Nirvana 1990 flyer set of 3 versions

Back in the winter of 1989 in art school, I had a class on the art of typography. This was when using a computer for design was this crazy new thing. I mean, I saved the file on one of those big, floppy 5½-inch discs—the kind that actually was floppy. Cutting edge technology!... back then at least.

The assignment was just to play around with setting type on this, at the time, brand new Macintosh Apple computer. There was a show coming up that had tickets to and was stoked about: Nirvana, Tad, The Gits, & Crunchbird at the Hub Ballroom. January 1990. The cover charge was four bucks. Seriously, four dollars for four bands. Wild, right?

So I sketched this idea out in ink in my sketchbook of the time—really raw and loose. Then I cleaned it up in the computer, printed a few out, and posted them up around town. I was pretty proud of myself. It wasn't even the official flyer for the gig, but over the years, it somehow became the image everyone remembers from that night. I even got asked for it's usage in the HBO documentary- Kurt Cobain: The Montage of Heck.

I was recently looking through that old sketchbook and I realized... man, the original sketch is soooo much cooler. It’s got that raw, DIY energy that totally matches the hand drawn flyers Kurt was making himself back then. It feels like the Bleach album sounds, you know?

It hit me that I’ve never properly released this thing. So I thought, why not do it right? I’m now publishing a signed and numbered set of all three versions: the original sketch I drew by hand, the cleaned-up one on white, and the negative black-and-white version I made back then to match the Bleach album cover vibe.

They’re all finally screen printed for the first time ever on nice, thick paper. I’m also printing a handful of various color variants. A few lucky people who order a set will randomly be selected to get a bonus fourth color variant poster thrown in—no tricks, just luck of the draw. Best of luck to the lucky few that score one!