True Spilt Milk Creates Screen Printed Tour Poster for Vower: A Storm Lined with Silver

When the alt rock and metal band Vower approached True Spilt Milk to create a special edition screen printed poster for their UK and EU winter tour, they brought a clear emotional request. They wanted an image that conveyed the feeling of safety in the midst of chaos. For artist Paul Holbrook-Phillips, the illustrator and designer behind True Spilt Milk, the theme immediately opened a world of imagery. The title of the band’s EP, A Storm Lined with Silver, echoed strongly through his own fascination with the sea and the elements. Living by the coast and drawing inspiration from water in much of his work, he understood the emotional tension of turbulence and calm existing at the same time.

The final concept centred on a figure curled into a foetal position, bathed in warm golden light while a storm circles around them. The glowing stillness against surrounding turmoil became the heart of the piece. Holbrook Phillips credits the clarity of the concept to the flood of imagery that the tour title sparked. He pulled from a mix of reference materials, including Creative Commons photography and his own extensive photo archive, built from years of documenting textures and atmospheres wherever he goes.

With these references he composed the initial design in Photoshop before stripping the colour away to create a clear tonal structure. Once the blacks and whites were balanced and high contrast, he used the digital composition as a guide to hand draw each layer on a Wacom tablet. These illustrated layers would later become the screens for printing, a part of the process that he prefers to hand over to experienced print specialists.

For the printing itself, he collaborated with Well Nice Prints in Norwich, a studio he frequently works with and deeply trusts. Together they selected a three colour palette of dark grey, light grey and an eye catching glittering gold used to represent the light around the central figure. To elevate the theme even further, they added a UV layer that allows all the light elements to glow in the dark. The result is an A2 print on heavy matte stock, both atmospheric and bold, capable of shifting in appearance as lighting changes.

The project, in Holbrook Phillips’ words, was a complete joy from start to finish. The band was enthusiastic, the printers were laid back and collaborative, and the creative process felt natural at every step. For him, these are the kinds of moments that make working in illustration and design exciting. The edition was limited to fifty prints and only a handful remain available through Vower’s Bandcamp page. The band themselves expressed their excitement, stating that the tour prints came out looking incredible and thanking both True Spilt Milk and Well Nice Prints for bringing the artwork to life.

True Spilt Milk is the award winning art and design practice of Paul Holbrook Phillips. His intricate and colourful illustrations have appeared across the music industry in album artwork, merchandise, gig posters and stage backdrops. His collaborators span from folk and pop artists such as Villagers, Katherine Priddy and Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys to heavy acts including URNE, Conjurer and Mastiff. He also creates alternative movie posters and works with galleries across the UK and internationally.