Better Living Through Modern Lehzure: The Gigposters of Jason Malmberg is now on display at the University Union Gallery

Alyson Poveda

The current exhibition displays more than 70 gig posters or graphic design posters, created by Jason Malmberg, a well-known Nebraskan graphic-designer with more than 10 year of experience and who has also sold his artwork on all continents except Antarctica.

Malmberg’s diversity and creativity is express in his artworks. “I was able to find a way that creatively expresses myself in a design career, without just having the normal round of setting my vision to a sort of project,” said Malmberg.

Malmberg, who designs under the pseudonym of Decabet is also well known here in Northern California because of all the gig posters that he has designed for small events as as well as some of the largest concerts and musical festivals in Northern California.

“Better Living Through Modern Lehzure” in itself is a unique opportunity for the Sac State community, to see a variety of different and unique gig posters that relate to today’s technological era.

Throughout this exhibition, viewers have the opportunity to see the posters that they probably have seen in elsewhere, in public places.

“I had never been to anything like this, but I have seen posters around Sacramento. I never payed attention to them until now,” said Arturo Armenta, an undeclared sophomore student who assisted in the opening of the reception on Oct. 29, where the graphic designer was also willing to sign works that were bought.

In addition to all the gig posters on display, viewers could compare and contrast the gig posters one to each other that the designer created for other music festivals, both locally and internationally. How did they compare and contrast?

“It is easier to combine more with more colors, but it shows more skill to make your point with less color,” said Derrick Santens a Sac State alumnus when comparing the different skills used by Malmberg in his gig posters.

In the exhibition students can find gig posters of music events from San Francisco New Year’s Eve, Indianapolis Moonlight Towers, Sacramento Midtown New Year’s Eve and many more. Not only are popular places highlighted on the gig posters but famous names like Foster the people, Future Island, Queens of the Stone Age, Mogwai and others are as well.

Letrice Fowler, a senior photography major who works in a graphic designer office expressed that the exhibition is a cool way to see the creative and diverse designs that Jason Malmberg had come out with.

“[At the exhibition] there is more than art, than just like paintings and stuff like that, there is the graphic side of it,” said Fowler, who also mentioned that in graphic design artists used more imagination than a photographer.

Unable to choose one medium, Rebecca Voorhees, the university union gallery studio manager, expressed that she was more attracted to the phosphorescent colors in the gig posters of Jason Malmberg. She emphasized the importance of exposing different types of art to the Sac State community.

“Bringing a graphic designer, who is an artist himself, but not what people typically consider a fine artist, is a great way to show the students and the community in Sac State how diverse the definition of art can be,” said Voorhees.

The art exhibition will continue until Nov. 19