SOUTHEASTERN N.C. — The work of one local graphic designer and printmaker has become revered in Wilmington for its whimsy and color, particularly as fans scoop up one-of-a-kind limited concert posters at Greenfield Lake Amphitheater and Live Oak Bank Pavilion. More times than not, it’s the creation of Tom Shaw from T. Shaw Designs.
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Shaw has created posters for more than 40 bands in his almost decade career. Many include his favorites, such as Widespread Panic, Amos Lee, Sierra Ferrell, Bruce Hornsby, and Lukas Nelson. But recently Shaw took on a different clientele.
Mid-October, the artist was commissioned by the state’s Democratic Party to do an official poster for a Kamala Harris rally. It was hosted in Greenville at East Carolina University.
“It all came together so quickly,” he said. “I think it was about 48 hours from the first email I received to my sending of the final PDF for print.”
Shaw said he was surprised to see his poster — “Carolina for Kamala” — waving across crowds of students and then snapshot across so many media platforms.
“I was scrolling through Instagram, and I noticed a photo from the rally with someone holding my poster in the background,” he said. “Similar images [appeared] in The New York Times, Newsweek, Forbes, and countless other national news outlets. A friend even sent me a photo of it appearing in the newspaper edition of The Washington Post.”
Next, Shaw will be turning his attention toward Western North Carolina. He has created the benefit poster for the concert “From Wilmington, With Love,” slated to take place Oct. 29 at Greenfield Lake Amphitheater.
A City of Wilmington hosted event, all proceeds will go to recovery efforts for Western North Carolina, recently impacted by the devastation of Hurricane Helene. The show features a performance by Ben Folds, along with musicians from the the mountainous region. Already, it is sold out, with proceeds benefiting the North Carolina Disaster Relief Fund.
Shaw’s poster — an amalgamation of the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge towering over a flowing river below, with mountains in the background flanked by trees — will be for sale at the concert. He also will be manning the booth himself, he said, and selling the $40 limited prints. Proceeds also will go to the relief fund.
“Those mountain towns hold a special place in my heart,” Shaw said, “and I want to do what I can to help contribute to their recovery.”
Separately from the show, Shaw has taken an old piece he created for Widespread Panic’s three-night run in Asheville, but it was canceled earlier this year. Instead, he repurposed it into a nature print to sell on T. Shaw Design’s website, also to generate funds for relief efforts.
Shaw first got his start in the business in 2015.
“After I quit playing music in bands, I needed a creative outlet,” he said. “My day job was in corporate graphic design, and I had a realization one day that if I taught myself how to screen print, I could use my graphic design skills and my connections in the music industry to potentially create concert posters for bands coming through Wilmington.”
He connected with Penguin 98.3’s Beau Gunn, who books shows at Greenfield Lake (full disclosure: Gunn is the general manager of Local Daily Media, which oversees Port City Daily). The two teamed up on one-of-a-kind concert posters that Shaw would create, print and, with the bands approval, sell at every show, splitting proceeds with the musicians.
He said in the last decade he has built his passion into a full-time business, not only creating one-of-a-kind works for bands but also wholesaling his prints to galleries countrywide. Shaw said he also gives back to issues and causes he believes in. Last year, for instance, he donated $22,000 to various nonprofits and organizations.
“I am now a member of 1% for the Planet and am committed to donating one percent of my annual revenue to environmental causes that protect our planet,” Shaw said.
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