Louisville Magazine is Louisville's city magazine, covering Louisville people, lifestyles, politics, sports, restaurants, entertainment and homes. Includes a monthly calendar of events.
Issue link: https://loumag.epubxp.com/i/804303
LOUISVILLE MAGAZINE 4.17 131 DESIGN Poster Populist Derby Festival poster artist Ron Jasin has humanized his printing skills. By Jenny Kiefer "Living in Louisville for 20 years, I felt like I had a good un- derstanding of what the Derby Festival was," screen-printing artist Ron Jasin says. "Now that I've become very intimate with it, I've realized I had no idea what the Derby Festival was." e Kentucky Derby Festival has had an official poster since 1981, and this year Jasin designed it in the same style as his popular Louisville neighborhood series: chunky buildings identified by a playful script, dancing figures, iconic features. In the month leading up to Derby, KDF puts on some 70 events (from under Over Louisville and the Pegasus Parade to the Chow Wagon and BalloonFest). Jasin depicted much of it on the post- er. A Pegasus with flowing, lipstick-red wings is in the center. Marathon runners travel throughout the print. e Belle of Louisville is in the Steamboat Race. Bees represent the Spelling Bee. "e one thing that got cut that I was bummed about, but we just couldn't fit it in, was the Bed Races," Jasin says. "I think that's insane that people build beds and do races with them." Jasin, who's in his early 40s and works as creative director at Copper & Kings brandy distillery in Butchertown, began screen-printing in his hometown of De- troit, making T-shirts and posters for local bands. When he moved to Louisville, he gave up his equipment. In the basement of his Germantown home, finished stacks of thick posters stand on tables. "When I was living in apartments, I wasn't doing printing," he says. "(With our house), we