Todd Slater

Todd Slater is an American poster artist who specializes in concert posters for indie and mainstream rock musicians. The many acts for whom he has produced posters include Jack White, Widespread Panic, Ween, Avett Brothers, Pearl Jam, Arctic Monkeys, Foo Fighters, Queens of the Stone Age, Dave Matthews, Black Keys, Primus, Muse, and Neil Young. He also produces film posters for the specialist Mondo Gallery in Austin, Texas, USA.

A limited edition fine art print of Todd Slater’s Goldfinger Mondo film poster was sold at auction by Christie's in October 2013 for $3,294 US.

Personal life

Slater was born in July 1979 in Peoria, Illinois, United States. His father, Wayne Slater, is an author and has been a political writer for the Dallas Morning News since the mid-1980s; he has co-written three books with James Moore, including Bush's Brain. Todd Slater's mother is an English teacher. The Slater family moved to Austin, Texas when Todd was five years old. Slater is married to wife Kristie with whom he has three children.

Education

Todd Slater graduated from Stephen F. Austin State University, Nacogdoches in Texas in 2002, majoring in art with an emphasis on design and minors in film and painting.

Slater learned about digital media during an internship with Dave Turton at The Graphic Library, a producer of stock illustrations for Istockphoto.

Career

Slater realized that making concert posters was what he wanted to do after discoveringgigposters.com. He started producing posters professionally when aged 24.

His first professional poster commission was for Pretty Girls Make Graves. He started sending unsolicited White Stripes poster designs to the band's tour manager and this led to him working with Rob Jones, who produced The White Stripes' gig posters, and later collaborations between Jones and Slater on gig posters for Jack White and Dave Matthews.

Slater turned freelance in 2004.

Influences

Todd Slater has cited a number of artistic influences including:

• 1966–1968 Chicago art movement The Hairy Who
• Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (an influence on some of Slater’s imagery)
• Figurative painters including Steven Assael, Lisa Yuskavage, Jenny Saville, John Currin and Peter Saul
• Aesthetic Apparatus
• Ames Bros.

Much of Slater's work is for major alternative bands, although he also has produced tour posters for some established and mainstream artists. Although not a core part of Slater's work he has expressed an interest in album cover art, and produced six vinyl single sleeves for The Dead Weather in 2009.

Slater produces film posters for the Mondo Gallery.

Stylistically Slater's gig poster designs tend to concentrate on the imagery and minimize the amount and size of text. Most of his work is done on a computer with some elements done by hand. Each poster takes about 40 hours to produce.

Concert poster clients

Artists for whom Todd Slater has produced gig posters include:

Artist web pages featuring Todd Slater’s work:

• Arctic Monkeys
• Muse
• Primus

Film posters

Film posters Todd Slater has produced for the Mondo Gallery include:

The following documentaries feature Todd Slater and/or his work:

• Died Young, Stayed Pretty / Dir: Eileen Yaghoobian / Norotomo Productions / 2008
• Just Like Being There / Dir: Scout Shannon / Avalanche Films / 2012
• Twenty-Four by Thirty-Six / Dir: Kevin Burke / Post No Joes Productions / 2016