Carlo Domeniconi performs his guitar compositions on large stages at concerts and festivals worldwide, but was seldom to be seen in Berlin, where he has lived for many years. In 2009 he began a series of smaller, more intimate concerts for friends, colleagues, students and fans in and around Berlin, at a variety of venues, including churches and art galleries. Concerts often feature guest appearances by other instrumentalists and singers. He also gives workshops and classes for young guitarists.

Carlo has been described as the "Grenzgänger der klassischen Gitarre" (literally, border-crosser of the classical guitar), mainly because many of his works synthesize elements of western classical music with influences from the formal and informal (folk) music of a variety of cultures (Italian, Turkish, Indian, Brazilian, Argentinian, Andean, Russian, Welsh ...), as well as several other genres, including jazz, rock and bossa nova.

Ursa Major Design designs the publicity material for these events, which include posters, postcards and e-flyers in various formats.

The first series of posters (2009-2010) used photos of Carlo taken during an informal photo session in Kreuzberg, Berlin in May 2009. He played his favourite instrument, a guitar made by Luigi Mozzoni in 1938.

For a series of postcards and posters for Carlo Domeniconi solo concerts in Berlin in 2103-2014, I used a photo of Carlo's Luigi Mozzoni guitar. The visual concept was simple: the guitar itself as the vehicle by which the listener is tranported on magical journeys of imagination by Carlo's music.

The background landscape photos were taken on physical journeys: the first is the Aegean coast near Aristotle's home town of Stageira, northern Greece; the second is from an aeroplane flying over the Balkans.

After using the landscape backgrounds for several concerts, for the final design in the series I designed a more abstract background, partly to distinguish it from the previous postcards which were still in circulation.

The postcard is a particularly good publicity medium in a city like Berlin. Posters require a lot of time and energy to distribute, and they quickly disappear beneath newer ephemera. City dwellers are continually bombarded by advertising images everywhere they go, and quickly become immured to them. Even if your poster is noticed, the interested passer-by has to make the conscious effort to remember or copy the information displayed (date, time, venue of an event, internet link), even in the age of smartphones and QR codes. Postcards, on the other hand, are eminently portable, and can be sent or handed to people directly, or displayed in shops, restaurants, cafes, libraries, schools, etc., where members of the public can slip one in a pocket or bag for later reference. Some people even collect them.

Carlo Domeniconi's annual, long, February concerts in Berlin have become something of a tradition over the years. The popular German phrase "Alle Jahre wieder" (literally, every year again) has several connotations, but is often used to refer to annual meetings of friends or families at events such as Christmas, New Year or birthdays, and it is no coincidence that these concerts take place around Carlo's own birthday. In a festive atmosphere several guest musicians and performers gather to provide an evening of extraordinary entertainment.

When it comes to imagery, Carlo has his own particular predilictions, and often gives me an drawing or photo he has made himself to be used in a design (as in the case of the postcard for 12 Preludes for mandolin). This time he sent me a photo, shadow and all, he had taken with his mobile phone of a score which happened to be on his notestand as he was contemplating the design for the 2013 concert. Very contemporary, very spontaneous, very Carlo. And who am I to complain? After all, it was his party.

The challenge was to employ the photographic background so that the mass of text remained clear and legible from a distance, even on a gloomy evening on a Berlin street.

The poster designs for 2013 and 2014, like other posters I have recently designed, included a QR code linked to online information about the events. This did not produce much response: it seems that the kind of people who are interested in this kind of event are not the kind of people who have yet accustomed themselves to using this kind of technology. Time will tell if this changes.

For the 2015 posters and postcards for Carlo Domeniconi's solo concerts in and around Berlin, we switched back to a more direct, close-up image of Carlo playing guitar. The photo is a frame of a video made in a recording studio by Marcus Waibel, the producer of Carlo's Selected Works CD series.

As a photographer and designer I have an aversion to out-of-focus shots, but have to admit that such things are a matter of taste and context. In any event, it received the approval of many.

The poster was to cover the entire 2015 (and perhaps beyond), and since the concert schedule for the whole year had not been fixed at time of printing, a blank area was left at the bottom so that labels could be applied to announce specific concerts. An old tried-and-tested trick of designers and event organizers.

By the end of Summer 2015 the schedule for Autumn-Winter had been nailed down, and we could produce a postcard with fixed dates and venues.

As usual, the design was redeployed for a number of special paper and electronic flyers.

The Internationale Sommerakademie (International Summer Academy) has attracted young students of the classical guitar to the village of Greiffenberg, near Berlin, every summer since 2008. The academy is organized by the local community. Carlo Domeniconi and other seasoned guitarists, including Nora Buschmann and Ricardo Moyano, give practical tutorials and workshops (they are too modest to name them masterclasses).

During the week-long academy, free public concerts of performances by students and maestros are held in the churches of local villages. A summer idyll with strings.

The visual design of the poster, which contains a mass of text information, has to be kept simple and low key. Once again, the instantly recognizable form of the guitar does most of the work.

Carlo Domeniconi's guitar improvisations are often sublime. Some of his concerts consist solely of improvisations, a few of them have been recorded, and he has even attempted to write scores for a number of these complex pieces. His most famous work Koyunbaba began life as an improvisation he played in a small Turkish village in 1984.

Improvisation technique, involving a range of skills and sensibilities, is something many guitarists are keen to develop. In October 2015 Carlo held his first Meeting with Music improvisation workshop, after which he and the other participants gave a concert to demonstrate the results. Further workshops and concerts are planned for 2016.

The design for the concert poster is a drawing of an imaginary guitar rosette as a mandala. The message is flow, rhythm, time. Originally, I wanted to work the elements into a realistic image, with the textures of materials (mother of pearl and exotic wood) used by guitar-makers, and plays of light and shadow. Unfortunately, such work takes considerable time, for which the schedule and budget did not allow. Still, one hopes that the image as is remains arresting.

Carlo Domeniconi and the Brazilian guitarist and composer Silvia Ocougne have performed together many times, and she played on Carlo's CD Selected Works IV: Chamber music. Their special concert in Berlin in October 2015 featured duo and solo performances.

The illustration for the poster design has a slightly retro (post World War II) look.

The first posters for 2016. This year we are returning to using photos.

"Gespräche zur Musik" (Talking of music) was the title of two series of open evenings of words and music with Carlo Domeniconi, in which he discussed with the audience and demonstrated on the guitar various aspects of music.

"From whichever style we approach music, whether pop, jazz, Baroque or Romantic, it always comes down to what music means to people and how it affects them." Carlo Domeniconi

A large poster for another of Carlo's annual series of long February concerts in Berlin, which are in fact mini international guitar festivals featuring several very fine musicians from various countries. The 2017 line-up included guitarists Pavel Steidl, Cem Çeliksırt, Simon Hertling, Jaime Muthesius, Julia Schüler, Kanahi Yamashita, Fabian Zeller as well as the singer Ivana Bilej Brukova.

Carlo took the photo for the poster in a German forest. Impossible to see in this reduced version is the small treehouse.

In 2018 the "February concerts" were scheduled for March, this time with the title Festival, featuring guitarists Kanahi Yamashita, Jaime Muthesius, Ricardo Moyano and Carlo Domeniconi.

The design follows the abstract strain begun with the "Gespräche zur Musik" series.

BACH ~ fluss is where the strictly precise music of Bach, performed by the young Japanese guitarist Kanahi Yamashita, meets Carlo's free-flowing forms.