Partly because its a challenge I face myself, I truly love seeing great designers from unknown areas making a good run at the graphic design industry. As the web has widened, those working in traditional art and design strongholds like New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles are finding it increasingly difficult to view themselves as design Gods amongst irrelevent men (who live in strange, unexplored regions with names like Kentucky, Missouri, Wyoming and on and on). When I graduated from college, I remember several students proudly announcing that they were shipping off to NYC, to be just so many more creative pilgrims among hundreds of thousands of others. I told them I was going to the Web: even with the whole world population logging on, it is still a vast wild to be explored, with plenty of places to stake claims.

One of the most exciting studios in regular America is PrintMafia, a partnership between designers Connie Collingsworth and Jim Madison, who live and work in Bowling Green, Kentucky. The pair have been tasked with original concert and tour posters for Tool, Marilyn Manson, the Raconteurs and even Elton John. Think about that carefully designers: The next time you’re in a studio, pulling silkscreens for Elton John, you know… you Know you’re cool.

PrintMafia specializes in silkscreened rock show posters, and they do all their work by hand: taking found images, then cutting, pasting, xeroxing and working all other forms of manual magic on them. Obviously, they don’t have to search far for found objects in Kentucky, which is a hot spot for second hand stores, flea markets and truck stops.

See the rest of PrintMafia’s work on their website. Just click here.

To me, Vera is the central axis around which The Wall revolves. It is a sudden moment of clarity amidst the madness of Pink’s life, a life that has reached a moment of crisis. You can compare Vera to its mirror image, the 4th track from the end of Part 1, One of my Turns, which shows us a frenzied and (maybe final) encounter with whatever lover is in Pink’s life currently.

After One of My Turns, Pink regrets his actions in Don’t Leave Now, finishes the trilogy of his wall-building with Another Brick in the Wall (Part III) and contemplates suicide in Goodbye Cruel World. Obviously, he doesn’t go through with it, because he then asks, Hey You, Is There Anybody Out There? and find his answer in Nobody Home.

This final realization about his absolute isolation and impending mental collapse gives way to a simple human yearning for the one person that this broken figure was able to love, and we get the short lyric about Vera Lynn.

Does anybody here remember Vera Lynn?
Remember how she said that we would meet again
Some sunny day.

Vera, Vera, what has become of you?
Does anybody else in here feel the way I do?

It seems obvious that if Vera had come back, as she swore she would, Pink wouldn’t be in such a mess. If he still had love, then it would be impossible to be completely surrounded by a wall. Due to this loss, and the realization of its finality, the wall is complete, and we move into the climax of the album, where Pink bounces between despair (Comforably Numb) and psychosis (In the Flesh) or both at the same time (Waiting for the Worms).

Larson’s vocals are at times loud and forceful, at other times melodic and quiet–but they always sound honest. The lyrics–inspired by love, loss and life–are introspective, always searching for meaning and value in the topics they address.