Winnipeg man makes mark with poster designs over the years

Stu Reid is pictured in front of multiple posters he designed in an undated image. (Brittany Reid)

Stu Reid has made a mark on the Manitoba music industry without strapping on a guitar and stepping onto the stage.

If you’ve spent time at a record store or at a music venue around the city, you’ve likely seen one of his posters advertising a gig.

Reid, a self-described “semi-professional music nerd,” turned his passion for graphic design and illustration into a career that allowed him to design posters for bands and artists coming through Winnipeg.

“I was working in record stores, and I’d meet the promoters of concerts, and they’d see a poster for a show they were putting on and ask, ‘Stu, can you do me a poster?’” he said during an interview with CTV News. “And, you know, it kind of took off from there.”

Reid, who is primarily self-taught in graphic design, created posters for local musicians to start his career. One of the first big names he designed a poster for was Steve Earle, who was set to appear in Winnipeg on the 1989 Copperhead Road tour.

“I was a big fan, and it was a big show put on by Nite Out Entertainment, which was the big promoter at the time,” Reid recalls. “I basically took my portfolio of work there and said, ‘I’ll design you a poster for front-row seats.’”

It worked.

Kevin Donnelly, the current senior VP of venues and entertainment with True North Sports and Entertainment, remembers meeting Reid around that time when he worked for Nite Out.

“I think he just walked in off the street; he was not a shy guy,” Donnelly said. “He just walked in the front door and said, ‘I want to make your posters.’”

Donnelly added, “I gave him a shot, and it was the start of something magical. I couldn’t tell you how many posters he did for us.”

Throughout his career, Reid designed posters for Pink Floyd’s 1994 Winnipeg Stadium show, Metallica’s 1989 stop at the Winnipeg Arena, numerous Tragically Hip concerts in the ‘80s and ‘90s, plus many local and Canadian musicians who performed at the West End Cultural Centre, Pyramid Cabaret and other venues.

He also designed posters for Sunfest, the former rock music festival in Gimli, Man.

The time it took Reid to create posters—by hand in those days—ranged from a day for some shows to a week for artists that he was passionate about.

According to Donnelly, designers back in those days had a lot more freedom in designing posters for local markets.

“Nowadays, it’s way more restrictive,” he said. “They supply you with the finished art. They supply you with the graphics, but back then, you could take an image, and we could kind of localize it or make something that we thought resonated.”

Above all, Donnelly said Reid’s work was “never boring.”

“He hand-drew lettering and did lots of freehand work, so it had a unique look to it. He made metal things look metal, and he made the dance things look a little poppier. He made the Americana stuff look folky. He had a good sensibility to create an image that fit the music.”

In addition to the real concert posters, Reid has also helped design posters for hypothetical concerts in Winnipeg, like one for the Rolling Stones Unzipped exhibit that appeared in downtown Winnipeg in 2022.

Memorable poster designs

One of Reid’s favourite posters he designed was for Canadian power pop band the Pursuit of Happiness, best known for their hit “I’m An Adult Now.”

“I’ve probably designed like seven or eight different posters for them, as they’d come through once or twice a year,” he said. “But there was one time they played the Pyramid, and I took the photo of the band that I had, and I put them in KISS makeup, and the band loved the poster so much.

“I’ve gotten to know them a little bit since then, and everybody in the band actually has that poster hanging up in their house. Moe Berg, the leader of the band, said, ‘This is the only Pursuit of Happiness poster I have hanging in my house,’ so that means a lot to me.”

A spokesperson for the band confirmed to CTV News this is indeed the case.

In 2019, Reid had largely wound down his poster design work, but he was asked by Donnelly for a special request.

Sir Elton John stopped in 2019 at Canada Life Centre—then known as Bell MTS Place—on his Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour. The show was sold out, so a poster advertising the event wasn’t needed, but he got a call from Donnelly at the last minute.

John’s camp wanted a poster for the show to go in a book that would be given to the singer at the end of the tour showcasing every stop along the way.

“They wanted something that spoke to the marketplace. In Paris, they wanted to see the Eiffel Tower; in Toronto, the CN Tower,” Donnelly said. “We wanted it to resonate with Winnipeg imagery, but it also had to speak to Elton John, so Stu did a beautiful piece that is in their book.”

“I got a pair of tickets for designing the poster and a feather in my cap. And, yeah, that was fun,” Reid said.

The memories remain

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Reid lost his job and decided to start a website, Gig Posters 204, showing off his poster work over the years, which has taken off.

“It’s gotten to be a historical document of live music in Winnipeg over the decades,” he said.

Reid now sells prints of his posters online, at markets around the city, and at McNally Robinson and Into the Music. He has also sold calendars featuring his original posters.

He enjoys seeing people look through the stacks of posters and trade stories about old concerts.

“It’s not really a job per se; it’s more of a hobby that pays for itself, but it’s really taken off,” he said. “People love looking at this stuff.”