Farewell Chris!

Badass.

There are two posters that hung on my wall that I never failed to get compliments on. Both happen to be the same brilliant blue color, augmented with striking black and white features. Both will soon be hanging in the AMJ office once more, framed, front and center. And both were designed by Chris Bilheimer.

The graphic designer has done a ton of my favorite designs. From the above poster to the now iconic bleeding heart grenade on Green Day’s American Idiot. Neutral Milk Hotel’s In an Aeroplane Over the Sea? He did that one too.

And as every news story about him mentioned, his website portfolio is ridiculously awesome. One glance is enough to make you cry out “I want this guy’s career!”. Seriously, if you can make your entire website nothing but screencaps of Letterman holding up your work, you’ve obviously done pretty well.

Alas, Chris is leaving town for another place out west. It’s a pretty big deal. Flagpole, the Red and Black, and Athens Banner-Herald have all run stories on Master Bilheimer and his upcoming art show. Oh Austin, you lucky city, you. As you can tell, Athens is pretty reluctant to let the guy go but we’re all pretty happy for him. And it’s not like he’s gone for good. Bilheimer will continue working for bands in town through the magic of the internet and may visit often as well.

So if you want a look back at some of the work Chris has done, make sure to be at CINE this Friday for his show with Lance Bangs (videos) and Dan Donahue (videos and design). The party kicks off at 6:30 pm. Saturday night, trot over to ATHICA for displays of posters, t-shirts and more. Some of the works will be auctioned off to benefit Nuci’s. For more of Chris’s poster designs, check out this link.

Best of luck, Chris!