Born near Chattanooga, Tennessee, David Edward Byrd was raised in Miami Beach, Florida, graduating from Miami Beach High School in 1959 • He attended the Boston Museum School and then Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA, where he received a BFA in Painting & Design in 1964 and an MFA in Painting & Printmaking in 1966 • He moved to NYC where he helped establish Fantasy-Ultd., a multi-media collective, in 1967, with art-school roommate Peter Nevard • Through Nevard’s entrepeneurship and the collective’s many talents they created intricate media presentations for clients such as Clairol, Yardley cosmetics, Bill Blass, Ralph Lauren & Polo, Oscar de la Renta, Bloomingdale’s, Dayton’s of Minneapolis, Boussac of France, and Tenneco Chemicals among others • David created projections, art slides, and glass paintings and ran special effects during the various shows, always accompanied by his dogs Moon & Ophelia • The collective, consisting of 3 women and 4 men, lived on a 110 acre farm in Port Jervis, NY, at which they designed and built the various shows they worked on • In early 1968, at the recommendation of art school chums who were running things for Bill Graham at the new Fillmore East in Manhattan’s East Village, David Byrd signed on as the exclusive poster & program designer • Between 1968 & 1973 he created posters for Jimi Hendrix, Jefferson Airplane, the Who & their rock opera Tommy; Traffic, Iron Butterfly, Ravi Shankar, and the Grateful Dead • In 1969 David created the commemorative poster for the legendary Woodstock Festival •