As a matter of principle, I will never repost AI flyers. Please don’t send me them. It’s an awful look for bands, venues, promoters, and anyone who (re)posts them. The effect is inadvertent, as people will be more likely to actively avoid going to your show–that’s the cost of convenience, baby.

Ideally, you should pay an artist to design your flyers. There are plenty of talented visual artists and graphic designers in the Hudson Valley (I listed a few in this article that I’d recommend). Don’t have the budget for that? All good, just do it yourself.

The result of using AI flyers is that it’ll change how people perceive your band–laziness will overshadow your band’s reputation and all the hard work you put into writing the music, so don’t cut corners when promoting your shows. I’ll detail the steps I take whenever I make flyers for my band’s shows. With that said, I should mention that I’m a very amateur graphic designer, so if you want high quality work, you should, again, hire an actual artist. But if you choose to DIY it, remember: anything you create, however mediocre, even a chicken-scratch doodle or a rough illustration on Paint, will be better than that AI bullshit.

• Step 1: Find an image
  • Use a photo you took, or if you use one that a photographer took, be sure to credit them.
  • Alternatively, find a free/public domain image. Make sure you click “free” or “public domain” when selecting search filters. Also, when sifting through images, pick one that has plenty of empty space for all the text you’ll need to include. Here are some sites I tend to use:
    • Unsplash.com
    • Rawpixel.com
    • Artvee.com
• Step 2: Download a design app/software
  • I use Canva.com (it’s free).
    • I should mention that Canva does have some AI features, so just avoid using those.
• Step 3: Choose a template for Instagram dimensions
  • Instagram Post or Instagram Story
  • (The amount of flyers I get sent where crucial details are cropped out because of incorrect formatting is staggering.)
• Step 4: Import your image(s) to the software
  • Sometimes I just use one image, other times I create a collage of multiple images–it depends on what you’re going for.
• Step 5: Add necessary text (consider visual hierarchy)
  • Band(s)
    • Reach out to the bands to see if they’d like their logos implemented in the design, or if they have a font they like. Make sure to ask for the logo with a transparent background so that there isn’t a black or white rectangle around the logo.
  • Venue
    • Reach out to the venue to get their logo with transparent background (optional).
  • Date
  • Time(s)
  • Ticket price, if applicable
• Step 6: Overlay a texture
  • This step is optional, but I’ve found that it helps make all the elements that make up your flyer appear uniform.
  • Search for something like “construction paper texture” in Unsplash.com, and import the image into Canva, or whatever platform you choose to use.
  • Put the texture image as the top-most layer.
  • Adjust the transparency to around 10-30ish%.
• Step 7: Save and post
  • Tag the bands, venue, promoter, and anyone else involved, and encourage them all to share as well.

Here’s an example of a flyer I put together recently:

Heck, it ain’t much, but it’s honest work.

---

Here’s a brief list of a few graphic designers you could/should hit up to create some awesome flyers for your shows, and/or album/EP/single art. Click on their names to see more of their work.

• Julia Howard
  • Julia designed the logos for my bands A Whole Nother and Grampfather, a lot of our album and single art, as well as some flyers for our shows—oh, and she made the new DIY Kingston logo. She’s my go-to designer.
  • Work sample:

• Rakel Stammer
  • Rakel’s distinct style caught my eye when I saw a flyer she had created for an event at Tubby’s (see below). She has also designed album covers for artists like Ruby of Thanks and Nic Panken. Funnily enough, Julia has had a print depicting a couple she-wolves howling at the moon up in our living room for years, and only recently did I discover that it was done by Rakel. Needless to say, we dig her style.
  • Work sample:

• Tom Mike Hill
  • Tom designed the art for The Always Sunny Podcast. It was a pleasant surprise to learn that the guy who did the graphic design work for a podcast about one of my favorite shows of all time resides in the Hudson Valley. He has also designed work for musicians, comedians, and podcasters such as Waxahatchee (see below), Between the Buried and Me, Steve-O from Jackass, Whitney Cummings, Natalie Cuomo, Bert Kreischer, Jim Gaffigan, etc. Tom specializes in poster design, podcast artwork, merchandise design, logo design, and other promotional graphics.
  • Work sample:

---

I recently created a Visual Artists Directory, located on the Directories page, so that musicians can reach out to visual artists (graphic designers, photographers, videographers, etc.) to design their flyers or album/EP/single art, to capture their live performances, or to film their music videos. Give it a perusal and connect with these talented visionaries.

The list is ever-growing, so if you, or someone you know, would like to be added, just email me (diykingston@gmail.com) with the following info:

• Name
• Medium (graphic design, photography, videography, for example)
• Work Samples (website or Instagram)
• Contact (email, or I can just write “DM on IG,” if you prefer)

Please leave a reply if you have any helpful insights that I might not have covered. If after reading this you’re still, somehow, pro-AI, don’t bother commenting. Life is short and nobody has time to debate arguments that are so clearly and painfully bad and wrong. Using AI flyers not only takes work away from artists, but it also drags your band’s good name through the mud–not to mention, AI is also horrible for the environment. So, in a perfect and sustainable world, you should hire an actual human artist to level up your flyer game, or at the very least, do it yourself. If you’re creative enough to write a song, you’re definitely capable of slapping some text on a public domain image to make an effective flyer. Support living artists–even if the artist you’re supporting may be yourself.

-Article written by James Kwapisz