Psychedelia to Punk

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The 1960’s and 70’s defined very iconic and unique styles in the history of design. The changing style was brought about by an increasing number of people (especially the younger generation) who sought to challenge cultural “norms” and began to question difficult/ controversial topics including civil rights, the Vietnam War, nuclear proliferation, the environment, drug use, sexual freedom, nonconformity. These themes carried throughout fashion, design, advertising and a lot of other media at the time.

Psychedelia

The sixties saw the rise of the Psychedelic movement with an increased use hallucinogenic drugs like LSD. The style was motivated by a large youth movement pushing non-conformity. It presented itself in many aspects of art, music, fashion and design.

The style took inspiration from Art Nouveau, as well as modern influences such as Pop Art and Op Art (see below for examples of this style) that were present around the same time.

  • The Pop Art style:
    “Marilyn Monroe”, Andy Warhol (1967)
  • The Op Art (optical art) style:
    “Movement in Squares”, Bridget Riley (1961)

The Psychedelic style was characterised by free flowing forms, heavily styled, thick, curvy lettering and hard to read fonts, surreal subject matter and the strong use of bright, vibrant colours, (particularly opposite colours), similar to what is seen in Pop Art.

Album covers for records and posters for gigs and music events were a dominant vessel for the psychedelic style and some designers became well known for their works in these forms.

  • “The Byrds, Moby Grape, Andrew Staples at the Winterland”, Wes Wilson (1967)
  • “The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators” Album Artwork (1966)
  • “Poster Show”, Victor Moscoso (1967)
  • “Skeletons and Roses”, Stanley Mouse and Alton Kelly (1966):
  • “The Yardbirds, The Doors”, Bonnie Maclean (1967)


  • “The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Axis: Bold as Love” Album Art (1967)

Punk

Flowing on from Psychedelia, punk had its roots in an “anti-establishment” agenda and its primary purpose was to oppose and reject.

The Punk style was rough and gritty and often included elements of collage, cut-out lettering, hand drawn images and type. The idea of the rough style is that anybody could recreate it at home, cutting and pasting shapes and type to create a composition, rather than having to use professional processes. On the surface it seemed to disregard design principles entirely, but underneath it all, aimed to question standards or and defy what is believed to be correct.

  • Ramones fan club mail-out (1977)



  • “Sex Pistols, God Save the Queen”, Jamie Reid (1977)
  • “Sex Pistols, Pretty Vacant”, Jamie Reid (1977)

Corporate

At the same time as the “psychedelic 60’s”, corporate companies were beginning to realise the importance of cohesive branding and visual marketing when it came to their advertising and overall presentation to the public. This is where we saw the first uses of style guides to demonstrate how and where to use a brand logo and other related assets.

Designers such as Saul Bass and Paul Rand developed some iconic works in the 60’s and 70’s, some of which are still used in their original forms today, because of just how powerful and effective they are.

  • IBM logo and style guide, Paul Ran (1972)
  • Logo for Continental Airlines, Saul Bass (1968)

Typography

Advances in technology around this time also meant that type could be produced with finer lines, tighter spacing between letters and higher levels of detail and decoration and artistic input when it came to working with typography. Herb Lubalin is certainly an iconic designer famous for his creative use of typography during this time period and certainly demonstrated a world of possibilities were well within our grasp.

  • “Art Direction” May 1961, Herb Lubalin
  • “The Sound of Music”, Herb Lubalin (1965)

The flourish of different styles and experimentation of design during this time period showed much more personal expression in graphic design than ever before. While the Psychedelic and Punk styles aren’t overly prevalent in today’s society, there is still a lot of nostalgia for people who grew up in this era and it can definitely be useful in certain contexts quite effectively.

Below are some such modern designs that have been inspired by the styles from this iconic time period:

  • “Ballhooter Festival Poster”, MANTSA (2020)
  • A modern recreation of the above Sex Pistols album cover:
    “Pretty Disobedient”, Shepard Fairey (2001)
  • Modern psychedelic design for “Mad Men”
    “Mad Men”, Milton Glasser 2014

Wallpaper

This week we have yet another wallpaper pattern, this one is my best attempt at a psychedelic pattern:

“Psychedelia(?)”, Cody Green (2021)

References

Images:

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