Ringo Star

If I had told my friends 12 years ago that I designed a poster for a living Beatle, they would have called me ‘The Fool on the Hill’.

Let’s face it, Ringo Starr and his association with the Beatles is forever ingrained in our minds, ears and hearts as a living legend from the most influential band in music history. And to our eyes, no other band in history has also created such an iconic visual language to their music. Ringo and the Beatles have influenced a generation and a cultural movement.

My primary inspiration first comes from the fact that the show takes place in the great northwest, Vancouver (Coquitlam), Canada. I grew up in Seattle, and would often travel to Vancouver and Victoria for family vacations. One of my visual memories of the city are the surrounding mountains and skyline, often catching epic gradients of purple, magenta and amber of the sunset. I rendered this motif as the backdrop.

There is also no denying Ringo’s customary greeting of Peace, Love and more love while flashing the peace sign. I chose this as the centerpiece that rises amongst the mountains. I rendered a moose in there because I felt there needed to be a witness to what is going on in the landscape. I wanted the art to have a whimsical quality to it, with movement. Starting from the upper sleeve and moving clockwise, I rendered “embers” of Ringo-isms that move up and behind his fingers while slowly traveling into the distance. These embers include the names of his All-Starr Band. If you look close, these embers are also coming together to form a peace sign. The movement could actually work counter-clockwise as well. With a nod to the retro, my hope is to represent a fresh vision of Ringo Starr’s legacy to their fans, as well as to connect his music to a modern audience and a new generation of younger fans.