'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:
THE BOOKS HAVE ARRIVED IN PORTLAND
11 months ago
– Sun, Jun 01, 2025 at 12:01:13 AM
Hey all,
I was going to wait until Monday to post this but I can't wait any longer to relay that THE BOOKS HAVE ARRIVED IN PORTLAND AND HAVE CLEARED CUSTOMS!!!! WOOHOOOOO!!!
The 20 foot shipping container will be delivered this coming week to my storage unit. I've got a forklift and pallet jack reserved to unload these pallets of my 2000 copies of the book into my space. Man, it has been a long journey but we're actually in the final phase of the Kickstarter campaign. It's going to take a minute to organize everything, order packing materials and begin fulfilling all of the orders. The Deluxe Edition will take a little longer to process as I'm doing a custom sketch in all 50 signed and numbered books ($300 book), as well as adding a really nice mini-print into every copy. I've also got a special surprise to go along with those mini-prints. The unsigned edition($100 book) and signed and numbered edition of 1000 copies ($150 book) will go out first since they don't need as much work put into them. Thank you all for your amazing support and patience with me. Stay tuned for photos and a video of opening the shipping container next week and loading everything into my storage space. I can't wait to crack that bad boy open! Talk to you very soon!
Best,
-Justin
On another note...
I've got a few random offerings that I've posted on my website if you're interested in checking out some older items that I pulled from my archives. These are available in very limited quantities so grab one before they're gone if you're interested in any of them. Click the image to view the details on my site. Thanks!
The books are crossing the Pacific Ocean right now
12 months ago
– Fri, May 02, 2025 at 07:45:40 AM
Hey there!
It's time for another update so let's get right to it! The books have been on the water for a couple of weeks now, crossing the massive Pacific Ocean from China. Have you ever seen an image of that side of the planet with the Pacific centered in the photo? Ocean is literally ALL you see from that vantage point. The voyage takes a minute... or thousands, but who's counting? Ok, well, me. It's not a short trek, but the entire shipping container of books on the cargo ship's journey is now estimated that it will arrive at the Port of Portland on the newly updated date of May 22nd. That doesn't mean that they'll be released to me that day though as they have to go through customs and that will take a couple of days. As soon as they're out of customs they will be moved to my storage facility and I'll begin fulfilling the orders from all of the Kickstarter/ Backerkit backers! Expect to see tracking information coming in early June.
I case you're wondering, yes, I have been putting off posting a new update as I've been biting my nails awaiting the news of how the ongoing tariff wars would affect my books coming from China. I'm beyond relieved to relay that I just found out that books are exempt from the new tariffs and will be unaffected by the current madness of geopolitics thankfully. The books are printed, they look freaking amazing and they are on their way to me right now, crossing that blue jewel of ours hurtling through space!
We're all very close to this amazing venture we've all embarked on together reaching the final ticker tape! You better believe I'm going to be taking photos and videos of the first time I open that shipping container! That is all for now. I'll update you as soon as I have more news about proximity of the shipment and whether or not the ETA changes at all. Thank you all for being a part of this wild ride. Your belief and support literally mean the ↓ to me. You guys rock!!!
On a related note, book tour/ exhibitions are all starting to get booked for summer. I'm planning on having them wherever I can! Stay tuned for that info as it comes. I would love to see you all if you can make it. I can't wait!
Mystery Tube sale
Currently in my web-store I have my 2025Mystery Tube sale going that still has a few slots left before I close it out.
Here's what you will receive!... A tube with 4 random items of my selection will ship to you! The tube could contain any combination of posters, artist proofs, test prints and key line prints as well as handbills or stickers from my poster vault. At least one will be in perfect condition but there will also be some scratch and dent prints. That said, most will be in very good condition. I’ll only accept a limited number of these so act quick while it’s up for grabs!
Thanks for taking a look and reading the latest! Talk to you all very soon!
Very best,
-Justin
Preview of the interior of the book and shipping charges
about 1 year 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!
about 1 year 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 1 year 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:
