Who knew so much beauty could come out of a grubby 6' by 6' gardening shed.

Travis Bone, mastermind behind Furturtle Show Prints in Lehi, serves as resident poster artist for Salt Lake City clubs In the Venue and The Velvet Room. He has designed silk-screen posters for bands ranging from the Brian Jonestown Massacre and Low to Elvis Costello and the Imposters and Sonic Youth. His most recent work was for the My Morning Jacket show Nov. 11, 2005.

Although Bone no longer works in his humble gardening shed (he's moved to the garage), this hasn't seemed to deter his designs in the least. The "Swear to Save" CBGB's campaign recently approached Bone to design a toy along with 150 other musicians and gigposter artists, including some of his favorite poster studios like Voodoocatbox and Methane Studios. All of these posters are now on display at the historic and in-danger-of-closing New York City punk club CBGB's.

"For some reason, they like my stuff and asked me to design a toy. It was pretty interesting," Bone said.

After graduating school to design microchips, Bone realized graphic design was his true love. He began silk-screening posters two years ago despite no prior experience in the art form.

"Designing scrapbooking supplies is my day job, and that opened up a career as a graphic designer. I just fell sideways into it," Bone said.

Bone approached Kilby Court co-owner/poster artist Leia Bell, who gave him silk-screening tips. With guidance from Bell, Bone designed his first gigposter for a Rocky Votolato show at Kilby Court. Soon Bone networked his way into jobs at the former Lo-Fi Café, as well as his current spots at In the Venue and The Velvet Room.

"I've worked once one on one with a band, Mogwai. That was the first poster design I did that was, I guess, more widely recognizable because it was for a band that was outside of Utah," Bone said. "I showed them a few of my designs and they liked it, so we went from there."

As a lover of animals, most of the Furturtle posters feature an animal he feels corresponds to the band's sound. The Elvis Costello poster features a gorilla; Sonic Youth includes a buffalo and its albino calf.

"You can add different personalities so easily to an animal. That's one of the biggest reasons I use so many animals in my posters," Bone said. "When I start designing, I sit and absorb the band's music, their sound. I like to be engulfed in that music."

Bone is currently completing a poster for the next Flatstock Poster Convention, held in conjunction with the South By Southwest Music Festival in Austin, Texas.

"I want to say I don't consider myself an artist. ... By some stretch of the imagination, I'm an artist. Deep down I still have a hard time saying it, but I guess, sure," Bone said.

To see all of Bone's art and poster prints check out furturtle.com.

(For comments, e-mail Lisa Ruefenacht at lisaruefenacht@byu.net.)
Copyright Brigham Young University 15 Feb 2006