'Visual Feast', the tantalizing artwork of Justin Hampton
Created by Justin Hampton
This 400-page book contains ALL of the posters I've ever designed including sketches, behind-the-scenes photos, and stories about creating them and working with various bands. Bands include Soundgarden, QOTSA, Motörhead, Pearl Jam, Metallica, Mark Lanegan, Nick Cave, Radiohead, NIN, and countless others.
This is THE definitive retrospective of my work, containing ALL of my illustration work over the years, including works for Rolling Stone, Spin, Village Voice, Vibe, Guitar World, Sports Illustrated, and more. 30 years in 400 pages!
Latest Updates from Our Project:
Preview of the interior of the book and shipping charges
9 days ago
– Fri, Mar 07, 2025 at 03:57:23 PM
Hey there,
You may have seen the charges coming to your credit cards for the upcoming shipping of the book. This just a legitimate step of this campaign being fulfilled. Before now, there was literally no reason to take money for shipping previously as it was a ways out from when the initial KS campaign ended. That said, I would like to apologize as I should have notified you before I charged cards. Some of you are familiar with these kinds of campaigns and weren't surprised by it and others were confounded by it. I guess I was so excited that we're finally to this final stage that I didn't think beyond my own jubilation. My bad. Thank you for the messages. I understand and am indeed sorry for not letting you know ahead of time. The fact that the original campaign was 3 years ago also made for some glitches in the charging of these shipping fees. I know of a few people already that were over charged a bit. I don't know if this is isolated or throughout all of the backers. We're not talking thousands or something, maybe fifty dollars too much in the cases that I've seen so far. I'm going over all of the orders with the original team and a representative from BackerKit to make sure it's all correct. Any over-charges will be refunded. I would say for now, hold tight if you haven't accepted the shipping charges from your bank until this is ironed out. I will announce once it's all resolved in the coming week and give you all a green light when we are ready to charge for the remaining people for shipping. Thank you for understanding and again, I apologize for not letting you know before.
Here's that preview that I promised of the interior of the book for your viewing pleasure. Did I mention that his is a BIG book? It is indeed. Take a gander!
Thank you all for your support and interest in my work. It truly means the world to me. Look for the next update coming next week.
Best,
Justin
The books are printed and man do they look great!
16 days ago
– Fri, Feb 28, 2025 at 08:52:37 AM
This is it!!! We've now reached the end of the production of the book! The books are all printed!!!
The printer is now preparing the books in cartons that will be on pallets for the journey overseas for shipping from the plant in China to the states. 1,000 copies are going to Gingko Press for distribution to bookstores, boutiques, galleries, and museum gift shops. My 2,000 copies are shipping to me in Portland, OR.
They are scheduled to leave China in early March and will arrive stateside on the west coast 6-8 weeks later. This should put them in my hands by mid April to early May. I will begin processing your orders to ship out to you as soon as they arrive. I'll keep you updated on the time table for the final fulfillment of all of your orders. As the time gets closer I'll able to announce a more specific timeline.
The printer express couriered my own advance copies of each version of the book with the various different slipcases. I'm very pleased to show off the very first video of how freaking amazing they look! Take a look yourself!
Book binding is spellbinding! Here's a mesmerizing video of the book binding process! it's pretty neat to see part of the production in progress!
In other news, I have a new print release happening today!
Introducing a new collaborative poster series by myself and the legendary '90s photographer Karen Mason-Blair, celebrating our deep roots and paying homage to the early '90s Seattle music scene. We're re-envisioning some of Karen's most iconic captures of local musicians before they ascended to global stardom... our “Loud Gods”
"Kurt, can you smile?"
"You always say that."
"Yes, but you always like my photos!"
Karen Mason Blair is the photographer who Kurt Cobain would smile for; they were friends.
When I started crafting my artistic vision of Karen’s photo of Kurt Cobain rocking his iconic white sunglasses, an idea struck me like lightning. Those shades took me back to the legendary psychedelic 60s poster by Victor Moscoso for the Chamber Brothers. We decided to add text to those iconic glasses to perfectly capture Cobain’s rebellious spirit. What better phrase than “Whatever, Nevermind” from “Smells Like Teen Spirit” to encapsulate his ethos?
Cobain's brilliance was in mixing heavy, distorted riffs with catchy pop hooks, layered with a thick coat of sarcastic Gen X punk rock attitude. This vibe is perfectly encapsulated in the intro of Nirvana’s "Territorial Pissings," where the sardonically sung lines, “Come on people now, Smile on Your Brother! Everybody Get Together, Try to Love One Another Right Noooooow!” explode into a punk rock anthem of angst and blistering guitars. These lines from the 1960s song "Get Together" are given a whole new meaning.
Presenting Kurt in a psychedelic style poster is the perfect blend of punk sarcasm and 60s nostalgia that he would have absolutely loved—extreme irony at its finest. His playful nature is further highlighted in the lyric"Here We Are Now, Entertain Us", which embodies the spirit of Bacchus in our ongoing series, LOUD GODS. Kurt was truly a modern-day Bacchus, the god of fertility and revelry.
We hope you groove with this work as much as Karen and I did while bringing it to life. Feel the good vibes and let the spirit of Kurt radiate through this poster.
An actual look at the printing in progress!!!
about 2 months ago
– Thu, Jan 23, 2025 at 04:18:44 PM
I just received a look at the book in the process of printing at the plant in China and it's looking AMAZING!!!! Of course, I had to share. Take a look!
Here's a look at a stack of the hardcover of the book! This is before the UV spot gloss varnish on the images. It will pop big time once it's added. There's also going to be a flourish pattern behind the lion-ram and the circle/ mouth that will only be visible in the gloss. It's gonna look super deluxe!!
Here's a video of the actual printing of the dust cover jacket of the book. Again, this will have a UV spot gloss varnish on the front image. How cool do these look?!
I'm currently working out the shipping logistics from China with the book's distributor. The Chinese New Year is going to push this back a bit but I will update you as soon as I know the details for a better idea of the shipping schedule. I won't say until I have a solid estimate but realistically this looks good for sometime in Spring. I'm just crossing my fingers that tariffs won't go up in this time frame. It's gonna be very close.
Here's one last thing to leave you with. I added a neat flourish to cover of the hard cover book and the various slip cases. Keep in mind that this is a mock up but the black background will be in a matte black ink and the images will have a spot UV gloss varnish. The flourish you see here will be in the gloss UV spot varnish as well. It's not grey as mocked up here, but gloss black on matte black. I spent some extra loot on the gloss varnish, so why not add some fun stuff to it? It's gonna look very opulent!! Here's a mock-up of the effect on the black slip case...
Thanks your amazing support of this project! Until my next update, look for my next "LOUD GODS" print coming soon with my rendition of one of Karen Mason-Blair's great photos of none other than Kurt Cobain! It's gonna be a banger!
You can still purchase the 1st print in the series of Layne Staley of Alice in Chains- "So Deep The Ocean" here:
Thanks for taking a look. Talk to you soon!
Very Best,
-Justin Hampton
Visual Feast Kickstarter Update December 2024. The printed proofs look amazing
3 months ago
– Fri, Dec 06, 2024 at 08:29:32 AM
Good news! The printer printing proofs are signed off on and the book is finally off to press!
This update shows off the book's printed dust cover jacket, three different slipcases, and 4 interior pages. They look amazing and are officially signed off on! Finally!!
In other news!...
I've got a few rare items up on my website for those looking for that perfect, hard to find Xmas gift. Check them out on my main page. I'll be posting more random items on the site over the next week for you to check out. Keep an eye out for those. I'll also have one final print release for the year in the next week. I'm very excited about this one, it's something I've wanted to create for a long time and now it's finally coming to fruition. Stay tuned.
Here's something from 2006. My Pearl Jam (CCFA) Melbourne dyptych poster. Matching #2 set of both posters! ONLY ONE COPY FOR SALE.
Thanks for taking a look! I hope you're all having a great holiday season. Talk to you soon.
Best,
-Justin
A new update before the upcoming holiday week
4 months ago
– Thu, Nov 21, 2024 at 03:38:40 PM
Hey everyone! I wanted to give you a quick update before the upcoming holiday week. A much longer update will follow with a new video presentation in about a week.
I'm very happy to report that after seemingly endless fixes to the final book files, it looks amazing and was well worth the effort! I recruited an old friend of mine to help finish everything up and add his professional design eye. Kory Kennedy, who was the art director at Rolling Stone back when I created work for the magazine in the early 2000's, lent a hand with the production side of the cover, dust jacket and slipcase design. Thanks Kory! I was also able to add the rest of the posters that I've created this year and more. I'm about to finally receive physical test printing copies of the interior, cover, and slipcases! I'll be showing those off with a video on another KS update as soon as I get them in a week or so. Once I sign off on those, the printing of the full 3000 book print run finally begins! I'm very excited. We're looking at the books landing in the states early in the new year and I'll begin processing them for shipping out to everyone. I'll have a much better idea of that exact time table after I sign off on the samples and the printer gives me the detailed production schedule. Thank you for your patience with me, it's been quite the journey. Talk to you very soon!
Happy Thanksgiving to all in the states and happy holiday season to the rest of you!
Best,
Justin
p.s. Below is a look a preview of one of the new 2 page spreads in the book. 'Mookie Blaylock to Pearl Jam 1990-2024'. Talk about full circle!
On a related note to the holidays, and Black Friday in particular, I'm having a week long sale on my website for 20% off everything including my new page of my 3D Shadow Box one of a kind posters. Just enter code at checkout for the discount: Back in Black Friday Sale.
Also, here's the new page to check out my most recent 3D Shadow Box posters. Thanks for taking a look!
