As a form of art, concert posters have a lot they need to convey to be successful. Aside from the date, time, and location of any given show, a good poster will also convince the average person that the show it's promoting is one that commands their attention. The imagery it uses should tie in with the aesthetic of the musician and get people to care without hearing a note.
Since the early 1990s, Carrboro's Ron Liberti has been doing just that with his art. To his estimate, he has designed more than a thousand posters for shows in the Triangle and beyond.
In a lot of cases, a concert poster can be deemed irrelevant once the show it's promoting has passed. That's not the case for Liberti's posters. What sets his work apart is that the posters he designs for bands work as both promotional items for the musicians, and as a piece of art that is distinctively his that he can add to his portfolio. His work even has a home in UNC's Southern Folklife Collection.
After studying fine arts and film at Montclair State University, Liberti moved to Chapel Hill in 1991 following a visit with his friend Dave I.T. They had been road tripping to Graceland and back from New Jersey and stopped in Chapel Hill to visit their friend Mike Kenlan.
"It was one of those spring days where it's still icy and cold up north, and it was beautiful and warm in the south," Liberti said. "Mike was living in this killer house with a porch and was paying the same for it that I was to live above a liquor store in New Jersey."
Liberti was also drawn to the music scene in the Triangle. "We would go to Maxwell's in Hoboken all the time, and when we got here we saw that all the same bands were coming through and playing Cat's Cradle and other local venues," he said. "The music scene here felt so much more supportive than it did back in Jersey. Up there it was dog eat dog, everyone was competing for shows all the time. Down here we noticed bands were all sharing gear and collaborating and supporting each other in a really cool way. Me and Mike and Dave started our band Pipe a few months after we were all down here."
Pipe went on to become a local institution and the type of band that today still has a cult following. Though they don't play as often as they used to, when they do their fans show up and sing along to every word.
Virginia Maxine Sloop is both a local promoter and music fanatic who has been attending shows in the Triangle for decades. "(Ron) is both a touchstone and a pillar of our community. That is to say, he is pure rock, she said. "I’ve seen more live bands than most folks. I’ve seen Pipe more times than I’ve seen any other band, probably. If I found out they were playing today I’d be on my way to see them. Just the best live band we have. Period."
The fans also throw smashed up beer cans at Liberti, something that became a hallmark of a Pipe show in the early days. "They feel like little kisses," he said. "I don't know how that started, but I don't mind it. I know our drummer Chuck (Garrison) doesn't like it because sometimes I'll dodge one and it'll hit him."
In 2023 the band put out their first full-length record since 1997, simply called "PIPE." When asked about how the band has evolved since the early days, Liberti said he's not as angry as he used to be. "I think we still have the same moxy, it just isn't as aggro." Liberti has had several other musical projects over the years, with the latest being Cold Cream.
Speaking again on his art, Liberti said a big part of his success came from building a relationship with Frank Heath of Cat's Cradle early on. "When things really picked up for me was shortly after I moved here and Pipe had started," he said. "I was making posters for Pipe and Frank Heath saw them around and that's when we really started talking."
Since that relationship formed, Liberti has worked with Cat's Cradle hundreds of times and is still designing posters for the club to this day.
WUNC Music reporter Brian Burns caught up with Liberti at his house in Carrboro on a hot day in July to talk about his evolution as an artist.
What was high school like for you? Did you have a teacher that was particularly influential on your career?
I liked high school, the social part at least, and art class. I also played sports and enjoyed the camaraderie and responsibility that came along with that. I think being on a team helped me become a good bandmate when I started playing in bands.
I also liked music a lot, classic rock early on then my friend's older brother turned me onto The Ramones and everything changed. I wasn't a good student but did do well in art class, and had a very supportive teacher named Jane Zilka who told me if I did want to go to college I could probably get there with the strength of my portfolio. Inspired by her confidence in me and my work, I got my shit together and did, in fact, get accepted to Montclair State College. Thanks Jane!
When did you first start designing show posters?
When I was at school at Montclair State, I was doing a lot of print making and painting. I did one semester abroad in Brighton, England, and that's when I started doing screen printing. I had a band called Love Onion at the time, and when I got back it was a good time for me to start cranking out show posters for my own band. Then after that I started making posters for other bands too. It turns out I like having a deadline.
Tell me about your history with Frank Heath (of Cat's Cradle). How did he help you as an artist?
I met Frank in the autumn of 1991. He seemed really cool, partly because he was so quiet, but also because he had great taste in music and was very supportive to local bands. He didn't think twice about letting a local act open up for much more established bands coming through town.
After I had some posters for my band Pipe under my belt, I approached him about doing posters for some other upcoming shows. He liked my work and agreed to let me do the posters, paid me for 30 prints of each poster and also agreed to put me on the guest list for shows I did posters for.
I was very excited about the arrangement. Next thing you know it's 34 years later and I've done hundreds and hundreds of posters for Frank and his Cat's Cradle, which in my humble opinion is one of the best rock venues in America.
Was there a specific person who you learned the craft of screen printing from?
I kind of taught myself the screen printing part, though in art school I learned about composition and juxtaposition, and about Dadaism and other art movements.
When I first moved here I lived above Cliff's Meat Market in Carrboro, and up there I had my own press that I got from Bill Mooney and Barbara Herring of Tannis Root in Raleigh. They gave me some pointers, so I learned some from them. I cut my teeth on photocopy machines, just doing everything in black and white.
What inspired you to go in this direction when you were in school?
At the time I wasn't seeing a lot of other artists doing what I was doing. I was a big fan of older artists like Art Chantry and Raymond Pettibon, that sort of punk rock cut and paste style. Those artists all borrowed from the Dadaists.
I also painted, and I really liked having an idea, putting it together without computers, and seeing it on poles around town two days later. At the time that was so much more appealing to me than making something to put in a gallery.
Also, for show posters, I would imagine someone seeing one of my posters on a kiosk around town and thinking "Oh wow, if someone took that much time to make a poster like that for this show it must be something really special."
For show posters, what's your process for coming up with a design to match the event?
I really try to not overthink it. If I overthink things, it gets too busy. Knowing I have a deadline, I try to come up with an idea fast and run with it. I'm not too punny, but I do try to latch on to some kind of jumping point, whether that be a lyric from the band or some other connection.
I think my most successful posters are the ones that look like the band sounds. The music and vibe of the bands are the inspirational jumping off point, guiding me to the images and type that will eventually, and hopefully, be put together in a satisfying way that makes the viewer want to go to the show.
What was the first poster you designed?
It was for my band Love Onion up in Montclair. It had a screaming baby with a mouthful of teeth on it (laughs).
How do you decide which projects to take on?
Well, I'm kind of lucky that I really do just try to work with bands that I respect, and even if the music isn't totally up my alley, if I dig where they're coming from, and they're cool about letting me do my thing, I'll do it. There have been times when people have asked to work together, and when I show them my designs they want me to make all these changes. That's fine, but it's not how I like to work. I need to be in control of my art and feel that I'm being genuine when I put my name on it when it's done.
How did the rise of the internet affect your work?
In the early 2000s, Casey Burns turned me on to GigPosters.com. It was a website where artists could list and sell their posters to anybody in the world, so a lot more people were starting to see my work there, which was a good thing.
In the late 90s and early 2000s hand screen posters started coming back into fashion with people like Frank Kozik and Art Chantry and Print Mafia. Once I discovered that website, I became peers with those artists and we would always be sending each other posters back and forth. So I actually go to meet all these people and go to design events like Flatstock at South by Southwest and network that way.
There was also this woman from Holland named Zeloot who liked my work so much that she flew me over there to work for a month.
Tell us about the art scene in the Triangle.
Well, it's very supportive. There are a lot of great venues and rooms that support what we're doing, and it's been that way since I first came down here. There's always something cool going on and that inspires me the same way the music has always inspired me. I'm constantly discovering new artists and new bands that I want to work with.
