After last year’s 300 person sellout event at Sheffield’s Trafalgar Warehouse, Vice Press return in 2024 to host their second annual Open House Poster Convention and Social at The Steamworks, a venue with over double the capacity.
The event is dedicated to poster collecting and features some of the UK’s best artists, designers, makers and independent vendors.
Matt Ferguson, co-owner of Vice Press said: “I’m from Sheffield, I’ve lived here all my life, and there’s not much of these kinds of conventions here. I think it’s the only poster convention like it in the UK.”
Vice Press is a Yorkshire based company which produces posters and premium collectibles mostly for movies.
Mr Ferguson said: “We wanted to make the art that we want without having an art director telling us what to do. I’m proud that we’ve grown it into a business that’s got enough artists on the roster to start our own event here.”
Before the pandemic Vice Press held an ‘open day’ at their office in Rotherham thinking only a few people would come and that it would be fun for their hardcore fans. Over a hundred people showed up.
There’s a large lineup of not so well known and very well known guests and vendors.
They are collaborating with Mark Woodyatt from the Mark & Me podcast to host live podcasts with artists and host talks about what it’s like to work in the industry and how they come up with artwork.
Lots of the guests are frequent collaborators with Vice Press, and many of the vendors have released through Vice Press before.
Mr Ferguson said: “We’d love to let the event grow organically. The event’s like the business, we started with like nothing and we were doing prints in editions of fifty of stuff and now it’s organically grown over the years into quite a legitimate big business.
“Our vendors aren’t just selling action figures or reprinted posters, they’re selling their own work. It’s more curated, it’s great when you go to those big conventions and there’s lots of people selling all sorts, but it’s more commercial. We want it to be more artist and creator driven.”
They are collaborating with Celluloid Screams for a screening of RoboCop after the event at the Showroom Cinema at 8pm.
Open House will be held on June 8 at The Steamworks between 11am-6pm and tickets are £12.