SXSWorld
Issue link: https://sxsw.uberflip.com/i/842100
PUTTING IMAGES TO MUSIC The Poster Design of Nels Jacobson By luke TOrn I n a 1978 poster for an Austin Opry House show by the acclaimed Danny Garrett, rising star Warren Zevon glares at passersby in an ostentatious mix of art, music, imagination and fear. Though a werewolf and a head- less gunner lurk at Zevon's back, a sinister pair of eyeballs, hovering in the gloomy clouds above, chills even closer to the bone. Across town, around the same time, a gnarly black-and-white image captures Chris Wing, lead singer for punk raconteurs Sharon Tate's Baby, wailing to the world against a dot matrix background, proclaiming just another Monday night at Raul's. These were signs of the times. In fact, a walk through downtown Austin during the 1970s and '80s often revealed dozens of signs of the times. A rock & roll lineage created in posters and flyers—by everyone from acclaimed art- ists like Jim Franklin and Michael Priest to bandmates publicizing their first gig—lined telephone poles, streetlights and virtually any other mid-town public façade. Into this realm fell Jagmo, aka Nels Jacobson, a master of Austin's second generation in poster art, whose career has traversed an idiosyncratic path: from smack-dab in the middle of Austin's vibrant music/poster scene, to imagistic MVP for SXSW in its early days, and then on to lawyer, historian and co-founder of the American Poster Institute. A native Chicagoan intrigued by music and image, Jacobson found him- self employed as promotions manager at Club Foot, one of Austin's liveliest venues, in 1982. Soon enough, he was providing poster imagery, catering to local post-punk, up-and-coming and down-and-out rock stars, and every- thing in between. "My approach was pretty minimal most of the time," explains Jacobson, marking his delineation from the psychedelic styles of Austin's hippie days. "I didn't have the skills yet. I was essentially self-taught, and I would just look Jagmo © 1982 Nels Jacobson Jagmo © 1984 Nels Jacobson Jagmo © 1987 Nels Jacobson