Tour Lithographs and show specific artwork

[estrangedtwat]

Just like I'm one of the very, very few to witness the actual litho collection in all its authentic glory, I look forward to someday making a return visit just to check out the book.

It's absolutely the next best thing to owning the real collection, and in some ways it's better cause it's more portable (even at 17 pounds) and even though it's one of a kind, it's not as scary as actually handling a real live actual Kobe litho.

 

I'll be sure to wear those art curator white gloves when I am allowed to take a look in person!!

In the meantime, excellent job.   This thing has been in my mind's eye since at least 2017 and you made it a reality, and it looks absolutely stunning!!

 

(The 36 inch double spread dimensions are insane!!)

Edited June 19, 2021 by estrangedtwat

[owenstar]

Aman, you never cease to amaze bro. Looks insane!

[megaguns1982]

Wow. That’s incredible, well done

[ZoSoRose]

@amaninjapan that is seriously rad!

[allwaystired]

Great stuff- absolutely love it! 

Imagine if someone bow knocks a pint of beer over it?! I'd be too scared to keep it out! 

[SoulMonster]

@amaninjapanFucking awesome.

[1987b]

That book is incredible.  It would be by far the best thing GNR released since 2008. I was always impressed with the lithos.  Thought they were always thoughtful and well done. I like how you put some images that inspired the actual litho.   Amazing job.  

[facefirst]

On 6/18/2021 at 10:38 AM, amaninjapan said:

It's been a while, everyone. Hope you're all keeping safe.

I've been keeping myself occupied throughout the pandemic and amongst other things, I completed a little pet project of mine that I thought I'd share.

For years, everybody has talked about a GNR litho coffee table book and how awesome it'd be if they released one. Sadly, it feels like it's just not on the cards. Perhaps it's a little too niche, perhaps it's just a lot of work for minimal profit. There's only so many manhours available and it's best to spend that one profitable merchandise, right? I don't really blame them. A lot more money in t-shirts, for sure.

But you all know my passion for the lithographs and I imagine you all know my website by now. I made the website to share my love for the artwork with other people, as well as all the information I had gathered on the lithographs over the years. Deep inside however, I too kinda wished for a coffee table book.

So... just like how there was no single website on the internet to get all the litho info I wanted, so I just stubbornly made it...

There was no coffee table book about the lithos... so I just went ahead and made it.

Before anybody asks - no, it is not for sale. I am not selling anything. A lot of hard work went into it, but in the end it's really just a self-indulgence and something for my own personal enjoyment. I present to you my LITHORATI book:


It is 12 inches x 18 inches. Although you can only see the front cover in this photo, it wraps around the back. It lists all the cities that held a concert during Not in This Lifetime.


It has layflat binding and black-edged pages. I have a fairly big collection of books, including big books such as coffee table books and one of my pet peeves is regular binding.
Regular binding always results in a 'gutter' in the middle of the book that is always curved and hard to see - and if the book doesn't have the right proportions, the book won't stay open at a given page.
It's even worse when it's a picture book because the whole point of the book is to show nice photos and well... you end up losing some of the photo if it crosses the center. Very annoying in my opinion.
So I decided that if I was going to go to all this effort, I was going to make the book MY way and despite the added expense, there was no compromising with the binding.
I went with black-edged pages because all the pages in the book are black and it just made sense.


I split the book into separate chapters for each leg of the tour. I started with the idea of a splash image for the start of each chapter and that turned into a full double-page spread.
Each chapter page uses a lithograph from that particular leg of the tour, reduced to monochrome and then selective color for the red roses in the image.


The pages include more than the information I've provided on the website. The website is very matter-of-fact with the notes and references.
The book has this information but included with it is a bit of narrative. You'll notice that most the lithos take up about 3/4s of the vertical height of the page and are sometimes aligned at the top or bottom.
I did this intentionally to reinforce the 'narrative' feeling. I've seen many books about collections that end up very sterile, very much like a catalog, which ends up looking quite boring.
By having the lithographs and text situated up and down across the pages, I felt that it helped establish a narrative flow.
You'll also notice occasionally that some lithographs will take up almost all the vertical height of the page - what I refer to as the "XL treatment."
The "XL treatment" is usually reserved for significant, popular or interesting lithographs from that leg of the tour. But it also helps change up the layout of the page to keep things lively.


Some pages feature a concert photo - all these photos were taken by me at NITL shows. I took a lot of photos over the years and there were a handful of which I was quite proud.
I occasionally needed to space certain lithographs apart (to keep certain related lithographs on the same page for thematic reasons) and well, what better way to fill it than with my own photos?


I think it needs to be stressed how BIG this book is. Each page is 12x18 inches, but that means a double-page spread is THREE FEET WIDE. This makes it bigger than most of the lithographs!
An 18x24 inch litho underneath to give some perspective.
Not only is this book BIG but it is also HEAVY. Because of the size, binding and number of pages, it weighs 17lbs. Don't try to open this on your lap - you'll need a coffee table!


As mentioned previously, the spacing was to make sure related lithos ended up on the same page/spread - such as Foxboro. Obviously didn't want these to be separated.


I had the freedom to write as much (or as little) as I wanted on each litho and well, some were easier to write about than others. I believe the total word count was around 50,000.


Some pages got full size concert photos - what can I say, I thought the photos turned out pretty well!


Although lithographs like Dubai don't show up on my website since they were never printed, I took the opportunity to address them in the book. The website is a
resource for the lithos. This book is more about the artwork, the journey and the collection.


I haven't updated my website for a while and there are a few things I've learned recently that I've added into the book. I'll get around to updating the website eventually...


Again, another example of the unprinted lithos (Rio de Janeiro in this case) at least getting some acknowledgement and respect in the book.


I tried to balance out the concert photos so there's roughly the same amount of photos of Axl, Slash and Duff scattered throughout the book.


Not the greatest photo of the unprinted Barcelona, but that's in there too.


One of my favorite Axl photos.


I took some photos in color too!

I might not ever be able to share the whole book with everyone, but at least you guys can check out a thumbnail overview:


Anyway, that's one of the few things that has kept me occupied during the pandemic. I never kept count of how many hours I spent on this, but needless to say it was a lot. But I'm very satisfied with the results.
Knowing that this was for no other reason than to put a smile on my own face, there was a certain level of satisfaction having total control. I'm a stubborn guy so obviously
I wanted to do it all myself which obviously resulted in a very painful grind as I worked from concept to production. Doing the layout probably was the most stressful because of
how precise things needed to be. Constantly checking alignments and widths and colors were correct etc. But writing was probably the most difficult because that's truly where
creativity is essential. Even if only a handful of people end up reading what I wrote, I know I didn't want to halfass it.

How much did it cost? You don't want to know. It wasn't cheap but I can guarantee you that I might have paid double if it meant being able to avoid the hundreds of hours
required to actually create it in the first place. But I didn't compromise on anything - It's the size I wanted, the paper stock I wanted, the binding I wanted, the quality I wanted.
I only intend to do this once, so I knew I had to do it right or not do it at all.

What do I do with it now? Well it's going to end up under my coffee table of course! No matter how interested in GNR or lithos a guest to my home might be, explaining and
showing the lithos to them always ends up being an awkward affair - so much so that I rarely even try unless I'm certain they're a GNR fan. But with an actual coffee table book,
it actually makes it a lot easier to talk to people about it. Even people who might not even care about concerts. It's a pretty powerful icebreaker to be able to say "Hey, check this out. I made this."
There's just something special about the tactile nature of flipping through a book.

So yeah, hope you guys enjoy. Maybe one day GNR will bring out their own book... but I always think mine will be better Even if I do say so myself

Wow!  That book looks amazing.  If it ever goes to print let me know.  I'd love to have a copy!

[PatrickS77]

On 6/18/2021 at 4:38 PM, amaninjapan said:

It's been a while, everyone. Hope you're all keeping safe.

I've been keeping myself occupied throughout the pandemic and amongst other things, I completed a little pet project of mine that I thought I'd share.

For years, everybody has talked about a GNR litho coffee table book and how awesome it'd be if they released one. Sadly, it feels like it's just not on the cards. Perhaps it's a little too niche, perhaps it's just a lot of work for minimal profit. There's only so many manhours available and it's best to spend that one profitable merchandise, right? I don't really blame them. A lot more money in t-shirts, for sure.

But you all know my passion for the lithographs and I imagine you all know my website by now. I made the website to share my love for the artwork with other people, as well as all the information I had gathered on the lithographs over the years. Deep inside however, I too kinda wished for a coffee table book.

So... just like how there was no single website on the internet to get all the litho info I wanted, so I just stubbornly made it...

There was no coffee table book about the lithos... so I just went ahead and made it.

Before anybody asks - no, it is not for sale. I am not selling anything. A lot of hard work went into it, but in the end it's really just a self-indulgence and something for my own personal enjoyment. I present to you my LITHORATI book:


It is 12 inches x 18 inches. Although you can only see the front cover in this photo, it wraps around the back. It lists all the cities that held a concert during Not in This Lifetime.


It has layflat binding and black-edged pages. I have a fairly big collection of books, including big books such as coffee table books and one of my pet peeves is regular binding.
Regular binding always results in a 'gutter' in the middle of the book that is always curved and hard to see - and if the book doesn't have the right proportions, the book won't stay open at a given page.
It's even worse when it's a picture book because the whole point of the book is to show nice photos and well... you end up losing some of the photo if it crosses the center. Very annoying in my opinion.
So I decided that if I was going to go to all this effort, I was going to make the book MY way and despite the added expense, there was no compromising with the binding.
I went with black-edged pages because all the pages in the book are black and it just made sense.


I split the book into separate chapters for each leg of the tour. I started with the idea of a splash image for the start of each chapter and that turned into a full double-page spread.
Each chapter page uses a lithograph from that particular leg of the tour, reduced to monochrome and then selective color for the red roses in the image.


The pages include more than the information I've provided on the website. The website is very matter-of-fact with the notes and references.
The book has this information but included with it is a bit of narrative. You'll notice that most the lithos take up about 3/4s of the vertical height of the page and are sometimes aligned at the top or bottom.
I did this intentionally to reinforce the 'narrative' feeling. I've seen many books about collections that end up very sterile, very much like a catalog, which ends up looking quite boring.
By having the lithographs and text situated up and down across the pages, I felt that it helped establish a narrative flow.
You'll also notice occasionally that some lithographs will take up almost all the vertical height of the page - what I refer to as the "XL treatment."
The "XL treatment" is usually reserved for significant, popular or interesting lithographs from that leg of the tour. But it also helps change up the layout of the page to keep things lively.


Some pages feature a concert photo - all these photos were taken by me at NITL shows. I took a lot of photos over the years and there were a handful of which I was quite proud.
I occasionally needed to space certain lithographs apart (to keep certain related lithographs on the same page for thematic reasons) and well, what better way to fill it than with my own photos?


I think it needs to be stressed how BIG this book is. Each page is 12x18 inches, but that means a double-page spread is THREE FEET WIDE. This makes it bigger than most of the lithographs!
An 18x24 inch litho underneath to give some perspective.
Not only is this book BIG but it is also HEAVY. Because of the size, binding and number of pages, it weighs 17lbs. Don't try to open this on your lap - you'll need a coffee table!


As mentioned previously, the spacing was to make sure related lithos ended up on the same page/spread - such as Foxboro. Obviously didn't want these to be separated.


I had the freedom to write as much (or as little) as I wanted on each litho and well, some were easier to write about than others. I believe the total word count was around 50,000.


Some pages got full size concert photos - what can I say, I thought the photos turned out pretty well!


Although lithographs like Dubai don't show up on my website since they were never printed, I took the opportunity to address them in the book. The website is a
resource for the lithos. This book is more about the artwork, the journey and the collection.


I haven't updated my website for a while and there are a few things I've learned recently that I've added into the book. I'll get around to updating the website eventually...


Again, another example of the unprinted lithos (Rio de Janeiro in this case) at least getting some acknowledgement and respect in the book.


I tried to balance out the concert photos so there's roughly the same amount of photos of Axl, Slash and Duff scattered throughout the book.


Not the greatest photo of the unprinted Barcelona, but that's in there too.


One of my favorite Axl photos.


I took some photos in color too!

I might not ever be able to share the whole book with everyone, but at least you guys can check out a thumbnail overview:


Anyway, that's one of the few things that has kept me occupied during the pandemic. I never kept count of how many hours I spent on this, but needless to say it was a lot. But I'm very satisfied with the results.
Knowing that this was for no other reason than to put a smile on my own face, there was a certain level of satisfaction having total control. I'm a stubborn guy so obviously
I wanted to do it all myself which obviously resulted in a very painful grind as I worked from concept to production. Doing the layout probably was the most stressful because of
how precise things needed to be. Constantly checking alignments and widths and colors were correct etc. But writing was probably the most difficult because that's truly where
creativity is essential. Even if only a handful of people end up reading what I wrote, I know I didn't want to halfass it.

How much did it cost? You don't want to know. It wasn't cheap but I can guarantee you that I might have paid double if it meant being able to avoid the hundreds of hours
required to actually create it in the first place. But I didn't compromise on anything - It's the size I wanted, the paper stock I wanted, the binding I wanted, the quality I wanted.
I only intend to do this once, so I knew I had to do it right or not do it at all.

What do I do with it now? Well it's going to end up under my coffee table of course! No matter how interested in GNR or lithos a guest to my home might be, explaining and
showing the lithos to them always ends up being an awkward affair - so much so that I rarely even try unless I'm certain they're a GNR fan. But with an actual coffee table book,
it actually makes it a lot easier to talk to people about it. Even people who might not even care about concerts. It's a pretty powerful icebreaker to be able to say "Hey, check this out. I made this."
There's just something special about the tactile nature of flipping through a book.

So yeah, hope you guys enjoy. Maybe one day GNR will bring out their own book... but I always think mine will be better Even if I do say so myself

Wow. That is awesome. Well done.  If you ever turn that into a PDF version.... Now if someone could make a new album for them. They should get fans doing stuff for them. At least then it gets done and is done right.

[facefirst]

So far I have created 4 illustrations for the upcoming US tour.  I really feel it's some of my best work and I can't wait to share them with everyone.

Edited July 13, 2021 by facefirst

[Ratam]

2 hours ago, facefirst said:

So far I have created 4 illustrations for the upcoming US tour.  I really feel it's some of my best work and I can't wait to share them with everyone.

👍👍

[ZoSoRose]

2 hours ago, facefirst said:

So far I have created 4 illustrations for the upcoming US tour.  I really feel it's some of my best work and I can't wait to share them with everyone.

Very cool! Hoping for one of them to be the Detroit show !

[maxxximiliano]

upload in pdf! please! 

[facefirst]

16 minutes ago, ZoSoRose said:

Very cool! Hoping for one of them to be the Detroit show !

One was for Detroit but we changed it to Boston.

[Stryker]

3 hours ago, facefirst said:

So far I have created 4 illustrations for the upcoming US tour.  I really feel it's some of my best work and I can't wait to share them with everyone.

Super exciting! Got Chicago and Baltimore on the docket, hope you do one of them. 

[facefirst]

19 hours ago, Stryker said:

Super exciting! Got Chicago and Baltimore on the docket, hope you do one of them. 

So far I've done Boston, Denver, New Jersey and Columbus.  Probably will do a few more before it's all done plus overseas ones.

[RussTCB]

28 minutes ago, facefirst said:

So far I've done Boston, Denver, New Jersey and Columbus.  Probably will do a few more before it's all done plus overseas ones.

Do you have a website or Instagram or somewhere we can check your work out? 

[facefirst]

7 hours ago, RussTCB said:

Do you have a website or Instagram or somewhere we can check your work out? 

www.geoffmay.com

[Ixtlan]

On 7/13/2021 at 11:15 AM, facefirst said:

So far I have created 4 illustrations for the upcoming US tour.  I really feel it's some of my best work and I can't wait to share them with everyone.

Thank you for the update. Did you submit work for Wrigley or Dallas?

On 7/13/2021 at 2:11 PM, facefirst said:

One was for Detroit but we changed it to Boston.

You got Boston? Please tell you did something cool for Fenway. 

On 7/13/2021 at 3:03 PM, Stryker said:

Super exciting! Got Chicago and Baltimore on the docket, hope you do one of them. 

I hope Baltimore is Oscar Wilde litho.

[Stryker]

43 minutes ago, Ixtlan said:

I hope Baltimore is Oscar Wilde litho.

Could see them doing Poe. Maybe crabs or the flag. 

[Ixtlan]

8 minutes ago, Stryker said:

Could see them doing Poe. Maybe crabs or the flag. 

I meant Poe. A beating heart/raven type image maybe. It has potential to be a cool one.

[Bitchisback]

I hope the one for Hershey isn't a chocolate bar again. It was fitting but not the coolest design lol

[mikeman5150]

On 7/14/2021 at 10:08 PM, Bitchisback said:

I hope the one for Hershey isn't a chocolate bar again. It was fitting but not the coolest design lol

I totally agree! I’m guessing a skeleton on a roller coaster this time

[facefirst]

On 7/14/2021 at 7:44 PM, Ixtlan said:

You got Boston? Please tell you did something cool for Fenway.

I think it's pretty cool.

[Ixtlan]

16 minutes ago, facefirst said:

I think it's pretty cool.

I’m super excited for the baseball stadium lithos.