Fall Arts Fest Unveils Splashy Poster

Michael Osborne is becoming Marin's go-to designer for attention-getting nonprofit art projects.

The San Francisco designer, who was tapped by Ritter Center to create the houses for its countywide Art Houses of Marin campaign earlier this year, created the just-unveiled promotional poster for the 2010 Mill Valley Fall Arts Festival, set for Sept. 25-26 in Old Mill Park.

The poster is an eye grabber, featuring a kaleidoscope of hands in an array of colors and sizes, all set against a black backdrop. From a distance, the hands meld into "a paint-ball flower of creativity."

Osborne started with every artist's basic tools – their hands – and traced the hands of everyone in his office. He used one as the basis for the design.

"A poster by definition is something that reads quickly and across several different distances," Osborne said. "The first thing that came to mind was a paint splatter that you would see from a distance and have to go see what it is. It wound up being this big beautiful splash of paint made out of hands."

Osborne connected with the festival through Mill Valley resident Dennis Whalen, who works for Michael Osborne Design in San Francisco. Whalen bumped into festival president Lynne Klein, an art teacher at Tam High, at a back to school night, and took the poster idea back to Osborne, who said yes right away.

"Anything to do with art and art festivals," said Osborne, best known for his design of the "Hearts in San Francisco" public art campaign in 2004. The project raised nearly $5 million for the San Francisco General Hospital Foundation.

Osborne wanted to steer festival organizers away from the past practice of using the poster to showcase a piece created by one of the event's exhibitors.

"It seemed to me that by using one artist, you leave out all the other artists and don't really promote the festival itself," he said. "This puts the emphasis on the event as a whole."

What: Mill Valley Fall Arts Festival

When: Sat. Sept. 25 10am - 6pm and Sun Sept. 26 10am - 5pm

Where: Old Mill Park, 320 Throckmorton Ave.

Info: http://www.mvfaf.org/ or call 415-381-8090

Tickets: $8 general admission, $5 students and seniors, children under 12 free