We’ve become friends with many Brew Masters over the years. They all have mystical characteristics. They talk about brewing in magical terms, and they recite recipes like potions. To us, they are wizards of their craft. Here at the studio, we like to refer them as “Brew Mystics,” rather than Brew Masters. Well it’s that time of year, when we start looking forward to the gathering of the “Mystics.” The 2018 Ohio Brew Week is July 13th through July 21st. Come out and enjoy the wizardry of these master brewers. We can’t wait. Hope to see you there!

The Big Bend Blues Bash in Pomeroy: Over the past few years, the “Big Bend Blues Bash” has become the premiere festival of Southeast Ohio. This event includes an Acoustic Night, Blues Competition, Main Event and Kids Activities. Held on the banks of the mighty Ohio River in Pomeroy, Ohio. There is no better place to be for a little Blues, Brews, and BBQ! This year’s event will be take place on July 27th and 28th. Be sure to set the date. Follow them on Facebook.

Dark Star Orchestra is playing Red Rocks Amphitheater this Summer!. Mark your calendars for Sunday, July 8, 2018. And make the trip! Never Miss A Sunday Show! DSO is celebrating the 40th Anniversary of the 1978 Grateful Dead Red Rocks show. KMS is both excited and honored to create the poster artwork for this show. We love it, We hope you enjoy it too!

Start planning for the 2018 Dark Star Orchestra Jubilee Music Festival. Early Bird tickets are almost sold out. Get in on the VIP Camping before it sells out. This is becoming a premier Summer Music Festival. Hot Tuna is playing 2 sets again this year. Jorma and Jack looking forward to sharing the stage with Los Lobos, The Infamous Stringdusters, The Rumpke Montain Boys and Holly Bowling. Meet you at the Jubilee!

Head out to the Fur Peace Ranch and the Psylodelic Gallery this holiday season to see the ever revolving display of visiting artists.

From an Fur Peace Ranch press release:

Greetings from the Psylodelic Gallery! We are proud to announce that the Gallery has just finished installing our latest exhibit! We are thrilled at the response the Gallery has generated over the past several years, and we are looking forward to unveiling our newest show to the public! From October 27th to Spring 2018 the Psylodelic Gallery will be featuring “Jefferson Airplane Loves You”, a rarely seen group of photos from Jorma Kaukonen’s private collection of memories with the Airplane, as well as local Athens artist Andy Tucker’s “A Shared Moment”, which includes oil paintings of poets, writers, activists, and musicians from the 1960’s.
For more on Andy Tucker’s art, you can visit him on Facebook

There is lots of Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna memorabilia too. You can also visit the Fur Peace Ranch Store online and check out all the great holiday sales. Lots of specials Jorma painting pictured above by Kevin Morgan, painted live at FPR Arts and Minds Fest is on permanent display. Check it out!

Everyone here at KMS is counting down to the Dark Star Jubilee. We’re really excited! We can’t wait! So to pass the time we thought we would debut the artwork for the Dark Star Orchestra Summer Tour. They’re are playing a special acoustic show in DC in August. Be sure to check it out. See you at the Jubilee!

I have been creating artwork for Dark Star Orchestra for several years now. It is always a pleasure to work with them on the DSO Jubilee and their Spring and Fall Tours. But when the band asked me to design the logo to commemorate the 20th Anniversary of DSO, well, I was literally blown away. You see, I cut my teeth in the t-shirt biz by hustling GD shirts on Shakedown Street in the LOT. I was part of the Grateful Dead Experience. I was part of the GD economy. That experience helped make me the artist I am today. It help me grow my art and my business, you can even start earning as an income as a contractor if you work for us. For that, I am Grateful. It has been an honor to work with DSO over the years. And I hope they’re around for another 20yrs, because if a younger generation really wants to experience the Grateful Dead, there is NO other band that brings you closer to that experience than Dark Star Orchestra. I truly believe that. See you at the Jubilee!

Also, get out there and catch them on the Spring Tour which starts March 30 in Louisville, KY!

Super excited to do the artwork for the 2017 Dark Star Jubilee! Thank You Tim Walther and the kind folks of DSO for this awesome yearly opportunity.  I couldn’t feel more Honored or Blessed. Also, Congratulations to the band for their 20th Anniversary! Damn hard thing to do these days. It shows your work and commitment. Bless Up!

Can’t wait to get to Legend Valley, May 26-28, to catch three (3) nights of Dark Star Orchestra. Plus two (2) sets of Hot Tuna (acoustic and ELECTRIC!). Also looking forward to seeing for the first Greensky Bluegrass, TAUK and Twiddle! Let’s not forget Rumpke! Hope to see YOU at the Jubilee.

Can you believe it!?. The Fur Peace Ranch is celebrating their 20th Anniversary this year and KMS has been with them the entire time. What a trip. We have been blessed and honored to be able to develop all the FPR artwork. Congratulations on 20 years and a big thanks, respect and love for Jorma, Vanessa, Hurl. And all the FPR staff for their hard work and dedication.

To mark this historic occasion, KMS has created The Fur Peace Ranch 20th Anniversary commemorative poster. If you would like a copy of the poster, they will be available for purchase at the Fur Peace Ranch online store.

KMS does so much work for the Fur Peace Ranch, it’s hard to find the time to post it all. But here’s a sample of some recent work:

click to enlarge

As some of you may know, FPR has opened The Pho Peace Restaurant, 11am – 3pm Wednesdays and Thursdays. Come and enjoy Jorma’s Pho soup favorites, and you just may catch a set while you enjoy lunch.

FPR in collaboration with KMS produces the FPR YouTube channel. FPR TV has over 3 million views! FPR and KMS would like to thank Andie Walla Productions and the entire crew who help capture the magic of live musical performance at the Fur Peace Station Concert Hall. Thanks also to Rusty Smith and WOUB for recording and mixing the audio portions of the show.

KMS designs Hot Tuna, Jorma and FPR merchandise that you can see on the road and at FPR co. store. Here’s Jorma with the Jorma Tour shirt which is available at the FPR online store. Photo by our pal Susie Perler.

You can see all of this and much more by visiting furpeaceranch.com, jormakaukonen.com, jackcasady.com and hottuna.com, KMS designs and manages those sites.

That’s right folks, “It Takes a Village!” to throw a party like Halloween in Athens! For this year’s design we wanted to showcase some of the more popular costumes of the block party. When we started to look at it, we realized it looked a lot like a popular musical group from the 70’s and 80’s, so there you have it. We thought it was better than clowns, which nobody seems to like these days. Poor clowns. Be sure to grab a Halloween in Athens t-shirts at the Uptown Dog on Union Street in uptown Athens. Have fun and be safe! Also, be sure to check out all the KMS Halloween in Athens designs, all 34 years worth!

The fine folks at All Good Presents asked KMS to create the poster art for the Merryland Music Festival July 9 & 10 at the Merriweather Post Pavilion. KMS expanded the look of the Merryland crab logo, giving the one-eyed crustacean some fancy pants and dancing shoes. This music festival has some great acts. If you’re in the area, you should definitely check it out!

The Ohio Brew Week design was a fun one this year! When prompted with a sort of “history of brewing” theme, KMS went all the way back to the monks (they’ve got such a classic look). OBW 2016 was inspired by the artwork in medieval manuscripts and the process & tradition of brewing. Can’t wait to get to tasting! The 2016 Ohio Brew Week is July 15th thru July 23rd. Yes, that’s 9 days of Ohio’s finest craft beers!

KMS continues to work with Dark Star Orchestra to promote their annual music festival, The Dark Star Jubilee. We couldn’t be more excited to create the poster art for the 2016 event which is just around the corner! The idea was a caravan/wagon train to the Jubilee. Of course the whole family is there, including the dog. KMS is especially stoked for the event because we get to see 2 sets of Hot Tuna! Also attached is the poster art KMS did for DSO for their winter music getaway, Jam In The Sand!

It’s music festival time! KMS is doing a bunch of music festival art posters, some old some new. One of the new ones is the Merryland Music Festival put on by the veteran music organizers, All Good Presents. In fact, Merryland is so new, this is its very first year. KMS hopes there are many more! KMS was honored to develop the inguaral concert poster. A rocking Octocrab! One of our favorites groups, String Cheese Incident is headlining! And if you are going to show, be sure to check out Pigeons Playing Ping Pong, they are funky!

The good folks at Casa Nueva wanted a new look for their salsa jars. They wanted to promote their new ventures Casa Cantina and Casa Bodega along with their Casa Nueva Brand. The idea was to use their iconic storefront as a way of advertising all three brands. The result is an oil painting of the restaurant’s classic storefront that includes scenes of their core services: food, drinks, and entertainment. The storefront scene even includes an image of the well worn bench in front of the restaurant. All that’s missing is a image of Lost John.

KMS continues to work with the dedicated people at OEFFA to help promote and market local sustainable agriculture. KMS once again did the artwork for OEFFA’s Annual Conference, Ohio’s largest sustainable food and farm conference.  KMS wanted to incorporate some of the bigger family farms this year so we added some heavy equipment. Gotta love big tractors!

The wonderful folks at Hocking Athens Perry Community Action who manage the Intercity Bus Route also known as GoBus, came to KMS for some ideas for designing the look of their new buses. The original idea was to do some flames like an old hot rod, but then we thought that a “bus on fire” wouldn’t be very appealing. We settled on wings. It creates the feeling of speed AND comfort, like you’re floating to your destination. Whatever the feeling, the end results came out great.