Over the years I spent putting together the recent Art of A Low Hum book, I had plenty of time to evaluate my relationship with posters. I’ve done a lot of experimentation over the past 20-odd years, some of it worked, others, not so much.

I love human-made art, always will, and having it made for events has always been one of my favourite aspects of event production. Those who have read The Art of A Low Hum will have seen how overboard I went sometimes, organising multiple posters for single events and even additional posters for activities within those events.

Like music curation, discovering new visual artists and seeing new work come to life is hugely exciting to me. I love working with new artists, and I love continuing relationships with artists I’ve collaborated with for decades.

But a few things have shifted how I’ll approach posters going forward.

I'm always going to love seeing a bunch of local posters slapped across scaffolding around a building or down some random alleyway. To me it's a sign that a city's underground arts communities are alive and thriving. There is still a purpose to the A3 black and white punk-pasted poster in “illegal” spots. Firstly, the cost is minimal, but they can also remain for weeks or months, not just one week and gone. They signal to others doing the same thing that they are part of a community. When you’re out pasting, you see the names of the other bands doing it too. There is a camaraderie in taking back ownership of the city from corporate sponsors.

That said, I’ve finally given up on “official” street postering.

I started phasing it out around 2012 as it became less effective with only sporadic campaigns since. In 2024, I thought to give it one more proper go. Big A0 posters that said HOLY FUCK. If anything was going to cut through, surely it was that?

This time, for all the various campaigns I did for the Holy Fuck tour, I kept detailed analytics. I phased in different elements around New Zealand and Australia at varying stages so I could monitor how various radio, print, street poster, and online banner campaigns in both countries worked in relation to ticket sales in other cities, tracking organic sales alongside boosted sales.

The street poster campaigns achieved nothing. The ROI was laughably appalling. I looked at how much money I threw away on street postering, only to have posters up for a week or two, then gone forever. It just didn’t make sense. It seemed a total waste of energy and art.

It wasn’t a surprise. I’d been passively monitoring the effect of street campaigns for years, but I guess I needed the final validation of my decision.

As I was working on the budget for the upcoming Drook tour, I stared at the line item for “postering.”  I am tired of throwing money into the void, commissioning sick art only to have it vanish.

When I announced Camp A Low Hum 2027 back in 2025, I gave people five days to purchase enough tickets for me to do the event and not lose money. People understood the task and that it was up to them, and they came through.

Unless you’re hiding under a rock, you’re well aware of the current crisis in the events industry. Festivals and major events are losing truckloads of money. The economy is struggling and events are tanking. Just like I put the responsibility of Camp going ahead into the hands of those wanting it to happen, I’m tired of promoting events and tours passively. I want to actively work with those keen for the shows to happen and encourage local communities to help promote events and build larger audiences for future touring shows, for any promoter.

So with these two issues front-of-mind, the need to give more impetus for regional shows and promotional materials to those wanting them to happen, while also creating artwork that has a permanent place in the world rather than a temporary moment on a bollard, I spent months considering these questions and some experiments to try.