Akashic Books, 155 pages, trade paperback, $24.95

Ever have the dream of writing a letter to one of your favorite musicians and having them write back to you? How about writing them a letter, asking them if they’d like for you to make them posters? And then step it up a notch: ever dream of them getting back in touch and offering you a full time job? Probably not, because it sounds awfully far-fetched. And certainly not if you’re talking about a band as big as Pearl Jam. That being said, Pearl Jam wasn’t always one of the biggest bands in the world, but they were pretty big when a young Brad Klausen, fresh out of school for graphic design, wrote them exactly that letter and they offered him a job.

For the nearly 10 years that Klausen was the in-house designer for Pearl Jam he created countless posters for them (and for several other bands: Queens of the Stone Age, Built To Spill, Soundgarden, and the Black Keys, among others). Many of these posters ended up in a beautifully designed collection of his work featuring primarily — you guessed it — work that he did for Pearl Jam.

What makes this book special isn’t that he got to work with some great bands (although it is pretty spectacular how he got into the business), but that it actually goes through and explains (and better yet, shows) the process Klausen went through to design every single one of the posters in the book. Not only this, but there are also short vignettes about the pieces, which really add another layer of depth to the artwork.

Chances are, Pearl Jam isn’t going to hire you to be their next in-house graphic designer, and even more so, they probably shouldn’t because your art doesn’t look as good as Klausen’s. But it feels pretty nice to live vicariously through him, if only for 155 pages.