The Perfect Flyer.

Course: Flyer-making 101
Professor: Mr. Alan DeCoronado
Place: Mitch on Speed blog
Cost: Free!
Time: Whenever

Course Description:
This should be an interesting blog for those of you going into the well-paid career of professional flyer-making. Flyers can come in handy for promoting shows, if done correctly. It may also provide a few well needed tips for those of you who indulge in making crappy show flyers (you know who you are...).

I thought I'd tap one of Fresno' best to give us all a lesson on what goes into making a kick-ass flyer. I can't think of anyone in this town (and probably Valley, for that matter) who can make a better flyer than Alan (aka Princess Cuckoo).

As some of us know, Alan (aka Princess Cuckoo) is a co-creator of Meatball Magic (you know, that DJ thing every other Friday at Fresno's Red Lantern). This guy knows a shitload about music. He also sends me rad mp3s while I'm at work, so he's cool in my book.

Anyway, who knows how the hell Alan (aka Princess Cuckoo) learned how to make such creative looking flyers. I guess that's why I wanted to interview him.


Interview: Alan (aka Princess Cuckoo)


Mitch on Speed: OK. Before I ask the first question, go ahead and tell people why I'm interviewing you in the first place. Tell us about your background and what you're musically involved with right now.
Alan (aka Princess Cuckoo): Well, despite myself, it's a case of Fresno gravity: What goes up must come down, or in this case, you go away, you're bound to come back. Born and raised here, moved to Portland, moved back, then again, then back. Sometime last year, after a lifetime of bitching about "nothing to do in Fresno," a couple of friends and I decided to get off our asses and do something about it, and in February of this year our little idea came to fruition in the form of Meatball Magic. For anyone who hasn't heard about Meatball Magic by now, there’s a great interview with the three of us on Fresno Famous. It’s pretty good, I guess… If you’re into that sort of thing… But I can’t for the life of me remember who wrote it… Hmm…

What's your background in flyer-making?
Newspaper journalism major in school, subsequent Managing Editor of the FCC newspaper The Rampage, subsequent burned-out graphic design major after I decided I wasn’t going to take after my dad (journalism wasn’t for me anyway), and I dropped out after three semesters. I changed majors because I don’t work well with deadlines, and assigning and editing stories wasn’t exactly the best creative outlet one would imagine. Designing things -- whether it be a website or a flyer or a CD cover or whatever -- has always been something I just do for friends and for fun. Lately, though, with super duper fun nights coming more frequently, it’s more necessity than amusement. But I’ve got an innate urge to create and a learned urge to edit, so it’s always fun anyway. What’s the point of doing anything unless it’s fun, right?

Give a step-by-step process into how you make a flyer.
If you’re expecting me to give up all my secrets, you’ve got another think coming. Seriously, though, there’s really not much to it. With enough practice, and with the right impetus, anyone can pull a decent flyer out of their ass. The only difference is that for me, from conception to delivery, it’s very much a labor of love. It’s like that every single time. From the moment I start to think about the feeling I want to try to convey, to the moment I’ve perfected the typography, I’m having the time of my life. If at any point during the process I begin to fall out of love, I scrap the whole thing and start fresh. Unless I’m like, you know, in a hurry or something. Then we get something half-assed and everybody hates everyone else.

In your opinion, Mr. DeCoronado, what constitutes the perfect flyer?
Well, I don’t know if I’m qualified to answer that question, but who is, really? Maybe Vaughan Oliver or Peter Saville or someone like that. In my humble opinion, though, you need three things to create an effective flyer: a good idea of your intended demographic, the right tools (physically as well as motivationally) and every last bit of information to be included on the flyer. There have been so many times when I’ve had something I’d been working on, that’d I’d been so proud of and that I was ready to turn into a vehicle for someone’s event, only to have my creative momentum thwarted when I suddenly realized I didn’t have a date or address. Just be prepared. I can’t stress that enough. In terms of the feeling of the flyer, you really have to put yourself in someone else’s shoes. That seems like a fairly obvious thing, being sensitive, but you'd be surprised. Unless you’ve really got balls (or a gift for spin), you wouldn’t want, say, a flyer based on Catholic imagery for a strip club, or a communist propaganda rip for a “Make Money at Home!” campaign. Use common sense. Finally, and most importantly, if you’re blocked, go out and get inspired. Take some photos. Look through old design magazines. Read up on those crazy Russian Constructivists. Then make sure you’ve got a decent computer, or if you’re going to kick down old school, a decent working space and, you know, a pencil sharpener or something.

What types of programs do you use?
Adobe Photoshop CS, almost exclusively. I’ve used Illustrator in the past, but I find that with Photoshop’s crazy vector stuff as of late, it’s not really necessary. I just got a copy of CS2, though, and even though it barely runs on my computer, I’m totally horny for all the new image manipulation stuff in this version. Maybe I’ll upgrade and switch over to that. You’re weak in the knees, I know.

How long does it usually take to make a flyer?
Depends. If I’m in no real hurry, I’ll spend an hour nudging a text field left to right until it’s perfect. I’ll nitpick for three days if I’ve got the time. Otherwise, I’ll probably crank something out within a few hours. It seems to work out better that way, too. If I’m inspired enough to finish a flyer in one night, I’ve usually got a good enough idea of what I’m going for, so I just go for it.

How do you usually come up with your brilliant ideas?
That’s really sweet, thank you, but I don’t know that it’s brilliance so much as clever execution (toot toot). Someone once said that originality is the art of concealing your source, and I absolutely find that to be true. Anything you’ll ever do has most likely been done before. The delivery is the trick. People tend to like my flyers most when I’ve cannibalized something familiar or incorporated elements of something they recognize. I think that’s why our Mucha Lucha and The Haunting flyers were so well received. People get a kick out of something if they can relate. Incidentally, that’s also why the dance floor is always so packed when we play '80s freestyle or cheesy pop at Meatball Magic.

What's the best flyer you've designed and why?
God, that’s like asking which one of your children you love the most. Having said that, there are always times when I’m disappointed by trying to top myself. I think it all stems from that very first flyer back in February. There was such a sense of accomplishment tied to that flyer. We were finally on our way to doing something promising and cool simply out of sheer love. In love with music, in love with our friends and in love with our hometown, this first flyer represented our swollen hearts and fluttering bellies. That’s a pretty difficult thing to top.

Do you design flyers for bands too, or just Meatball Magic?
I do and I have. Bands, shows, parties… I’d design a flyer for a passed kidney stone if someone asked me to.

On your last Meatball Magic flyer, some dude left a comment saying something like, "It looks like somebody ate your flyer then threw it up." Do you respond well to criticisms like that?
Probably not, because I responded by telling him that someone did throw up… on his face. Obviously, I was being facetious, but I’m totally a mother hen when it comes to things like this. I totally respect people’s input and impressions, but nobody wants their babies to be ugly. It helps if you’ve got a healthy sense of irony. All I can really do is try to provide information and dates in as attractive a form as possible and hope people catch my drift. It’s all very subjective, though, isn’t it?

More Meatball Magic Flyers Can Be Found Here.