May 21, 2016 – Each year the Grand Prix poster becomes the new trademark for the event and is reproduced on the billboards, on the race program cover, on merchandise and on the event advertising. It almost always features the Marque of the Year and becomes the mark of the event. This year’s artist Tavis Coburn has created a masterpiece that will go down as one of our best ever. The lithograph is printed and available for $100 here. The poster will be ready in mid June.
The iconic E-Type Jaguar is featured on our 2016 poster. Canadian Tavis Coburn‘s work is inspired by 40’s comic book art along with the Russian avante-garde movement and emulates print materials from the 50’s and 60’s. He has created countless works for leading publishing, advertising and music companies in North America and Europe. You may recognize him form the incredible E-Type Jaguar art he created for “E-Type 50 – Fifty Years of a Design Icon”.
The Jaguar on the poster is the actual 1961 E-Type belonging to Alan Patterson. Alan was a founder of the Grand Prix and our first race director when it all began in 1983. The first meetings of the Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix Association where held in his garage!
The second car is a 1955 Jaguar XK140 Fixed head Coupe raced by Tivvy Shenton. Tivvy is a skilled driver known throughout the vintage circles as a great mechanic and a caring soul. He comes up from Blanch, NC each year to inspect the race cars and help with our event on both weekends. According to PVGP executive director Dan DelBianco “we couldn’t think of two more deserving drivers to be featured on the poster. I was concerned that both cars were white and that Tavis would probably want to change one of them to help inject more color into the poster. Instead he used the neutral valuations of the cars to allow him to accentuate the blue sky and create bright yellow backdrop – it all works perfectly. It has been a pleasure to work with someone as talented as Tavis. He has a passion for cars which never hurts.”
Tavis Coburn graduated from California’s prestigious Art Center College of Design with a BFA in Illustration. Since then, Tavis has created countless works for leading publishing, advertising, music companies in North America and Europe.
Tavis loves illustrating cars and has had the opportunity to create art for the Virgin-Marussia Formula One team, Toyota, Volvo, and Mercedes Benz.
Coburn’s unique style is inspired by 1940s comic book art, the Russian avant-garde movement, and printed materials from the 1950s/60s. Over the years Tavis’ work has garnered many accolades, including top honors from The Society of Publication Designers, the Society of Illustrators, American Illustration, Society of Publication Designers, and the Art Directors Club of New York.
Interview with Tavis on DesignBoom
