Byrd also created the posters for Little Shop of Horrors and Godspell.
David Edward Byrd, whose posters defined the rock and roll of the 1960s and set a Broadway standard with his work for Follies, has died at the age of 83.
Byrd had been hospitalized with pneumonia, according to social media posts from husband Jolino Beserra, and he was suffering from lung and heart scarring after a bout with Covid.
A Carnegie-Mellon graduate, Byrd was hired by rock promoter Bill Graham to create posters for the newly opened music venue Fillmore East. Over the next serval years, Byrd and his artist collective Fantasy Unlimited created now-iconic posters for the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Traffic, the Grateful Dead, Iron Butterfly, Jefferson Airplane, and many others. He also designed posters for the 1969 American tour of the Rolling Stones, the Who’s 1970 performance of Tommy at the Metropolitan Opera, and solo albums by the members of KISS.
On Broadway, Byrd created the iconic poster art for the original productions of Follies, Godspell, and Little Shop of Horrors, among others. He discussed his inspiration for the Follies design in an interview in 2021, which you can read here.
Later in his career, Byrd designed for venues around Los Angeles like the Mark Taper Forum and Pasadena Playhouse. From 1991-2002, he was a senior illustrator at Warner Brothers, working on Looney Tunes and other animated works. He collaborated with J.K. Rowling to create a visual language for artwork related to the Harry Potter films.
Byrd’s survivors include longtime partner Beserra. His work is represented in the 2023 tome Poster Child: The Psychedelic Art & Technicolor Life of David Edward Byrd.