SIMPLE.
I started my "career" by making posters for local punk bands in my hometown of Portland, Oregon in exchange for admission to shows,eventually there were more posters to do than shows I wanted to see, so I started charging for them and a career was born. Since then, I have gone on to design over 4,000 posters, as well as album covers, T-shirts and advertising and a myriad of other crap.
I might be best known for my album covers for Ben Harper, Jack Johnson, Elliot Smith and Pink Martini but I have also done projects with The Decemberists, Broken Social Scene, Poison Idea, The Wipers, Sun Ra, Iggy Pop, and many artists you have heard of (and even more you haven't).
I make at least 100 concert posters a year, mostly of the telephone pole variety, as well as a number of limited edition screenprinted posters.
My work has been featured in many books and publications and been exhibited around the world.
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Mike King has created quite a few record covers for musical artists both famous and obscure, such as Ben Harper, The Decemberists, Elliott Smith, Jack Johnson, The Wipers, Poison Idea, Dead Moon, Smegma, Jungle Nausea and many more.
He has also had work appear in a number of publications including: The Guardian, The New York Times, Spin, Art News, Maximum Rock and Roll, The Rocket, Hadassah Magazine, Plazm, Juxtapose, Rolling Stone and The Oregonian.
As well as his poorly distributed but lavishly illustrated 280 page hardback book Maximum Plunder: The Poster Art of Mike King, you can also find his work in Art of Modern Rock, Swag, Poster Children, Rock Paper Show: Volume One, Butthole Surfers: What Does Regret Mean?, Fucked Up and Photocopied, Gigposters: Volume one, Swissted, Frank Kozik's Panda Meat and several others.
His work has been exhibited at several locations such as MOPOP, Seattle, WA; Museum of Design, Atlanta, GA; Pacific Northwest College of Art, Portland, OR; Brighton Fringe Festival, Brighton, UK; University of Maryland, College Park, MD; OMG Art Fair, Kingston, NY; Tom Dunne Gallery, Sydny, AU; Gallery 1988, Los Angeles, CA; Oregon Jewish Museum, Portland, OR; One Mile Gallery, Kingston, NY.
Not to mention many films and television shows.
Mike has over the last several decades created concert posters, album artwork, advertising, and a variety of other crap for bands and companies you may have heard of and quite a few you haven't, including 3 Leg Torso, Ace Hotel, Adidas, Ages and Ages, Alien Boy, Joseph Arthur, Artist Rights Society, Arts and Crafts Records, Austin City Limits, Avett Brothers, Barsuk Records, Belle and Sebastian, Black Label Records, Blondie, Blue Gallery, Bonnaroo Festival, Boston Calling Festival, Billy Bragg, Broken Social Scene, Capitol Records, Cake, Catpower, Centre Pompidou, City and Colour, Club Satyricon, Luke Combs, Compendium Publishing, Converse, Crackerbash, The Crazy 8s, Cryptic Slaughter, Crystal Ballroom, Cruella, EMI Japan, Epic Records, Everloving Records, Dandy Warhols, Dead Moon, The Decemberists, The Dharma Bums, Dinosaur JR., Doug Fir Lounge, Dr. Martens, Will Ferrell, The Fillmore, Filmed By Bike Film Festival, Floater, Flood Gallery, Tom Freund, Inara George, Glacial Pace Records, Gogol Bordello, Goldenvoice, Gomez, Mike Gordon, Guided By Voices, Ben Harper, The Hogpit NYC, Hoochenanny Festival, Brittany Howard, Hyundai, IFC, Idlewild, Iggy Pop, Interpol, Interscope Records, Island Press, Jackpot Records, JDub Records, Jack Johnson, Jerry Joseph, Jungle
Nausea, Kill Rock Stars Records, Storm Large, Las Vegas Weekly, Livenation Canada, The Long Winters, Looking Glass Factory, Matisyahu, Colin Meloy, The Melvins, Meow Meow, Metric, Moby Grape, Monqui Presents, Monty Python, Moxy Hotel, Musicfest NW Festival, The National, The New Pornographers, North Agency, North Coast Music Festival, Northwest Film Center, Northwest Folk Life Festival, Novo Amour, NXNW Festival, OMG Art Fair, Oregon Historical Society, The Oregon Zoo, Outback Concerts, Phantogram, Pink Martini, Pigface Records, The Pixies, Plowshares Coffee, Poison Idea, Polyphonic Spree, Portland Brewing Company, Portland Mercury, Portland Rose Festival, Portland Trailblazers, Post Carbon Institute, Poster House, Project Pabst Festival, Quality Pie, Redd Kross, Reverend Billy and The Stop Shopping Choir, Reverend Horton Heat, Rock En Seine Festival, Rodrigo Y Gabriela, Rudy's Barbershop, Rykodisc Records, Sasquatch Festival, Roseland Theater, Satan's Pilgrims, Scout Books, Seattle Theatre Group, Edward Sharpe, Silversun Pickups, Skylab, Sleater-Kinney, Smegma, Elliott Smith, John Spencer, Spoon, Mavis Staples, Chris Stapleton, Stumptown Coffee, Subpop Records, Sun Ra, Surf Dog Management, SXSW, Tegan and Sara, The Thermals, Timbers Army, Tim Kerr Records, Tooth and Nail Records, Tombstone Records, Travelzoo, Trombone Shorty, Unsane, Virgin Records, Viva Voce, Voodoo Doughnuts, Walkmen, Weirmacht, Widespread Panic, William Morris Agency, The Wipers, Wonder Ballroom, Workers Circle, Yep Roc Records, Saori Yuki etc.
