SXSWorld
Issue link: https://sxsw.uberflip.com/i/842100
SXSW.COM | M A R C H 2 0 1 7 M U S I C | SXS W O R L D 2 9 to all the other posters done by these really talented guys [Garrett among them], and use that for inspiration." Steve Forbert's Labor Day 1982 concert poster is exemplary. Leading with a sharp, black image of the artist contrasting with a blank music bar, it had lots of off-white space and spare lettering: "In the early stages, I liked stuff that was simple and bold because I thought it worked. Philosophically, I liked it as a design approach." Jacobson's eye-catching juxtapositions—light/dark, colors/ angles, image/information—spoke eloquently of the times, often evoking a stark feel that matched the moods of stripped-down music. His David Johansen poster, among dozens featured at his jagmo.com website, is an image/absence-of-image collision representing a sharp break in the way rock posters might be crafted. "The ultimate style of a particular poster, or the imagery used, may echo the kind of music played by the band, the visual look of the group or the era it's most associated with," Jacobson explains. "Or it may take its cue from the type of venue … or from the prevailing mood of the day." By the mid-1980s, Jacobson was integrating new elements (he would later incorporate psychedelia as well), including atypical imagery and a cogent style of surrealism that complemented the music in often-provocative ways. A Dead Kennedys poster, circa 1984 Liberty Lunch, remains a poi- gnant, unforgettable work. A representation not of the band's raucous, provocateur brand of punk rock, Jacobson instead played off their choice of name. His spooky, shadowy photo in the lower-right corner, echoing the colors in the lettering, is unsettling to this day. "The photo always struck me as these two elderly ladies, and they're holding flowers, and one of them is my [actual] grand- mother," Jacobson reveals. "Often you just want kind of an arresting or haunting image. You want something that when people look at it, it's intriguing, moves them a little bit. Sometimes, just a simple image can do that. And in the case of the Dead Kennedys, I was thinking of death." Jacobson's career path then began to swerve in hardly predictable ways. "In late 1986, I think it was Roland [Swenson] who asked me to come up with a design for the new music festival he …[was] plan- ning called the 'South by Southwest Music and Media Conference.' At the time, I favored simple and bold imagery and made the center- piece of the design a blocky arrow pointing southwest. To reflect the 'Music and Media' portion of the name, I added a microphone trailing a mic cord." An eloquent writer, poster scholar and collector, Jacobson soon took a step rarely contemplated by his peers: "I went away to law school in '92. At one point I started to think, 'well, jeez, how do I protect my stuff, copyright-wise, how does that work?' And I asked some of the other artists I looked up to …[Guy] Juke, Priest, Garrett. Nobody seemed to have a clear idea about the legal aspects." In that spirit, Jacobson helped launch the CLE (Continuing Legal Education) program at SXSW in 1998, designed for attorneys, among others, to discuss legal perspectives on industry trends. By 2003, everything Jagmo—art, history, legal, music, copyright, networking, collecting, selling—seemed to intersect when he sponsored the SXSW debut of Flatstock, a mind-blowing exhibition of poster art. "Flatstock just became a monster," he enthuses, relishing the event's capacity to both champion poster-art history and latch onto the here-and-now. "Now, I think there is still a wealth of really bril- liant and inspired work being created. The difference is that there are so many more poster artists, graphic artists and designers, who are getting their work out in front of the public, and which can be seen around the world instantaneously." Flatstock 53 and the CLE program both begin today (Thursday, March 16) and continue through Saturday (March 18). More details at sxsw.com/exhibitions/flatstock and sxsw.com/conference/cle. LEGAL PANELS CELEBRATE 20 YEARS AT SXSW Now in their 20th year, the Continuing Legal Education (CLE) panels at SXSW have become a tradition of profes- sional education at which all are welcome. What started out as a one-day event of exclusively music topics with about 40-50 attendees has grown to include hundreds of lawyers and non-lawyers alike attending panels on interactive, film and music subjects. This year's program consists of 12 sessions and runs from today (Thursday, March 16) through Saturday (March 18) in Room 9BC at the Austin Convention Center. Today will focus on inter- active and film topics, with music content scheduled for tomorrow and Saturday. The SXSW CLE evolved out of a conversation between SXSW Executive Director Mike Shea and intellectual property lawyer/rock poster artist Nels Jacobson. Shea, Jacobson, and the founders of SXSW saw the CLE pro- gram as a way to educate lawyers in music law and the music business alongside of the panels intended for art- ists, managers, agents and music entrepreneurs. In 2007, Jacobson invited Minneapolis-based entertain- ment lawyer, and regular SXSW CLE speaker, Ken Abdo to assist in presenting the program. Jacobson and Abdo have been Co-Chairs of SXSW CLE ever since. The pro- gram is sponsored by Fox Rothschild where Abdo is now a senior partner. Jacobson handles many of the CLE pro- gram's administrative responsibilities while he and Abdo collaborate to design topics and select speakers. The topics and speakers have changed over the years together with the entertainment business, going from the basic review of traditional music industry transactions and court decisions to sophisticated analysis of issues concerning mixed digital media, governmental policy and progressive trends in law and business. "Technology and the digital reality have merged panel content with overlapping information. One cannot study any of these entertainment areas in separate lanes," explains Abdo. "We strive to make the panels smart, timely and based in reality," says Jacobson. "This is what is attractive to lawyers and non-lawyers alike ... real information and not just opinion and editorializing." See the full CLE schedule at schedule.sxsw.com/2017/events/track/CLE.