Fillmore Concert Poster

Rick Griffin Concert Poster for the Fillmore

Collecting rock posters is a hobby I share with many music and art fans, some of whom are our clients. Rick Griffin was one of the first artists to illustrate concert posters for two now famous concert venues, Bill Graham’s Fillmore and Chet Helms Family Dog. Both places featured the eye-catching Psychedelic illustrations of Rick Griffin to advertise their performances.

I have a client who is an avid collector of original Bill Graham posters from the 1960's and 1970's. When he acquires a new piece, he drops it of and asks me to design a framing that I think will look good.

This 1968 example of Rick’s work features the groups: It's a beautiful Day and Deep Purple. The checkerboard background really jumped out at me. To further accent the design, I hand painted yellow and black segments on the extra thick matboard that surrounds the poster. I chose a plain matt black wooden frame to keep our attention on the vibrating black and yellow.

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“The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám”

By Lisa Galli • September 6, 2025

I had one of our very good clients come in with this gem. She found it in a drawer while cleaning out her mother's house. She believed it was either from her grandparents or was picked up by her parents on their travels. This is a complete calendar of The Rubaiyat by Omar Kahayyam, with beautiful illustrations and poems for each month of the year, tied together with string in a brown and gold cover from 1917. “The Rubaiyat” was first published in March 1859. In this edition, the illustrations were done by Ethel Davis Seal (1885-1965), also known for illustrations of interiors of homes and home decor in publications such as Ladies Home Journal in the early teens into the late 1920's. We designed it to be 4 framed pieces. The first frame shows the cover and title page with the following three each displaying four months. Each page has different illustrations yet it flows beautifully together as a set, using harmonious designs and colors. We floated the pages on Acid free black matting, using museum glass and spacers and finished it with a 23k gold closed corner frame.