The artistic eye behind Fillmore’s rock posters for 34 years retires.
Fillmore art director leaving legacy of hundreds of souvenir posters
“I’ve loved every one. Every one of them has a story.” Arlene Owseichik, Fillmore art director since 1985, on the 13by19 posters handed out after soldout shows
Most fans at the Jawbox concert that took place at the Fillmore on July 12 probably didn’t notice, but a seismic shift happened on the San Francisco music scene shortly after the band left the stage. As some 1,100 people spilled out of the shoebox venue and onto the sidewalk on Geary Boulevard to collect their free commemorative posters, as is the tradition for celebrating soldout shows at the Fillmore, it marked the first time since 1985 that the eyepopping artwork on the 13inchby19inch sheet of paper wasn’t overseen by Arlene Owseichik. For more than three decades, Owseichik served as art director and creative director for Bill Graham Presents, even as the company founded by the late rock impresario evolved and changed hands and ultimately became an entity of Live Nation, the world’s largest concert promotion company. Through all the organizational shifts and downsizing and restructuring, it was Owseichik who developed a vision for nearly every poster that went out the door at the Fillmore in its various incarnations, working with a wide breadth of local artists to create iconic designs for superstars like Johnny Cash, Prince, REM, Metallica and the Rolling Stones, among many others. Owseichik estimates she has her fingerprints on more than 2,000 original
poster designs that veritably define the entire modern rockconcert era. Her creations line walls all over the world, from the Poster Room at the Fillmore itself to bedrooms, record stores, art galleries and beyond.
“I’ve loved every one,” she said, speaking at her home in Berkeley. “Every one of them has a story.”
Earlier this year, Owseichik quietly made the decision to retire and pass the Fillmore art direction baton to Ashley Graham (no relation to Bill Graham), the venue’s longtime marketing manager.
“It was the hardest decision of my life,” Owseichik said. “Doing this has been the greatest thing ever for me, but I want to see what else there is. I have always been a working girl. Having time becomes the greatest gift as you get older.”
Creating all those posters was no easy task.
Fillmore posters are as much a part of the historic San Francisco venue’s identity as the barrel of fresh red apples that greets every visitor at the entrance.
An extension of the handdrawn psychedelic poster designs of the ’60s and ’70s that were used to advertise shows in the preinternet era, the commemorative pieces from the past 30 years were printed for soldout shows and handed out as souvenirs to audience members at those gigs. They also served as showcases for celebrated visual artists such as Frank Wiedemann, Chuck Sperry and the late Rex Ray.
“It’s an honor to create a poster for the Fillmore because it’s a contribution to one of San Francisco’s greatest landmarks,” said Matthew Fleming, a Seattlebased artist who created the Jawbox poster. “There’s a long history of incredible artists who have done posters for the Fillmore and it feels like a privilege to have the opportunity to build on that.”
For Owseichik, the job meant planning months in advance, coming up with the appropriate visual representation for each show, reaching out to artists, getting approvals on sketches, coordinating print runs, dealing with some seriously large egos and so much more.
“Arlene has a love of wanting to get it right,” said Michael Bailey, who has managed the Fillmore since 1987. “It’s always really heartwarming when people are so involved and passionate about a project.”
Letting go of the position has proved harder than Owseichik expected, but she will continue to work as a consultant via her independent graphic company, Big Picture Design, which she set up when her staff position was downsized during the Clear Channel reign in 2004. (Bailey quickly brought her back on board two years later.) She’s also busy plotting designs for the annual Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival, for which she serves as artistic director.
“I still love doing this,” she said. “I just can’t take the daytoday grind of it anymore.”
Graham, who has worked at the Fillmore since 2011, started collaborating with Owseichik last year to get a better sense of the workflow that goes into making the posters. When it came time to discuss a replacement for her, Bailey thought it would make sense to pick someone who was already connected to the venue. For him, Graham was the perfect candidate for the position.
“This is something that matters to literally everyone who comes to the Fillmore,” said Graham, who will also retain her title as marketing manager, “so we really wanted to think about what serves the purpose of these posters? What do we want people hanging on their walls? What will make them want to hang them on their walls?”
She’s not looking to disrupt the tradition created by Owseichik, but both Graham and Bailey see this as a chance to change the scope of the Fillmore posters, bring in new designers or simply evolve what’s already there.
“The Fillmore is something that everyone loves and cares about, whether it’s a local band playing on the stage for the first time or an artist that’s been around forever,” Graham said. “To me, there’s an opportunity to open it up and to give some fresh eyes to this process and tradition.”
Graham, who served as art director for the Jawbox show, ran outside the Fillmore a few minutes before the fans exited the building and were presented with the posters she worked so hard on with illustrator Matthew Fleming — the first poster to bear her name.
As the mass of people started flowing onto the sidewalk, each one holding her creation in hand, tears filled her eyes.
“Being a part of this process has mattered more to me than any one thing I’ve done in my role as a marketing manager,” she said. “This is a bigpicture thing. This is part of the history.” Aidin Vaziri is The San Francisco Chronicle’s pop music critic. Email: avaziri@ sfchronicle.com Twitter: @MusicSF