by Stacy Zimmer

"I get my inspiration from the music, the bands, and the events — depending on which of those inspirations is driving the design, there can be very different outcomes."

Lincoln songwriter and musician Ben Swift realized his bands would need poster work, so he started creating them himself in 1995. Ten years later, he started enhancing the images by screen-printing his work. Swift teaches a web-design class at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, runs his own Design and Development company called NONOart and founded an international sticker company called Eyeskull. Swift has received many awards for his work, including two Nebraska Addy Awards, AIGA Nebraska "The Show," AMA Prism Award, Summit Creative Award, Horizon Interactive Award, American Graphic Design Award and the Webby Award.

A self-described "creative geek," Swift also drums for punkers The Killigans, a band which inspires some of his work below.

"One of my first attempts at combining hand-drawn elements with digital."

"A three-color poster that assembles into a promotional skelton."

"A three-color poster worked up from my friend's photograph of a vandalized box-truck in San Francisco."

To learn more about Swift and his work, check out: NONOART, Eyeskull and his website.  

Email your suggestions for our next Frequent Flyer artist to Stacy Zimmer at stlyzimmer@gmail.com.