Our brief centred on the idea that The Great Basin Blues Festival is a unique event – it’s literally the one time every year when a great national park comes together with some of our greatest national treasures. The festival features some of the finest blues artists performing today – they’re the real deal, and they’re bringing the soulful sounds of the Mississippi Delta to the mountains of Idaho.

The challenges were, first of all, a very limited budget. As such, we were limited to producing two posters. As in years past, the posters were placed around town in the weeks leading up to the event. We needed to capture the essence of the festival in each execution and convey the idea that GBBF is a rare opportunity to see actual living legends perform in an amazing setting and, thus, get people excited enough to attend.

By all accounts, The Festival was again a huge success in 2009, with attendance and ticket sales exceeding even our clients’ expectations.

The photography on its own is magnetic, but the writing and design required the same rhythm as the music itself. Our idea was to let the music flow from the men and women who sing it because it’s a part of them. It’s in their DNA. We positioned lyrics along their deep-set wrinkles to emphasise this point. And we let the background colours and scratched type fit the mood of what you might see in a great Delta Blues bar. In the end we wanted the photography to pull you in and the writing to keep you there.