AUG 20DEC 13
History is like a winding thread— catching bits of
wisdom and bravery from past generations as it weaves.
Letter From the Editors This past season has left everyone feeling something. Be it anger, fear, passion, pride, sorrow, or gratitude, there is a voice within you itching to be expressed. It is unique, but it isn’t the first. The 60s saw chaos to a similar degree. The Vietnam War, President Kennedy’s assassination, and the Civil Rights Act set the foundation of the decade. What did people do when they were met with destruction and disarray? They responded. They didn’t let fear silence them. Instead they reacted with their words and designs and lyrics. Their actions shouted their refusal to play a passive role in their own lives. With this cry they broke the antiquated mold that tried to shape them. They became the counterculture. They uprooted tradition and wrote a narrative of creativity and hope. History is like a winding thread—catching bits of wisdom and bravery from past generations as it weaves. In order to navigate ahead, sometimes we need to trace the line back. We hope you let their stories inspire you.
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Contents: 5
1960
69
1966
21
1961
79
1967
25
1962
95
1968
29
1963
107
1969
47
1964
133
Credits
59
1965
How to Use This Book 1. Learn
Read the stories of people who changed the world and put yourself in their shoes.
2. Reflect
There will be breakpoints throughout the book to help you think about key people and moments.
3. Discuss
Use these breakpoints to start conversations with yourself and your classmates about what counterculture looks, sounds, and feels like.
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Write it Down:
1960
Problems and Solutions: From corporate identity to political protests
Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv
Solving the Identity Crisis:
Ivan Chermayeff & Tom Geismar A big-time player in the identity and branding world, Chermayeff and Geismar have been in business since 1958. They have designed logos for international corporations including Chase Bank, National Geographic, Merck, Mobil, PanAm, PBS and many others. Both Chermayeff and Geismar studied at the Yale University School of Art and Architecture, combined they have been involved in over 100 major identity development projects since the inception of the firm. Their approach to design problems is renowned for the amount of collaboration involved and client involvement in the process through which they work. While Robert Brownjohn was involved in the early years of their development, they parted ways after only a few years together. They have operated under several versions of the Chermayeff and Geismar name over the years and have completed an immense amount of work with various other partners. Their website showcases a nice chronology of their work. Design is History
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Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv
Chermayeff & Geismar: Mobil Design
“I know it’s something of a cliché to say this, but we really do view graphic design, and especially logo design, as a problem solving process, a process not dissimilar to that used in other related disciplines such as architecture and engineering. The initial task is to understand and define what the issues are, and what the goals should be. With that background in mind, we strive to come up with the best possible design “solution” to the problem, using imagination and artistic invention to create something memorable and meaningful. In that sense, our approach has not changed at all. The way we went about designing logos for Armani Exchange and the Library of Congress in 2008 is essentially the same as the way we went about designing logos for Chase and Mobil in the 1960’s.” - Tom Geismar
Reflect: What are some different ways you can creatively problem solve?
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Chermayeff & Geismar: Mobil 1964 Look closer:
What are some problems with the older logo design?
How can design be a tool to solve visual problems?
Reflect:
Do you think a simple logo is more or less effective? Why or why not?
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New York Times
The goal is always to make something simple and memorable. You must be as clear and direct as possible. Ivan Chermayeff
13
The Impact of Chermayeff & Geismar Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv is the brand design firm behind many of the world’s most recognizable trademarks. Since 1957, the firm has pioneered the modern movement of idea-driven graphic design across every discipline, specializing in brand identities, exhibitions, print and motion graphics, and art in architecture. The firm has a global reach, with projects in Europe, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East as well as throughout the United States. It is led by its founding partner, designer Tom Geismar, partner and designer Sagi Haviv, and principal designers Mackey Saturday and Melanie McElduff. Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv is known for a collaborative, problem-solving approach to design, with personal involvement by all principals in every project and continuous attention to the details and nuances of projects as they evolve. Cghnyc.com
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Addressing the Injustice:
Sit-In Protests A generation’s willingness to unite over injustice says a lot about their ability to enact change. The Greensboro sit-in was a civil rights protest that started in 1960, when young African American students staged a sit-in at a segregated Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, and refused to leave after being denied service. The sit-in movement soon spread to college towns throughout the South. Though many of the protesters were arrested for trespassing, disorderly conduct or disturbing the peace, their actions made an immediate and lasting impact, forcing Woolworth’s and other establishments to change their segregationist policies. This brave act of cultural defiance set the stage for a decade packed with renewal and reform. History.com
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Write it Down:
1961
Bob Dylan:
Singer, songwriter,
social advocate.
Rolling Stones
The Voice of a Generation:
Bob Dylan If you were a teenager in the 1960s it would be impossible not to know Bob Dylan. Even though he appeared to be a singer he was so much more than that; with his influence he would impact a whole generation. Bob Dylan was a folk singer who was involved with the Civil Rights Movement and even performed with other prominent singers. He impacted the music world by being one of the first musicians to take an active role on moral issues. Dylan was essential, by uniting people through his music. If Dylan was not around there are many movements that might not have been as successful if they did not have a pop culture icon like Dylan being an advocate. TheInkwell
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Write it Down:
1962
Call for Peace: Consequences of the Cuban Missile
Crisis
The Atlantic
Result of Unrest:
Cuban Missile Crisis The Cuban Missile Crisis was a key moment that shaped society in 1962. During the 13-day political stand-off between the United States and the Soviet Union, people held their breath as government leaders settled peace agreements. These days of fear and uncertainty prompted the Nation to call for peace. As a result, people became a more united front against political hostility. Bryan Odell
Reflect: How do political events shape society?
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Write it Down:
1963
Breaking Tradition: From Japanise modernism to
peaceful protests
For the Modern World:
Ikko Tanaka: Tanaka Design Studio 1963 Born in Nara, Japan in 1930, Ikko Tanaka created a style of graphic design that fused modernism principles and aesthetics with the Japanese tradition. As a child he studied art and as a young adult he was involved in modern drama and theatrical study groups. In 1963 he formed Tanaka Design Studio where he worked for corporations such as Mazda, Hanae Mori, Issey Miyake and the International Garden and Greenery Exhibition. Tanaka is renowned for his fusion of modernist sensibilities and traditional Japanese culture through the simplified illustration of a geisha. He designed, among other things, posters, logos, packaging and annual reports. Among his wide ranging work, his designs for the symbols for the Expo ‘85 in Tsukuba and the World City Expo Tokyo ‘96 garnered much attention. He died in 2002 of a heart attack at the age of 71.
As a relentless promoter of visual expression, Tanaka strove to achieve universal aesthetic value beyond regional or cultural barriers, which can be seen in his countless designs of posters, logos, trademarks, books and packages. Through his vision, forms drawn from traditional ukiyo-e (pictures of the floating world) were reduced into striking abstract designs to promote cultural events. Including Hanae Mori and Issey Miyake and Mazda Corporation, Tanaka was able to bridge the gap between fine art and the commercial sector. Bryan Odell
TL Magazine
Tanaka is most well-known for his poster design for the Nihon Buyo performance by the Asian Performing Arts Institute.
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Ikko Tanaka: Fashion and Design
Photographies Retouchées
Club 21
As the distinction between fashion, graphic design and art becomes ever more blurred, Issey Miyake’s latest collaborative offering revels in such indistinction. His new micro-collection is emblazoned with the graphic artwork of Ikko Tanaka, a keystone of 20th century Japanese art. Tanaka’s deceptively simple oeuvre uses block colours and overlaid geometric forms to explore the boundaries of abstraction and realistic portraiture. Once art, now clothing, Miyake revitalises Tanaka’s legacy in this new series of dresses, coats and bags. Miyake and Tanaka were acquainted, and held each other’s work in high regard. They met in the sixties and maintained a close friendship until Tanaka’s death in 2002. Just over a decade after his passing, Miyake’s reinterpretation of his work is a timely homage, from one Japanese icon to another. Tanaka’s tome Variations of Bold Symbols (1992) is a mosaic of colour blocks adorned with hand-drawn symbols.
It vividly celebrates abstraction and eschews any recognisable human form. His work for the 200th anniversary of the artist Tōshūsai Sharaku’s birth, however, layers circular forms into the shape of a peeping face, a traditional form of portraiture known as Okubi-e for which Sharaku earned his fame. His most famous work, Nihon Buyo (1981), blends these two modes of creation, tessellating stark geometric shapes into the abstract form of a geisha. While Tanaka’s designs are now most commonly reproduced on posters or in books on Japanese art, Miyake’s creations seek to recontextualise his work, introducing the dynamism of the body to the vitality of the artist’s aesthetic. Bryan Odell
Reflect: How can art cross barries of medium (i.e. design and fashion)?
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Ikko Tanaka: Let’s Takeaway Violence From our Streets 1960 Look closer:
How does the image add to the piece?
How does this piece transcend language barriers?
Discuss:
How can this piece open a conversation about violence today?
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Weingart was most influential as a teacher and a design philosopher. He began teaching at the Basel School of Design, where he was appointed an instructor of typography by Armin Hofman in 1963. He also taught for the Yale University Summer Design Program in Brissago. Throughout his entire career he spent time traveling and lecturing throughout Europe, the Americas, Asia and Australia.
He taught a new approach to typography that influenced the development of New Wave, Deconstruction and much of graphic design in the 1990s. While he would contest that what he taught was also Swiss Typography, since it developed naturally out of Switzerland, the style of typography that came from his students led to a new generation of designers that approached most design in an entirely different manner than traditional Swiss typography. Design is History
Uprooting the Process:
Weingart’s innovative way of working, with a conscious focus on iterative design process, has changed the way the world approaches design. In this way, his “remixing” process has fundamentally changed the way the world receives information via visual communication. Image by Baseline Magazine
Kenny Phillips
Wolfgang Weingart: New Wave Typography
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A New Way of Speaking: Martin Luther King Jr: I Have a Dream 1963 Martin Luther King, Jr. was a social activist and Baptist minister who played a key role in the American Civil Rights Movement from the mid-1950s until his assassination in 1968. King sought equality and human rights for African Americans, the economically disadvantaged and all victims of injustice through peaceful protest.
He was the driving force behind watershed events such as the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the 1963 March on Washington, which helped bring about such landmark legislation as the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act. King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 and is remembered each year on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, a U.S. federal holiday since 1986. Bryan Odell
Ron Edmonds/ AP Photos
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Martin Luther King Jr. Day: History of the Holiday On November 2, 1983, President Ronald Reagan signed the King Holiday Bill into law, designating the third Monday in January a federal holiday in observance of Civil Rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The legislation to recognize Martin Luther King Jr. Day was first introduced just four days after his assassination on April 4, 1968. Still, it would take 15 years of persistence by Civil Rights activists for the holiday to be approved by the federal government and an additional 17 years for it to be recognized in all 50 states. Today, it is the only federal holiday designated as a national day of service to encourage all Americans to volunteer and improve their communities. Bryan Odell
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True peace is not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice. Martin Luther King Jr.
Nobel Foundation Archive
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Martin Luther King Jr.: March on Washington 1963 Look closer:
What messages are written on the protesters’ signs?
Is this image still relevant?
Discuss:
How does Martin Luther King Jr. impact the political climate today?
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Write it Down:
1964
Pioneers: Posters, protests, and presidents
All images from Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv
A Brand New Look:
Chermayeff & Geismar: MoMA 1964 When the Museum of Modern Art underwent a major expansion, a clean and straightforward typographic identity was established. A colorful graphic device was also developed. It features basic geometric forms—the square, the triangle, and the circle—in repeat patterns and has been used in packaging, on products, and on banners both to announce the openings of new exhibitions and to make the entrance more visible from Fifth Avenue. Cghnyc.com
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Digital recreation by The Logo Smith
Reworking and Reimagining:
Yusaku Kamekura: Tokyo Olympics 1964 Tokyo had been awarded the Games once before; it was meant to host the canceled 1940 Olympics, succeeding the Nazi spectacle in Berlin in 1936. The architects and designers of the 1964 Games therefore had to satisfy a clear ideological goal: This was to be a showcase of New Japan, pacifist and forward-dawning, largely free of classical Japanese aesthetics or traditional national symbols. No Fuji, no cherry blossoms, and no calligraphy. And any expression of national pride has to be as distanced as possible from the old imperial militarism. Devising the look of Tokyo ‘64 fell to Yusaku Kamekura, the dean of Japanese graphic designers, who had imbibed modern design from the Bauhaus-trained professors of Tokyo’s Institute of New Architecture and Industrial Arts.
Where past Olympics posters had relied on figurative, often explicitly Greco-Roman imagery, Kamekura distilled Tokyo’s ambitions to the simplest of emblems: the five interlocking rings, all gold, topped by a huge red disc, the rising sun. Kamekura’s poster didn’t just spurn western expectations of the “exotic” Orient for hard, clean modernity. More impressive than that, it rebooted the Japanese flag — which was all but banned during the first years of American occupation — as a symbol for a democratic state. The same bold aesthetic would also characterize Kamekura’s second (and, for 1964, technically daunting) Olympics poster, with a full-bleed, split-second photograph of runners against a black background. Jason Farago
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Yusaku Kamekura
Left: Design is History, Right: Avidd Design / Twitter
Born in the Niigate prefecture in Japan and a student of the Institute of New Architecture and Industrial Arts, Yusaku Kamekura was more than acquainted with the Bauhaus principles and sense of design. Starting his design career at the publishing company Nippon Kaupapu, Kamekura has more than half a decade of experience in the design world. Combining the influences of the Bauhaus with insight to his traditional heritage, his work is recognized for its colorfully minimalist approach.
Perhaps most well known for his work for the Tokyo 1964 Olympics, he combined modernist principles and typography with the Japanese cultural heritage through the simplistic combination of the words “Tokyo 1964”, the Olympic rings, and the sun from the Japanese flags. His work for the Olympics also marked the first time that photography was used to promote the event. Another success of equal magnitude was his poster design for the 1970 Expo in Osaka, which won several national and international design awards. Design is History
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Breaking New Ground:
Civil Rights Act Until the Civil Rights Act of 1964, segregation kept the United States divided. Though slavery was abolished in 1865, the African American population was treated far from equal. The 60s amplified voices like Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., and John Lewis to rally a generation for change. These leaders took to the streets, demanding the equality promised to them by the infamous declaration that “all men are created equal”. They inspired the nation to rebel against societal norms and fight for justice. They used their voices, their writing, and their art to break barriers. Bryan Odell
Reflect: Name someone who uses their influence to advocate.
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Visual Revolution:
George Lois While he is one of the most successful creative advertisers of the 20th centuries, George Lois is quick to recognize his upbringing. Born to a hard-working Greek family, Lois grew up in the Bronx where he started working in his father’s flower shop at the age of 5. His early career brought him in contact with the CBS Advertising department, Sudler & Hennessy and Herb Lubalin and he would probably be the first person to admit that he owes them a debt of gratitude saying “People who don’t think they owe something to somebody are crazy”. Wherever it is that he came from, he has left his mark on the advertising world through his successful work for MTV, VH1, Esquire, ESPN, Tommy Hilfiger and USA Today.
In 1959 Lois began working at the advertising agency that would give birth to big idea thinking and the revolution of the advertising industry, Doyle Dane Bernbach (DDB). Not a huge fan of the current state of the advertising world, he has proclaimed that advertising is an art and not a science and that only mediocre ideas need testing. While his career has afforded him many successes it is undoubtedly his covers for Esquire that are most recognized. Throughout the 1960s and 70s Lois worked with editor Harold Hayes to create covers for the magazine that effectively represented some of the most notable ideas of their time. Design is History
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Magazine Designing
George Lois: Esquire Magazine
Just a few days after the December issue of Esquire reached newsstands, on November 22, 1963, President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. For the first time Esquire’s three-month production time seemed too short. The January issue was already at the printers. This meant the magazine would not be able to weigh in on Kennedy’s death until 1964. Hayes watched news reports of Kennedy’s death and its aftermath, and decided to go in another direction. He asked Tom Wicker, New York Times correspondent, to write about Kennedy in an unsentimental way. Wicker produced a memorable assessment of Kennedy’s political life for the June 1964 issue.
“Kennedy Without Tears” served as both headline and cover line for the story, and George Lois provided another one of his great works. The cover was a full-page sepia-toned photograph of Kennedy staring straight out at the reader. At the bottom of the page there was a man’s hand holding a white handkerchief, depicted in full color, dabbed at a spot beneath the president’s left eye. Above the handkerchief, spilled tears beaded up on the photograph. Another cover that stirred some emotions in the grieving public. Nikola MagazineDesign.com
Reflect: How can art convey emotion?
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Write it Down:
1965
Words on the Wall: The impact of publications, television, and
letters
Putting a Face to the Name:
George Lois: Heroes of American Youth 1965 Bob Dylan, Malcolm X, Fidel Castro and John F. Kennedy, Sept. 1965 “The Esquire connection came about,” he recalled, in June 1962, when the editor Harold Hayes called looking for advice about covers. When Mr. Lois learned that Esquire covers were conceived and assigned by an editorial committee, he said: ‘Is that what you do when you assign a story to Talese or to Mailer — you have a group grope? You need to get one guy who understands the culture, who likes comic strips, goes to the ballet, visits the Metropolitan Museum.” According to Mr. Lois, Mr. Hayes replied, ‘Hey, pal, could you do me a favor? Could you do just do me one cover — to show me what the hell you’re talking about?’ New York Times
“For this Esquire College Issue, in a time when we still embraced heroes, I created this composite of the men I chose as the leading heroes in the eyes of the American youth. Bob Dylan, Malcom X, Fidel Castro and John Kennedy are divided (and joined) by the crosshairs of a rifle sight. Kennedy and Malcolm had been murdered, and Castro (we now know) escaped several assassination attempts, and has been named as a possible sourse of JFK’s assassination. Dylan remained to compose and sing of that violent, revolting age. Today, alas, without heroes, we must make do with celebrities.” - George Lois The Inkwell
Image from Modernizor.Tumblr
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Robert Bryant Magazine Plazm
Creativity can solve almost any problem. The creative act, the defeat of habit by originality, overcomes everything. George Lois
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Spelling It Out:
Lou Dorfsman Dorfsman studied at the Cooper Union, where he received a four-year scholarship, and it was not long after his graduation that he began working for CBS. In 1964 he became the design director for all of CBS, and he became Vice President and Creative Director of the CBS Broadcast group in 1968. As the design director he oversaw the use of the infamous CBS eye logo, produced annual reports and other promotional materials and designed the interior signage and graphics of the entire CBS building, designed by architect Eero Saarinen. One of his most revered works was the Gastrotypographicalassemblage, a 35-foot long wall of carved wooden words, created for the dining area in the building. Design is History
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Lou Dorfsman: Gastrotypographicalassemblage 1966
In 1965 Lou Dorfsman, then Creative Director for the CBS television network, was actively involved in the design of the interior and exterior graphics in the company’s new home at 51 West 52nd Street in New York City, designed by Eero Saarinen. He designed every aspect of the interior wayfinding using the custom version of Didot he commissioned, which was applied to everything, including replacing the numerals on 80 or so electric clocks being installed throughout the building. Best of all, he was able to somehow convince the fire inspectors to allow him to apply the same typeface to the typically strictly regulated exit signs. Encountering the large blank wall of the staff cafeteria he proposed to Frank Stanton, then President of CBS, that they do something with it. He suggested making a large mural based on the design of a printer’s job case, filled with cutout, dimensional words relating to food and other food objects.
With Stanton’s encouragement Dorfsman executed a rough sketch, and made a full-size sample panel. Once the sample was approved he enlisted his close friend Herb Lubalin to help design the eight additional panels. Lubalin, with the assistance of Tom Carnase, worked out the remaining compositions and lettering under Dorfsman’s direction. The result was a nine-panel, three-dimensional mural (8’ high, 33’wide) now known as the Gastrotypographicalassemblage. The original sample panel became the fourth panel from the left in the final composition. It was installed in the CBS cafeteria in 1966, and remained there for 23 years. Alexander Tochilovsky Typographics
Kemistry Gallery
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Write it Down:
1966
Awaken the mind: War and
Psychedelics
George Lois: Esquire Cover 1966 Look closer:
Why do you think the quote is on the cover?
How does this piece make you feel?
Based on this work, what do you think is the artist’s stance on the Vietnam war?
Learn more:
George Lois designed the cover for a chilling account from the Vietnam War. Using white text on a black background, Lois highlights a quote when a soldier realizes his team has detonated an explosive that hit a child. Spencer Raulee
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Source of Inspiration:
Wes Wilson: Wes Wilson, the father of the 1960s rock concert poster, came into the world via Sacramento, California on July 15, 1937. As a child his interests meandered among artistic pursuits and an intense love for the natural world. His post-secondary studies reflected these interests; he focused for a time on forestry and horticulture before eventually coming to philosophy. By the latter half of the 1960s Wes found much inspiration in the avantgarde neighborhoods of San Francisco and he soon found himself creating fine art for the masses.
His style, inspired by the Art Nouveau masters, took what was understood about promotional art and turned it inside-out. Nearly cryptic letters filled every available space, lines melted into lines, colors clashed... and the psychedelic poster was born. The love of art and nature eventually carried Wes away to the beautiful Ozarks foothills where he continued to create art until his death on January 24, 2020. Wes Wilson Archive
People.com
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Wes Wilson: The Association Concert Poster 1966 Look closer:
How does this style exemplify the spirit of the 1960s?
Why do you think the artist chose to display information this way?
What makes this image psychedelic?
Learn more:
Wes Wilson’s style of filling all available space with lettering, of creating fluid forms made from letters, and using flowing letters to create shapes became the standard that most psychedelic artists followed. It helped put the “psychedelic” in the art. Bahr Gallery
Image from ArtImage.org Type Room
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WordPress MyHippieCultureBlog
In the mid-1960s, the artist Wes Wilson designed the poster that jump started the psychedelic art poster movement. Art historian Scott B. Montgomery examines the history of the movement and psychedelic style as it relates to the socio-political implications of an artist’s message. In 1965, when American troops invaded Vietnam, Wilson created a poster entitled “Are We Next? Be Aware,” comparing the U.S. government with Nazi Germany. It features the stripes of the American flag with a superimposed swastika filled with blue and white stars. He distributed this poster at antiwar events and social gatherings. These provocative posters were a “visual acid test” that also called out the fascist behavior of the government. According to Montgomery, this marks the beginning of the psychedelic poster movement, in which artists made political work as a form of protest.
He explains, “The poster’s history as a tool for propaganda and political agitation, combined with the strong liberal leanings of the artists and the fraught political climate of the time, gave birth to Wilson’s ‘Are We Next?’ and other political posters.” The era’s counterculture, and its artists’ performative ways of expressing political beliefs, became a phenomenon. The poster was yet another artistic way to display the “psychedelic” lifestyle and counterculture. “Reading a poster increasingly became an adventure that visually performed psychedelic awareness and identity,” Montgomery continues. The bright colors and aesthetics became symbolic, representing their own version of a “trip”. These provocative posters were a “visual acid test” that also called out the fascist behavior of the government. It was a way to look inside one’s self by offering a new way of seeing, so one could therefore look outward at one’s surroundings. Jessica Jacolbe JStorDaily.org
Wes Wilson: Psychedelic Poster Design
Cart208 Spring 2017
The New York Times
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Write it Down:
1967
Magazines and Music: Chwast, Rolling Stone, and
The Beatles
Seymour Chwast Archive
Imagery that Sticks:
Seymour Chwast: Nutrition and Health 1967 Chwast borrows freely from the past to create new works that wholly integrate type and art. His expressive poster, book, and packaging designs are resolutely individual, in contrast to the narrative realism of illustration, and the confining sameness of modernism, both popular into the 1960s. Fluent in historical styles and movements, Chwast experiments with primitive folk art, surrealism, expressionist woodcuts and photomontage. Meanwhile, the Push Pin Graphic provides a continual outlet for the studio’s growing cadre of members—a thematic showcase of talent. Art directed by Chwast and Glaser, each issue tackles a subject, from the arcane (Nutrition and Health, #53), to the political (The South, #54). Seymour Chwast Archive
Reflect: How can history inspire new art?
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Seymour Chwast: Nutrition and Health 1967
Look closer:
What does the written message, “Chew, Chew, Baby” imply?
What does this work say about advertising standards in the 1960s?
Discuss
Would this kind of publication be acceptable today? Why or why not?
Seymour Chwast Archive
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Image by Bettman / Getty
Narrating the Culture:
Jann Wenner: Rolling Stone Magazine Jann Wenner is Editorial Director of Wenner Media and the founder of Rolling Stone. From its inception in 1967, Rolling Stone became the voice of a generation, and is one of the most successful and iconic magazines in publishing history, with numerous accolades including 15 National Magazine Awards. Wenner’s commitment to quality journalism has kept Rolling Stone in the forefront of the popular dialogue, both recording and shaping the zeitgeist through definitive music coverage, provocative interviews, award-winning photograph and incisive investigative and political reporting. Currently, Rolling Stone has evolved into a multi-platform content brand with unrivaled access and authority, which reaches over 60 million people per month. Andrew Flanagan NPR
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Rolling Stone Magazine
Left: Jim Parkison Right: Eva Rinaldi / Flickr
Bradford Timeline
Two insights, along with a rare gift for spotting and seducing talent, fueled Wenner’s stunning success. First, he understood that rock and roll was a culture as much as an art form. His magazine’s goal was not just to listen to music but to look at the world through the lens of that music. Second, he understood, deep down, that this culture — peace and love and the rest — was a business. Rolling Stone was designed to sell a product to advertisers. That product was the attention, and even the loyalty, of the masses of teenagers who might be withering about their bourgeois parents but were willing to spend. Some of Rolling Stone’s contributors and readers later accused Wenner of selling out, but you can’t sell out what’s always been for sale.
The magazine took the teenage nation mainstream — not just the bands but the belief system, with its heroes, martyrs, and saints. But once the magazine became a hit, it was changed by the very culture it had helped create. As newsstand sales rose, Wenner became hungry for still more newsstand sales. By the mid-’70s, the focus of Rolling Stone had shifted from what the editors determined to be the best in pop culture to what was measurably the biggest. The magazine that once launched bands began devoting more attention to established stars. That’s how you attract a mass audience, trade up from cheap paper to glossier pages, move from San Francisco to Manhattan. Rich Cohen
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Image by Steve Schapiro New York Times
I do what makes me happy and feels good and makes other people happy. Just go. Just feel it. Go with it. Jan Wenner
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Peter Blake: Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band 1967 Sir Peter Thomas Blake is an English pop artist, best known for co-creating the sleeve design for the Beatles’ album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. His other best known works include the covers for two of The Who’s albums, the cover of the Band Aid single “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” and the Live Aid concert poster. Blake also designed the 2012 Brit Award statuette. One of the best known British pop artists, Blake is considered to be a prominent figure in the pop art movement. Central to his paintings are his interest in images from popular culture which have infused his collages. Tate.org SoTheBy’s
A Look and a Sound: Alongside David Hockney, Patrick Caulfield, and Richard Hamilton, Blake sourced imagery from popular culture to produce colorful and distinctly graphic works. He is perhaps best known for creating the album cover for The Beatles’s Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band in 1967. “I wanted to make an art that was the visual equivalent of pop music,” he reflected. “When I made a portrait of Elvis I was hoping for an audience of 16-year-old girl Elvis fans, although that never really worked.”
He was awarded the titled of Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in 1983 and received a Knighthood in 2002 for his services to the visual arts. He currently lives and works in London, United Kingdom. The artist’s works are included in the collections of the Tate Gallery in London, the National Museum of Wales in Cardiff, and the Pallant House Gallery in Chichester, among others. ArtNet.com
Born on June 25, 1932 in Dartford, United Kingdom, Blake studied at the Gravesend School of Art and the Royal College of Art. On The Balcony (1955) and Self Portrait with Badges (1962) are two important works reflective of his transition into Pop Art.
The Conversation
91
David Bailey WordPress
People say, ‘Why do you paint?’, and I say, ‘To make magic’. Peter Blake
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Write it Down:
1968
Turbulent Times: Dignity, beauty, and absurdity
Notes On Design
“I believe that in design, 30 percent dignity, 20 percent beauty and 50 percent absurdity are necessary,” Shigeo Fukuda told Idea Magazine. Fukuda was born in 1932 in Tokyo, Japan to a family primarily employed as toy makers. Early in his adulthood he had an interest in the principles of Swiss design and starting in 1956 he attended the Tokyo University of Fine Arts and Music. The first Japanese designer to be inducted into the New York Art Directors Club Hall of Fame, his work is recognizable for its simplicity and use of visual illusions.
One of his most famous works is entitled Victory 1945 and it won him a grand prize at the Warsaw Poster Contest in 1975, a competition whose proceeds helped fun the Peace Fund Movement. Much of his work was designed to make a social impact rather than a commercial one and he was a strong advocate for pacifism and environmentalism. Not only a designer he also practiced sculpture, one example of which was a large sculpture of silverware that resembled a helmet but cast an intricate shadow of a motorcycle titled Lunch with a Helmet On. Design is History
Meaningful Work:
Shigeo Fukuda
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Wright20
Shigeo Fukuda, an influential Japanese graphic designer who was known for acerbic antiwar and environmental advocacy posters that distilled complex concepts into compelling images of logo-simplicity, died in Tokyo on January 11. Mr. Fukuda was expert at communicating messages using minimal graphic means. Although he admired Japanese woodblock traditions, his spare style was universal, his symbolism bridging cultural divides. He was a popular figure among American designers. His book “Visual Illusion” (Rikuyosha Publishing, 1982) was a virtual textbook for designers in the United States. Although he had some commercial clients, most of his work was for social and cultural concerns, like the 1970 World’s Fair in Osaka, for which he designed the official poster. Steve Heller New York Times
Shigeo Fukuda is also very involved with education. Aside from attending seminars and being on numerous design committees, he is a Visiting Professor of Design at Yale University. Fukuda is a staunch supporter of teaching art and design in an enjoyable, relaxed manner. He believes that a compulsory, regimented curriculum deters students from developing a personal sense of aesthetics that should otherwise flow freely from within. ABC Global
Shiego Fukuda’s sense of high moral responsibility as a graphic designer is undertaken with firm conviction. His work effectively mirrors and embraces the worldly causes he believes in. Coupled with his fine flair for color and layout, along with advanced Japanese reproduction techniques, Fukuda always manages to get his points across. His 1982 Happy Earth Day posters are prime examples. One is a drawing of an upside-down axe, the tool of destruction spoiling the earth’s wilderness. The wooden handle, ironically, sprouts a branch of its own! Fukuda’s pro-environmental concepts are indeed abstract, yet globally familiar.
Shigeo Fukuda
ABC Global
Design is History
Spoon and Tamago
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INT.Design
I believe that in design, 30 percent dignity, 20 percent beauty, and 50 percent absurdity are necessary. Shigeo Fukuda
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Lois’ Big Idea and Controversy
Image by Carl Fischer Esquire
George’s influence as an art director was his often aggressively oratorical approach to what was happening in America during the ’60s,” said Arem Duplessis, former design director of The New York Times Magazine and current design director at Apple. Every Esquire cover that Lois did during that time “is a collector’s item, worthy of a frame. But most importantly, they were a brave interpretation and/or reflection of culture during some extremely turbulent times.”
Image by Sophia Ahn Eye On Design AIGA
A Bold Move:
Ellines
“Ali posed for the photo while Lois’s team attached six arrows to his body to mimic the Botticini painting. The champ quickly internalized the martyr conceit. Lois remembers that during the shoot, “Ali said, ‘Hey, George ….’ which always meant he wanted to talk. He took his right hand out from behind his back and pointed at each of the arrows. And then he’d say the names of the people in this world that were out to get him. He’d point to one arrow: ‘Lyndon Johnson.’ The next one: ‘General [William] Westmoreland [who led the Vietnam operation].’ Then: ‘Robert McNamara.’ Each of the arrows [was] a person in the government that had hurt him.”
Dudley Brooks, assistant photo editor for The Washington Post and former photo editor of Ebony, says Ali’s Esquire cover was the perfect storm of Madison Avenue creativity, the acknowledgment of the historic impact that the civil rights movement was having on the world and the willingness of Ali to shoulder the burden of a corrupt political system. “At the time, Ali was hated by the establishment and was thoroughly controversial within the mainstream,” Brooks noted. Esquire had taken on important social movements before, but this was the first time white America was seeing Ali this way. Jill Hudson The Undefeated
Reflect: How can controversy be benificial?
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Disrupting Silence:
Vietnam War Protest The Vietnam War was widely controversial. Many considered America’s involvement unnecessary and overpowering. As a result, students across university campuses began speaking out. They took to the streets with their anger and made their voices heard. Designers published anti-war statements in magazines. Musicians like the Beatles wrote songs calling for peaceful unity. What started as students who refused to stay silent became a national movement that led to reforms like the Paris Peace Agreement of 1973. Bryan Odell
Bettmann Archive / Getty
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Write it Down:
1969
Significance: The stars, the South, and the moon.
Let it Bleed: Image by Bob Freeman
Robert Browjohn: Typography Brownjohn was born to British parents in New Jersey and had a successful career in both America and Great Britain during the 1950s and 60s. He immediately showed promise as a young design student at the Institute of Design in Chicago, previously The New Bauhaus, where he studied closely with Laszlo Moholy-Nagy. His career ramped up to an early start when he formed the design firm BCG with Ivan Chermayeff and Thomas Geismar. However, that career came to an early end in 1959 with Brownjohn heading to London, the firm became Chermayeff & Geismar.
His career in London proved as successful as his early career in the US with his most notable contributions coming in the film industry. He also worked within several other industries, creating moving graphics for Pirelli and Midland bank and created the cover for the Rolling Stones album Let It Bleed. A 240-page catalogue by Emily King that was produced for an exhibition detailing Brownjohn’s career entitled “Robert Brownjohn: Sex and Typography” held at the Design Museum in London was also published as a book of the same name. Sex and Typography details the adventures of Brownjohn through detailed information provided by friends and family as well as chronicling his career and the work that he produced. Design is History
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Robert Brownjohn: BJ Peace Poster 1969 Look closer:
What symbols do you recognize in the piece?
Why do you think the artist made the poster so simplistic?
Do you think this is a form of protest or confrontation?
Learn more:
Artists and designers used their mediums to comment on America’s controversial role in Vietnam. In this poster, Robert Brownjohn juxtaposes white space, black ink, and an Ace of Spades to spell out “Peace”. Spencer Raulee
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Malcolm Lubliner/ Michael Ochs Archives/ Getty Images
The Grateful Dead gave the emotion and energy of the 60s a sound. Their music gave listeners an experience of freedom. Band member Bruce Hornsby said “The Dead has always been about artistic curiosity and freedom”. Often accompanied by psychedelic drugs, their shows became the epitome of the counterculture narrative. The album art for “Steal Your Face” was designed by Owsley Stanley and Bob Thomas originally as a way to mark the band’s equipment. The look quickly became a revolution in iconography. Bryan Odell
A Sound for the Counterculture:
The Grateful Dead
Jim Marshall, via Amazon Prime Video
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Milton Glaser: Bringing love to New York Mr. Glaser brought wit, whimsy, narrative and skilled drawing to commercial art at a time when advertising was dominated by the severe structures of modernism on one hand and the cozy realism of magazines like The Saturday Evening Post on the other. When Milton was a young boy, an older cousin drew a bird on the side of a paper bag to amuse him. “Suddenly, I almost fainted with the realization that you could create life with a pencil,” he told Inc. magazine in 2014. “And at that moment, I decided that’s how I was going to spend my life.” “We were excited by the very idea that we could use anything in the visual history of humankind as influence,”
Mr. Glaser, who designed more than 400 posters over the course of his career, said in an interview for the book “The Push Pin Graphic: A Quarter Century of Innovative Design and Illustration” (2004). “Art Nouveau, Chinese wash drawing, German woodcuts, American primitive paintings, the Viennese secession and cartoons of the ’30s were an endless source of inspiration,” he added. “All the things that the doctrine of orthodox modernism seemed to have contempt for — ornamentation, narrative illustration, visual ambiguity — attracted us.”
Positive Difference:
“I NY,” his logo for a 1977 campaign to promote tourism in New York State, achieved even wider currency. Sketched on the back of an envelope with red crayon during a taxi ride, it was printed in black letters in a chubby typeface, with a cherry-red heart standing in for the word “love.” Almost immediately, the logo became an instantly recognized symbol of New York City, as recognizable as the Empire State Building or the Statue of Liberty. Robert Wright
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Milton Glaser Studio
We were excited by the very idea that we could use anything in the visual history of humankind as influence. Milton Glaser
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Creative Expression:
Les Zg / Wikimedia Commons
Born David Jones, he changed his name to Bowie in the 1960s to avoid confusion with the then well-known Davy Jones (lead singer of The Monkees). The 1960s were not a happy period for Bowie, who remained a struggling artist, awaiting his breakthrough. He dabbled in many different styles of music (without commercial success), and other art forms such as acting, mime, painting, and play-writing. He finally achieved his commercial breakthrough in 1969 with the song “Space Oddity”, which was released at the time of the moon landing.
David Bowie He made the first of many successful “comebacks” in 1972 with “Ziggy Stardust”, a concept album about a space-age rock star. This album was followed by others in a similar vein, rock albums built around a central character and concerned with futuristic themes of Armageddon, gender dysfunction/confusion, as well as more contemporary themes such as the destructiveness of success and fame, and the dangers inherent in star worship. IMDB.com
Woolman
Brian Ward
Reflect: How can music influence society?
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Steve Schapiro
I don’t write with the idea of teaching, because I don’t know what I’ve got to say is very important. David Bowie
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Bill Eppridge/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Peaceful Celebration:
Woodstock Music Festival The Woodstock Music Festival began on August 15, 1969, as half a million people waited on a dairy farm in Bethel, New York, for the threeday music festival to start. Billed as “An Aquarian Experience: 3 Days of Peace and Music,” the epic event would later be known simply as Woodstock and become synonymous with the counterculture movement of the 1960s. Woodstock was a success, but the massive concert didn’t come off without a hitch: Last-minute venue changes, bad weather and the hordes of attendees caused major headaches. Still, Woodstock was a peaceful celebration and earned its hallowed place in pop culture history. History.com
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Seymour Chwast: The South Issue 1969 A master of historical styles and movements, graphic designer Seymour Chwast is known for his diverse body of work, and lasting influence on American visual culture. Cofounder of the internationally recognized and critically acclaimed Push Pin Studios, Chwast has developed and refined his innovative approach to design over the course of six decades. Personal, urgent, and obsessive, his eclectic oeuvre has delighted and guided subsequent generations, while revolutionizing the field of graphic design. Juxtaposing southern imagery, haunting song lyrics, and photographs of slain civil rights leaders, The South, completed by Chwast in 1969, stands as a powerful political statement. A bullet hole (the black dot in each image) was die-cut through every spread, depicting the brutal death of those killed in pursuit of equality. The piece ends on a hopeful note, with an icon of the south shot dead, a full page clipping of the March on Washington, and the words “We Shall Overcome.” Bryn Smith
Seymour Chwast Archive
A Political Statement:
“Conscience came before commerce, and The South issue was one of the most trenchant graphic design commentaries during a period known for its social and political activism.” - Steven Heller
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Seymour Chwast: End Bad Breath 1968 Look closer:
Who is the figure in the piece? What does he symbolize?
How can art be a form of protest?
What message could the designer be trying to convey?
Learn more:
“The broadside and the poster are traditional media of protest. I am simply continuing the practice.” - Seymour Chwast
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Seymour has always managed to work outside his reputation, his legend, his towering historical position. Paula Scher
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One Small Step:
Moon Landing On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin became the first humans to land on the moon. What began as wishful aspirations became reality because a group of thinkers were determined to do what hadn’t been done before. In many ways this accomplishment embodied the decade. In 1961 President Kennedy announced, “I believe this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to Earth.” It started with a seemingly impossible goal, and ended with a new standard for change. The resilience and determination exemplified in the 60s took many different faces, but led to a more determined forefront across all platforms. Art, science, political, and societal boundaries were pushed for the better. Bryan Odell
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Counter Culture Merch Preview Purchase in person at the exhibit or online at store.moma.org/ counterculture.
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Credits: Garrison
Rivera
Concept Ideation Meeting Management p. 6-15 p. 46-51 p. 84-89 p. 118-21 Merch Design Content Editor
Odum
Additional Material Design Division Pages p. 28-33 p. 36-43 p. 64-67 p. 80-83 p. 124-25 p. 128-29
Copy Loftis
Additional Material Design p. 54-57 p. 60-63 p. 72-77 p. 90-93 p. 96-103 Campus Safety Liaison Photo Editor
Cover Art Timeline Page Editor Page Contents Page p. 16-17 p. 20-21 p. 24-25 p. 34-35 p. 52-53 p. 70-71 p. 104-05 p. 108-17 p. 122-23 p. 126-27 p. 130-31 Credits Visual Research Print Coordinator
ABC Global Art Net Bahr Gallery Bowie Wonderworld Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv Creative Bloq Design is History History.com IMDB JStorDaily.org Magazine Design NPR Print Magazine Seymour Chwast Archive Tate.org The Atlantic The Guardian The New York Times TheInkwell Typographics Wes-Wilson.com
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The air is thick with
unrest and uncertainty. It seems like every day
a breaking news story gives us emotional and mental whiplash. What was supposed to be a difficult year is now a seemingly never-ending
unraveling of the world we used to understand. Standing in the wreckage, regardless of age or status,
we’re all faced with the same question: What should I do?