Psychedelia The Trippy 60s and its Influence on Graphic Design
Contents 1
Introduction
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Getting Trippy
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The Psychedelic Poster
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Psychadelic Poster Artists
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Wes Wilson
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Victor Moscoso
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Going Mainstream
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Counter Culture & the Underground press
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Periodicals of the Underground
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Conclusion
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Works Cited & Photo Credits
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The start of the psychedelic movement of the 1960s can always be linked back to one particular group of drugs. Though now illegal, these drugs are still part of the American counterculture, but have been increasingly less influential on graphic design. Infiltrating the minds and perceptions of many artists around the world as well as throughout time, the drug linked to psychedelia, that shook graphic design at its core and took it to a whole other level is called LSD, otherwise known as acid. LSD made its appearance to the public realm in the early sixties. It is a synthetic, psychedelic drug that causes psychological and sometimes hallucinogenic effects on its administrator. Popularly taken via acid-infused sugar cubes or acid stoked, yet graphically designed bottler paper, it was said to either “burn you out or light your way.�
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At the end of WWII America experienced an economic boost. As soldiers came home to their families and more money was available for America’s people due to the spike in production, there was a sharp increase in birthrate throughout the nation. These children, born between 1945 and 1957, were now our nation’s baby boomers. During the psychedelic movement in the 60’s, a large number of these baby boomers were teenagers and young adults, and collectively became a massive youth culture. For the first time, the youth of the nation could take over America’s dominant culture. This youth culture did not want to be just like their parents-- They questioned and revolted against America’s conservative ways, and expressed the ideals of non-conformity, sexual freedom, and drug use. 3
Unfortunately, Americans were experiencing many political controversies. They questioned their involvement in the Vietnam War, the issue of nuclear proliferation arose, the Civil Rights movement was making a statement, and both drugs and sex were being sanctioned due to increasing liberal attitudes. This gave birth to a new youth movement whose goals were “to create egalitarian society free from discrimination.” They protested the war in Vietnam and even ignited the Feminist/Woman’s liberation movement, as well as the black movement. LSD became an outlet for the youth to experience certain freedoms from the havoc of America’s social discord, and it’s effects opened the doors of perception to the artists of this time, causing them to think outside of the box with regards to typography.
previous: Felix the cat designed blotter paper. above left: Famous V-Day Kiss, people celebrating the end of WWII in Times Square. bottom left: Couple from the hippie youth culture celebrating “free love.” left: “Love Not War” Individuals protesting America’s involvement in the Vietnam War. above: “Black Power” A Salute to the blac k movement of the 1960s.
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The use of LSD really began to transform the ideals and perspective of the youth, hippies and artists of this time period. For some, administering this drug while listening to music caused its sound to seem to linger and even resonate. It made the sounds of the song transmute into actual visualizations. One of the things that really stood out to the artists and poster interpreters of the time was how, while under the influence of acid, colors seemed to glow and stand out in a new, visually delicious way. The vivid memories of these trips would resonate in their minds, something that the poster artists used in their works as to create the same effects on the poster interpreters themselves. Those who had positive reactions to the drug experienced sense of a newly opened mind. It made them susceptible to new ways of thinking, and allowed them to see things (whether abstract or concrete) they had not before and/or in a completely new light. They would have realizations or newfound ideas of not only the things around them and the life they were living, but about themselves.
Many viewed this as a new, alternate beginning to their lives. Aldous Huxley, an English writer who dies at the pinnacle of the psychedelic movement, communicated that “the open eye, the naked touch, the intensification and vivification of sound, small, and taste” were all rudimentary characteristics of the psychedelic experience. He asserted that “the ability to turn on the senses, to escape every day conditioning, had traditionally been the exclusive mountain domain of the high priest, sage, holy man, or shaman, attainable only after years of study and sacrifice,” meaning that it will open new doors to the commoners who experience these same effects, once reserved only for those who were “higher up.” 7
As LSD and other drugs increased in popularity, psychedelia became common ground for designers and its motifs had assimilated greatly into graphic design. Associated with outdoor public gatherings in which people both played and enjoyed music and drugs (called “happenings” or “be-ins”), psychedelia and the psychedelic look/style recreated the idea of what separated the public from the private and the ammeter from the professional. The experience was uniquely translated onto posters and album covers with a burst of popularity. While the posters of the past were simply to communicate commercial messages, the psychedelic posters of this time were statements expressing social viewpoints.
bottom left: Young lady under the influence of marijuana at a music festival. left: Baby-boomer couple taking a stroll. below: Individuals attending one of the Be-Ins of the time.
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The birth of the psychedelic poster craze took place in the Haight-Ashbury area of San Francisco, California. The original artists and designers responsible for creating this new wave of art were, for the most part, selftaught. The main clients of these artists included dance promoters and concert venues, but these posters were also made for major bands, rock and roll concerts, music clubs, and even some of the “be-ins” and “happenings.” The need for these posters created a vast collection of unique, and (at the time) modern designs, whose specific events became part of their inspiration. For example “Dances in the 1960s were intense perceptual experiences of loud music and light shows that dissolved the environment into throbbing fields of projected color and bursting strobes.” When converted into poster design, this experience would be represented with radically illegible text that had been warped and skewed, images and forms that swirled around, and, when printed, filled with close-valued, bright, complimentary colors.
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Because these posters were made for a particular audience and rejected the notions of “straightforward” print advertising, the artists were able to unleash their imaginations and even draw inspirations from the artists and art styles of the past. Alfred Roller, Arthur Rackham, Aubrey Beardsley, Edward Brune Jones, and Walter Crane were late 19th and early 20th century artists whom inspired the poster designers of the sixties to create Victorian-style graphics. The designers also drew inspiration from America West artifacts, vintage illustrations, and later even included motifs from art nouveau. The textures, curvilinear shapes, and sinuous curves of art nouveau were popular among designers. Even some of the underground comix’s preposterous imagery serves as an inspiration.
bottom left: Youth dancing at Whisky a Go Go, the first real American discothèque. left: Art Nouveau inspired concert poste for the Grateful Dead. right: Monterey Pop Festival poster. Bottom: Grateful Dead poster exhibiting vast the iconic use of illegible text.
The goal of the poster designers from this time period shifted from communicating information, to creating a perceptual experience-- They wanted to embody the sensation of “tripping out.� So When designing these posters, the designers would retrieve memories of strong impressions that resonated with them while being stoned, or under the influence of a psychedelic drug; though it was uncommon that the artists of this time would actually draw under said conditions. Stylistically, the artists demonstrated this in many ways. They used op art in conjunction with distinct color choices to create intense visual vibrating effects-- These were achieved using graphic lines and textures as well as with juxtaposition of two similar-valued, complimentary colors. Bright colors could be vividly exhibited using day-glo effects produced by a practiced manipulation of processed inks. The designs also carried a theme of reoccurring elements. This is because if not drawn by the artists themselves, the images used in these posters were public domain images: commercial images from pop culture such as post cards and engravings. In some cases these images were reduced to crude, high contrast black and white images in order to achieve the effect of movement when under the flashing lights of the dance halls.
But they key to a successful psychedelic design is in its distinct lettering. It was the job of the designer to interlace the drawing of manipulated and warped display and novelty typefaces, as well as those inspired from art nouveau and Victorian art, into the overall psychedelic design. The typestyles of these previous eras displayed a certain level of curvilinear-ness that was well translated and manipulated into the psychedelic typestyle. These hand drawn, densely packed, letters were almost always immediately illegible. Artists also drew letters out of negative space. Finally, to give the posters a 3-D look, the letters and images purposefully had off register trappings. The average turnaround time for a poster of this time period was roughly 48-hours. This means that in a continuous time frame not exceeding eight hours, artists had to design, draw, hand letter, color, put together, and print an entire poster.
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There are two major poster artists credited as being pivotal pioneers of the psychedelic poster movement. With their works, these two artists have “seduced the eye to wander among shapes that morphed from letters to words to flames and swirls.� They are the wondrous Wes Wilson and the artistically vociferous Victor Moscoso, and they have left their mark in graphic design’s history.
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far left: Poster Artist Wes Wilson left: Wes Wilson’s Byrds At Winterland poster
far right: Poster Artist Victor Moscoso right: Victor Moscoso’s Rites of Spring poster
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Wes Wilson is to the psychedelic style as Jesus Christ is to Christianity. Credited as it’s father, the psychedelic style of the 60’s concert poster can almost be traced back to Wilson. Sacramento California was the home and birthplace of this stylistic pioneer. Born in 1937, Wilson grew up not terribly interested in art-- He found more of a niche with nature and the outdoors and eventually studied forestry and horticulture at a small college. He later studied philosophy at San Francisco state, but dropped out in 1963. Despite all of this, Wilson had a talent and skill for art, and a great interest in printing. This led him to acquiring his first printing job at Contact Printing under the wings of Bob Carr.
Contact pronging was a low-budget operation established in Bob Carr’s basement where Wilson did most of the layout work. In this printing house, he designed handbills for many clients and events such as the Mary Prankster Acid Tests, for the San Francisco Mime Troupe fundraising benefits, and also for the “appeal” parties. These handbills instituted Wilson as a credible poster designer, and because the Acid Tests and Mime Troupe were linked to the popular dance concerts, it connected Wilson to new design opportunities regarding the dance halls themselves. Wilson later began working for Chet Helm at a press called The Family Dog, and even created its iconic logo. Chet Helm himself was a cultural activist whose general message with regards to design was to “loosen up, have a ball, dance your blues away, break on through.” He used this idea as a means to enhance and/or focus the energy of the early dance posters, and provided Wilson with this and other general themes, images, titles, and phrases to use when designing them. As the dance concerts became popular weekly affairs, Wilson began to design posters for the Fillmore Auditorium, Bill Graham, and while under The Family Dog, for the Avalon Ballroom. Though he created some of is most compelling designed under The Family Dog, Wilson ultimately left and worked almost exclusively for Bill Graham and the Fillmore Auditorium. This was due in part because his overall workload became too great, but also because under The Family Dog, Wilson did not have free reign over the style of the posters-- He did not have the artistic freedoms granted while working for Graham and the Fillmore.
left: The Family Dog logo
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When comparing Wes Wilson’s earlier works to his later Power pieces, you notice that he was focused on creating and maximizing his use of design and form because it was always improving and changing. Wilson’s goal was to reflect the processes of printing into his works, approaching them as a wood block print. He made this possible by creating his letters from negative space--outlining them but only putting ink in their inbetween spaces. This also helped when he used the lettering as the basis for a 3-D image. Wilson always made it a point to fill up space. He would use the letters to fill up the irregular gaps within a picture, often making them into the shape of another recognizable image or simply making them abstract and rounded. In 1966, Wilson created and popularized a typeface that seems to move, or melt off of the page itself. On occasion, Wilson would use an architectural approach when designing his posters, reflecting on his interest in just that. But of course, he always put his own twist on them and used hot colors as well as abstract decorative patterns to break up their orderliness. Wes Wilson did not really care to know past artistic styles, however, he was indeed influenced by a few artists from before his time. These artists included Alphonse Mucha, Van Gogh, Gustav Klimt, Egon Schlele, and Alfred Roller, who was the most influential. When introduced to one of roller’s works, Wilson was captured by his lettering and thus adopted and altered it in a means to make it his own, Wilson’s approach to art was to recreate the realities of his own being. He derived many of his ideas from his own psychedelic experiences including that of the light shows and those from tripping on acid. His visual experiences (as well as others) while under the influence of acid, aided him in the selection of colors for his posters, and allowed him to visualize certain vertical flowing effects that he recreated in his works. The start of this was a reaction caused in Wilson after attending the first Trips Festival, one that he had designed the handbill for. What he experienced and saw during this festival made an incredible impression on him, and made him want to manifest these visions in his works. 17
Wilson’s first poster was self-published in 1965, nicknamed “Are We Next?” Its motif included the notorious swastika coupled with the American flag. The poster represented Wilson’s disapproval of the war in Vietnam, and his protest against America’s involvement. Another Key piece in not only his collections, but in the greater history of graphic art, is the “BG-18” poster Wilson did for a show at the Fillmore Auditorium. The bright red swirling flame lettering, on its equally bright green background, established the very basis of what it means to be a psychedelic poster.
far left: Quick and The Dead poster displaying Wilson’s architectural style. upper left: Alfred Roller’s Plakat. left: Wilson’s first poster Are We Next?. above: Wilson’s iconic BG-18 poster.
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Other posters that exhibited this wonder and respect for the female form include the “Woman With a Snake” poster and the “Golden Lady” poster. The snake in the “Woman With a Snake” poster is a classic representation of the conflicts associated with male-female relationships. The “Golden Lady” herself represents Venus, Mother Earth, and Madonna; She represents the flawlessness of female beauty, and demonstrates the idea that beauty “radiates from within.” This poster portrays a sense of “openness, modesty, intelligence, and calm inner strength,” with respects to woman in general. The lettering in this poster has been regarded as Wilson’s least legible of all. These feminine posters are very symbolic in the sense that the female figure is regarded as a life symbol. Also, things like the yin-yang as well as the tree of life symbolize a “union of opposites” and the female’s role as the “life barer.” The way Wilson displays woman in his work “is one of the most lasting contributions to the poster art of the 60’s, “ and it is the “most serious positive use of this female image in recent times.”
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In Wilson’s later posters, the female form became the domineering image. “The Sound,” a poster done for the Winterland Venue in 1966, not only showed Wilson’s unique use of lettering with relation to space, but it also demonstrated how much he respected and admired womanly forms. Women have been popular and traditional art subjects over time, and during this era of the hippie culture, these phenomena became definitive due to their sexual freedom and sensuality. These forms in Wilson’s posters were not portrayed in a pornographic sense; they “were intended for a very special audience, one whose sensibilities were also informed by psychedelic experience... They welcomed the intense visual trips which the posters provided.”
far left: Wilson’s The Sound, first poster to exploit his love for the feminine form. bottom left: Wilson’s golden lady poater, exhibiting his keen use of lettering within the feminine form. left: Wilson’s Cola Steve concert poster. above: Wilson’s Captain Beefheart concert poster.
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right: Moscoso’s Blues Project poster, exhibiting a strong color vibrating effect.
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above right: Moscoso’s Peacock Ball dance concert poster.
Victor Moscoso was born in the country of Spain in 1936 and became another leading contributor to the psychedelic poster style of the 60’s. Having moved to San Francisco on 1959, Moscoso became one of the first academically trained and experienced psychedelic poster artists of this time. He studied art at Cooper Union in New York City, and later studied under former Bauhaus teacher Joseph Albers at Yale. Moscoso credits Albers for teaching him advanced color theory, where Moscoso had his key discovery. He completed his masters in painting at New Haven, and later attended the San Francisco Art Institute where he became an instructor. After that he remained in San Francisco working as a commercial artist.
In the fall of 1966, Moscoso worked for The Family Dog for about a year designing posters for the dance concerts at the Avalon Ballroom. Under his own imprint called The Neon Rose, Moscoso also designed a series of posters for the Matrix, a local nightspot in San Francisco. Under The Neon Rose, he also received national attention when designing for the “Summer Of Love” in 1967. This same year Moscoso created a total of 60 concert posters in a period of eight months. One of his most classic and emblematic posters is the “Blues Project Poster,” which is, not only definitive of Moscoso’s style, but also definitive of the psychedelic poster style as a whole. The subject of this poster is a bright orange colored, vintage photo of a Salome-inspired nude. She was placed on an acid green background with negatively hand drawn lettering in blue. The juxtaposition of the similar chromatic colors gave the poster a vibrating effect. The lettering itself was a typeface Moscoso created named “Psychedelic Playbill.” The lettering curved with the contours of the woman’s body, and their off-register trappings gave them a three-dimensional look. 22
When it came to style, Victor Moscoso essentially reversed everything he learned about color theory, something that ultimately became his key discovery in design. “The rule that the poster should transmit a message simply and quickly became, “how long can you engage the viewer in reading the poster? Five, ten, twenty minutes?” “Do not use vibrating colors” became “use them whenever you can and irritate they eyes as much as you can.” “Lettering should always be legible was changed to disguise the lettering as much as possible and make it as difficult as possible to read.”” Needless to say his first few posters were incredibly experimental, but he later became a master of modernist simplicity. Moscoso created his own style of lettering that was comprised of simple uppercase letters with large serifs. These letterforms were dense, rectilinear yet basic shapes that stretched in freeform or curvilinear fashions. The Text was hand drawn bur hardly legible--words had to be distinguished in the overall scheme, Moscoso also invented the inverted letter as a means to draw text more quickly and efficiently; this allowed for more posters to be made in less time. In later works Moscoso formed lettering into the shape of a leaf or flower petals. When designing, Moscoso combined these typographic approaches with figurative ones as well. He “liked approximating imagery that had nothing to do with the poster’s topic and using it simply for graphic effect.” Moscoso exploited his poster’s potential for surrealism, and this was obvious with the astrological references in some of the posters he created under The Family Dog. He also borrowed ideas and imagery from comic books, the Victorian era, art nouveau, and the pop art movement, and his designs projected a level of visual intensity due to their optical, vibrating effects of form and color. The concept of vibrating colors was a direct result of what Albers has taught Moscoso about color theory-only it was, in essence, the reciprocal of what he had learned. The application of these intense color contrasts caused the edges of a form to appear to vibrate or jump off the page. Moscoso figured out that these “hot colors” were a good way to “load up the surface.” causing the 23
poster’s graphics to intensify with these strong color effects. The ultimate idea in these designs was that only those who were “turned on” or in tune with the wider cultural scene would appreciate them. Moscoso was one of the first psychedelic poster artists to incorporate photographic collage into his works. Though he only created six, most of them had color effects within them, and they were incredibly useful for overnight jobs. Moscoso “exploited techniques
of modern lithography more than any other artist.” He would reduce photographs until they became only basic shapes and, from there, converted all of their grays into either black or white. This was done through the process of overprinting, which was also useful in creating intricate color effects. This made it so that the images appeared to “turn off and on when seen in the flashing colored lights of the dance halls”--creating the illusion of movement within the poster, having it transform from a static image to an active one.
far left: Another of Moscoso’s dance concert pisters exhibiting vibrating colors and illegable type. left: Miller Blues Band poster exhibiting another Salome-inspired nude above: Moscoco’s Butterfly Lady poster whose image was produced through processes of modern lithography.
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right: Wrangler jeans and jacket add with the adopted p sychedelic style
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Within a year of the psychedelic movement, entrepreneurs were exploiting psychedelia as a means to gain a new wave of young consumers. This was due in part to its originality, but more so for it’s popularity, and this was transformed into a trendy commercial style. It’s bright patterns aided in conveying a happy, attractive mood that lured in customers, and its key lettering was made legible for higher consumer reliability. As time continued on, Hollywood and young, would-be Capitalists followed suit, using the style to advertise things such as alcoholic beverages, publications, and Broadway shows for profit. This caused the original psychedelic style to become more and more diluted, and less unique ad it lacked passion. A catalogue publication of psychedelic typestyles by Photo lettering Inc. also made it considerably easier for more designers to create text in the psychedelic posters. Over time this style became a common sight within the pages of newspapers, some professional journals, and light periodicals, but mostly in the form of ads. Inevitably, psychedelia came to be another cliché. By the start of the 70’s the majority of poster art in America that exhibited an inventive quality receded to university campuses. The majority of these campuses are pedestrian environments consisting young adults that sponsor plenty of events; therefore psychedelia was kept alive in these areas. As viewed by some design critics, psychedelia was but “a brief commercial aberration.”
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Within the psychedelic movement emerged a counter culture of young adults. These individuals held a vision of utopian society that was comprised of drugs, radical politics, sex, and rock and roll. They “advocated and organize disobedience� rejecting and confronting the ideals of those in support of the Vietnam War and against Civil and Black rights. Conducting anti-Vietnam War demonstrations, igniting the student and workers revolts in France, and forming the uprising against soviet rule, the counter culture was not afraid and far from unfamiliar with conflict. The underground press was representative of this culture. It was one of the counter culture’s movements to advocate freedom from the constraints of society--a subversion of the control embedded in the status quo.
page: Youth counterculture relvoltong against the current war in Vietnam far right: layout example from the underground publication OZ.
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Comprised mostly of urban middle class teens and young adults, the Underground press was, in large, anti-establishment publishing. It instituted a collective group of opinions and beliefs that displayed political controversy using pictured and written words. Outlooks on politics in these works included anything from Black Dwarf’s activism to Gandalf ‘s Garden’s mysticism. This form of alternative communication drew societies‘ outsiders into its larger counterculture. Stylistically, the works of the underground press completely disregarded what is considered normal for typical periodical layout and design. They had no since of order when compared to other modernist works, and emphasized playful, erotic, pleasurable, and sensuous ideals--often expressed in visual and written smuttiness. Design wise, these works were comprised of a combination of differing images. Artists on staff were encouraged to cultivate collages made from various materials and/or photographs. Also, photographs were replicated in rigid halftones with benday dots.
Other than that, any artworks found in these works were either one by local artists, or by the staff members themselves. They style of these works allowed their readers identify with one another. Both the appearance and content of the underground works were determined based on impulse, and maintained through simple, affordable, and acceptable means of production. These underground works were typically created and assembled in the garages of their maker, or during the off hours of those who worked in print shops. These presses were made possible thanks to the emergence of new technologies such as the Vari-Typer Headliner and the IBM MTST Magnetic Tape Typesetting systems, as well as the Start King Photo Start machine. These systems were available to be rented for low, inexpensive costs, and helped produce these underground works more quickly and efficiently. With their vast amount of newsstand distribution, the artists of these works got greater visibility.
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page: various newspapers of the underground press
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The periodicals of the Underground Press were a counter to the strict ideals of the adult press. They included personal classifieds and even soft-core porn. They “had contrasting sociopolitical principals that loosely represented the far, middle center, and neo-left, including hippies, Leninists, anarchists, populists, Maoists, occultists, student guerrillas, black panthers, and rock and rollers.� Over 500 unique titles were accounted for but the Under Ground Press Syndicate in the United States. The circulation of these periodicals became a spawning ground for artists, and linked them together as it did for poets. The underground movement began to strengthen in the fall of 1966.
In America, The Oracle represented the epitome of the psychedelic movement, and was a leader in the underground graphic revolution. It emphasized the more ethereal aspects of psychedelia in its design, including spiritual and romantic drawing styles coupled with Victorian, art nouveau, and arts and crafts lettering. Unfortunately The Oracle only lasted the year between 1966 and 1967. The weekly, radical alternative periodical The East Village Other or EVO premiered in New York City in 1965. Graphically, though not ethereal like The 33
bottom left: Oracle cover Vol.1, no.12 far left: EVO cover Vol. 3, No. 20 from left to right: Oracle cover Vol.1, no.5/ EVO cover Vol. 3, No. 22/ International Times comic/ R Crumb’c Fritz the Cat Comix cover/ ZAP comix cover. below: U-comix (from the european underground) cover band:169
Oracle, EVO was jarring and full of experimentation. After starting with a more unconventional form (like having fold outs to be cut and reconfigured by the reader), the periodical became, in form, a traditional tabloid, though with unconventional layout designs. The tabloid had a series of upside down and sideways headlines, intersecting vertical and horizontal columns, abstract shapes made from ruling tapes, and color surprints. Lastly, EVO had many pages dedicated to the underground commix. The underground commix were a new phenomenon that emerged in the underground culture. Best explained as a cross between graphic novels, traditional comics, and racy literature, underground commix “expressed an attitude of unrepentant disdain for the hypocracy of straight culture and its repressions.” These comix were sexually explicit, sometimes gross, yet artistically well executed works that survived on sales alone, but were supported by advertising revenues. The comix artists themselves blatantly and purposefully violated the comics code authority (industry that censored body and emerged un the 1950’s during the red scare) and publicity criticized and hammered the comic books sanctioned by that authority. Robert Crumb was one of, if not, the most influential comix artists of the psychedelic era. He published Gothic Blimp Works, a newspaper tabloid that exclusively included bizarre, perverse, comix. These were often “witty ribald narratives,” with racy characters.
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In Britain, the underground periodicals that ran for the longest amount of time included the International Times and OZ. Published in October 1966, the International Times was Britain and Europe’s first underground tabloid newspaper, later changed to IT due to a lawsuit placed on them by The Times. The periodical OZ was started by a man named Richard Neville. It originated in Australia, and once moved to London in 1966, OZ was launched in early 1967. Stylistically, OZ was quite creative and enticing—Every issue featured its own unique
layout, masthead, and imaginative arrangement of text. Its artwork was overprinted in color and by web offset lithography, and the issues included explicit photographs and Victorian and far Eastern motifs. Content in the periodical varied greatly, especially from issue to issue, and included mystic and oriental philosophy, experimentation with drugs, underground news, sexual liberation, record reviews, psychiatry, social and political issues, and avant-garde music and literature. Subject matters of OZ can also be deciphered based on the varying issue titles.
International Times issue front and back cover spread
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OZ initiated open debate on things such as drugs, sex, war, and peace, and even petitioned the government on various matters. The periodical closed in 1973 due to a high-profile court case regarding the infamous “School Kids” issue.
left: OZ’s controversial School Kids Issue cover.
below: “Travel OZ“ Issue 30 cover.
By 1969, the periodicals of the Underground press were losing an extensive amount readership, and it was happening fast. In order to reverse this plummet in readership, the press decided to up the sex in its publications, making them more pornographic, in a means to increase readership. Through “stimulating the underground,” this actually managed to “sap its collec-
tive energy.” The readers of the underground works who were originally politically, culturally, and/or socially minded were replaced by those whose minds laid elsewhere, making it unsuitable for the works to feature serious political argumentation. Eventually, publishers were arrested and underwent long trials due to pornograph y charges, and tough they ultimately won, The Underground press closed down in the early 1970s. 36
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LSD triggered the psychedelic movement of the 1960s. It, along with other psychedelic drugs, altered the minds and perceptions of many individuals and artists of the time. Partnered with the rebellious youth ideology, LSD created a massive youth counterculture of drugs, sex, and rock and roll. This counterculture ignited psychedelia and the psychedelic style became a key motif for the poster artists of this time period. Set apart by their key vibrating colors and illegible text, these posters were emblematic of this time period. Another result of this massive youth counterculture was the Underground Press. The periodicals of the underground expressed radical viewpoints and displayed a vast variety of psychedelic imagery. The 1960s was a time of many changes, radical ideas, and a pivotal time for graphic design.
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Works Cited “About Moscoso.” Victor Moscoso. n.d. Web. 25 February 2013. Aynsley, Jeremy. A Century of Graphic Design. Heron Quays: Octopus Publishing Goup, 2001. Print. Drucker, Johanna, and Emily McVArish. Graphic Design History: A Critical Guide. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education, 2013. Print. Erlewine, Michael. “A Brief Biography.” Wes Wilson. WordPress, 2013. Web. 25 Feb ruary 2013. “Graphic Design History: 1960-1975 Sixties’ Psychedelia.” Pakland College. 4 De cember 2012. Web. 25 February 2013. Heller, Steven, and Louise Fili. Stylepedia: A Guide to Graphic Design Mannerisms, Quirks, and Conceits. San Francisco: Chronicle books, 2006. Print Heller, Steven, and Seymour Chwast. Illustration: A Visual History. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc, 2008. Print. Heyman, Therese T. “Victor Moscoso.” Smithsonian American Art Museum. New York and Washington D.C.: Harry N. Abrams, Inc, in association with the National Museum of American Art, 1998. Web. 25 February 2013. Heyman, Therese T. “Wes Wilson.” Smithsonian American Art Museum. New York and Washington D.C.: Harry N. Abrams, Inc, in association with the National Museum of American Art, 1998. Web. 25 February 2013. Meggs, Phillip B., and Alton W Purvis. Meggs’ History of Graphic Design. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, 2006. Print. Owen, Ted. High Art. London: Sanctuary Publishing, 1999. Print. Ramies, Jonathan, and Lakshmi Bhaskaran. Retro Graphics: A Visual Sourcebook to 100 Years of Graphic Design. San Francisco: The Ilex Press, 2007. Print. Tafoya, Renee. “Psychedelic 60s: Psychedelia and the Psychedelic movement 1960- 1975” Graphic Design History Northwest College. WordPress, 9 March 2011. Web. 25 February 2013.
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Photo Credits Intro http://media-cache-lt0.pinterest.com/192x/13/e9/35/13e9355273bfea777e2e59c10f ee7089.jpg (Felix paper) p.1-2 http://a.abcnews.go.com/images/Entertainment/gty_time_square_kiss_jp_120502_ wg.jpg (V-day kiss) p.3 http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Psd0qvB-P-8/TNAUW3EoyKI/AAAAAAAAAcM/uexwSpQZDBU/s1600/15042606.jpg (Kissing hippies) p.3 http://media-cache-ec4.pinterest.com/550x/48/7f/45/487f4575d78d451641a8b99dd 449d5bf.jpg (“Love not war”) p.4 http://daviaugusto.deviantart.com/art/Black-Power-111484303 (Black power) p.4 Getting Trippy http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_jPsUHRPlxFw/SkAep5wflkI/ AAAAAAAAAZk/7shgiX3Fy_w/s400/hippie.jpg (Girl hippie) p.7 http://s3.amazonaws.com/data.tumblr.com/tumblr_l5rxopfJhe1qzlt97o1_1280.jpg?A WSAccessKeyId=AKIAI6WLSGT7Y3ET7ADQ&Expires=1367960695&Signature=OiP %2FS3vO5Ki6THVWRyq4NIZCh9w%3D#_=_ (Hippie couple) p.7 http://cdn2.likethedew.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/Dews-hippiesP10-580x368.jpg (Hippies chilling outside) p.8 The Psychedelic Poster http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lrylj8Uxod1qhspbko1_500.jpg (Dancing) p.11 http://dvp14a235i3p5.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/StanleyMouse_GratefulDeadPoster_HA.jpg (Art nouveau inspired poster) p.11 http://www.classicposters.com/images/lf.jpg (Monterey Pop Festival poster) p.12 http://www.artifactsofrock.com/Images/grateful_dead.jpg (Ear head poster)p.12 Psychedelic Poster Artists http://www.corbisimages.com/images/Corbis-TS002262.jpg?size=67&uid=1e10ed0aa659-4f52-9b85-2d3df4118812 (Wes Wilson) p.14 http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m667bkePDX1qcd4b2o1_1280.jpg (Byrds poster) p.14 http://www.listal.com/viewimage/367488h (Victor Moscoso) p.14 http://www.victormoscoso.com/gallery/Fgallery1-11.jpg (Rites of Spring poster) p.14 Wes Wilson http://www.postergeist.com/posters/roll11/fdghwy570logo.jpg (Family Dog logo) p.16 http://images.wolfgangsvault.com/images/catalog/detail/FD012-HB.jpg (Architectural poster) p.17 http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wmjpdXVlL5M/TWVZqK_p5qI/AAAAAAAABjU/FOpc9Ajsgfo/s1600/Alfred_Roller_-_Plakat.jpg (Alfred Roller poster) p.17 http://goldenfrogpress.com/images/101018-Posters/035.jpg (Are We Next poster) p.18 http://www.escapeintolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/bg18.jpg (BG-18 Poster) p.18 http://www.moma.org/collection_images/resized/944/w500h420/CRI_11944.jpg (The Sound poster) p.19 http://www.creativepile.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/wes-wilson5-e1343361476355.jpeg (Golden Lady poster) p.19 http://www.wes-wilson.com/uploads/1/7/0/4/17048818/6159015_orig.jpg (Bola Steve poster) p.20 http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-j0DJbuw9820/USfJw--zW9I/ AAAAAAAAKPU/2o93kxu9sok/s1600/Wes+Wilson_02.jpg (Captain Beefhart poster) p.20
Victor Moscoso http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m80fe6VpiI1r68b0fo1_400.jpg (Blues Project poster) p.22 http://scribbledigit.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/quick_silver_avalon_ballroom_san_ francisco_march_1967_by_victor_moscoso.jpg (Peacock poster) p.22 http://matouenpeluche.typepad.com/.a/6a00e554e97d5c88340176176fd4e7970c800wi (C at concert poster) p.23 http://goldenfrogpress.com/images/101018-Posters/020.jpg (Miller Blues Band poster) p.24 http://www.victormoscoso.com/gallery/Fgallery1-8.jpg (Otis Rush poster) p.24 Going Mainstream http://emmapeelpants.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/wrangler70.jpg (Wrangler jeans add) p.26 Counterculture & The Underground Press http://www.birgun.net/politics/1319704780.jpg (“End the war in Vietnam now”) p.29 http://origins.osu.edu/sites/default/files/1-13-map265.jpg (“Get the hell out of Vietnam”) p.29 http://www.alfred.edu/pressreleases/images/articles/au-war-protest-w.jpg (“Kill the war”) p.29 http://nsm01.casimages.com/img/2009/05/31/090531113124421253775230.jpg (“Whoring Along The Hudson” spread) p.30 Periodicals of the Underground http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/whi/feature/underground/images/underground.jpg (Underground newspapers collage) p.31-32 http://nsm01.casimages.com/img/2009/05/30/090530103142421253760231.jpg (Oracle 2000AD Cover) p.33 https://www.specificobject.com/objects/images/20871.jpg (East Village Other SLISH cover) p.33 http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m8996hGdrK1qai5zco1_400.jpg (Oracle Human Be-In cover) p.34 http://www.specificobject.com/objects/info.cfm?inventory_id=20924&object_ id=18024&page=0&options=#.UYmCC-D_QRk(East Village Other bloody hands) p.34 http://www.killyourpetpuppy.co.uk/news/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/itno26.jpg (International Times comic) p.34 http://comixjoint.com/6_site_graphics/*Covers/2_Underground/fritzthecatb.jpg (Fritz The Cat cover) p. 34 http://lib.calpoly.edu/spec_coll/comix/bigcovers/zap0.gif (ZAP Comix cover) p.34 http://www.medienparadies.com/images/chris1/6222sdff6.jpg (U-Comix cover) p. 34 http://www.johncoulthart.com/feuilleton/wp-content/uploads/2007/04/it.jpg (International Times front and back cover) p.35 http://pers-www.wlv.ac.uk/~fa1871/oz28.gif (OZ School Kids issue) p.36 http://media-cache-lt0.pinterest.com/192x/64/b8/7e/64b87e7dd56fe5dd9129868 1d7760167.jpg (OZ cover) p.36
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