist and designer in the field of modern rock/pop poster art, also known as 'gigposter' art, as well as serigraph and fine art production. Tuffy began his career in San Francisco at the Firehouse with Chuck Sperry and Ron Donovan. As a member of the 2000s resurgence of the poster-art scene he has designed posters for a wide variety of musical acts, including

Devo Devo is an American new wave band from Akron, Ohio, formed in 1973. Their classic line-up consisted of two sets of brothers, the Mothersbaughs ( Mark and Bob) and the Casales (Gerald and Bob), along with Alan Myers. The band had a No. 14 ...

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, Pavement,

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and many others. His work has been exhibited in the US, Canada, Mexico, Spain, Portugal, Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Serbia, and the UK and he regularly appears at music festivals including

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Noise Pop Noise pop is a subgenre of alternative and indie rock that developed in the mid-1980s in the United Kingdom and United States. It is defined by its mixture of dissonant noise or feedback with the songcraft more often found in pop music. Shoegaz ...

, Primavera Sound,

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and more. He is a regular contributor to The Fillmore, The Warfield Theatre and the Regency Ballroom's poster series. He serves as board member of the American Poster Institute, a non-profit corporation dedicated to furthering public awareness and appreciation of the poster art form and are the organizers of the a series of rock poster exhibitions called Flatstock.

Influences

Tuffy's artistic style is greatly influenced by

Postminimalism Postminimalism is an art term coined (as post-minimalism) by Robert Pincus-Witten in 1971Chilvers, Ian and Glaves-Smith, John, ''A Dictionary of Modern and Contemporary Art'', second edition (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2009), p ...

, as well as advertising artwork of the 20th century. He has cited

Saul Bass Saul Bass (; May 8, 1920 – April 25, 1996) was an American graphic designer and Academy Awards, Oscar-winning filmmaker, best known for his design of motion-picture title sequences, film posters, and logo, corporate logos. During his 4 ...

Andy Warhol Andy Warhol (;''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''"Warhol" born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director and producer. A leading figure in the pop art movement, Warhol ...

and

Art Chantry Arthur Samuel Wilbur Chantry II (born April 9, 1954) is a graphic designer often associated with the posters and album covers he has done for bands from the Pacific Northwest, such as Mudhoney, Mono Men, Soundgarden, and The Sonics. Biography C ...

as major influences. Although he works in a variety of styles, it primarily incorporates limited color palettes, simple typography and the use of negative space.

Mentions

Tuffy's artwork has been featured in various books including

The Art Of Modern Rock ''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' ...

, Panda Meat Vol. 1, SWAG 2: Rock Posters Of The 90's and Beyond, Rock Paper Show, Gigposters Vol.1: Rock Show Art Of The 21st Century, and Show Posters. He is featured in 2012 documentary ''

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 ...

'' and his posters were used as set dressing for the

Lindsay Lohan Lindsay Dee Lohan ( ; born July 2, 1986) is an American actress, singer, producer, and businesswoman. Born in New York City and raised on Long Island, Lohan was signed to Ford Models at age three. She appeared as a regular on the soap opera ' ...

movie '' Just My Luck'' and the television shows ''

Looking Looking is the act of intentionally focusing visual perception on someone or something, for the purpose of obtaining information, and possibly to convey Interest (emotion), interest or another sentiment. A large number of Troponymy, troponyms ex ...

'' and ''

Sense8 ''Sense8'' () is an American science fiction drama television series created by Lana and Lilly Wachowski and J. Michael Straczynski for Netflix. The production companies behind ''Sense8'' included the Wachowskis' Anarchos Productions (replac ...

''.

References

{{Reflist * Lil Tuffy's website including biograph

* ''Art of Modern Rock'' artist lis

External links

Lil TuffyAmerican Poster InstituteFirehouse RockartNoise Pop festival
American printmakers American poster artists Living people 1972 births