Counter Culture in the 1960’s – 1970’s was an anti establishment culture that spread its popularity through the west, most dominantly the USA and the UK. This movement was started to press and break the societal grip around controversial topics such as women’s right, drug use and racism.
Victor Moscoso is the artist behind this vibrant and exaggerated illustration, “The Chambers Brothers”. Moscoso is an artist from San Francisco who is known for his psychedelic designs in the 60’s – 70’s. I picked this Design as a point of interest as it very unique in the way that imagery and type are composed together whilst being accompied by a highly vibrant colour pallet and very flamboyant atmosphere.
‘Chicago Seeds’ are the minds behind this design and various others just like it that follow the Counter Culture idea. Chicago Seed are an underground newspaper run by Don Lewis and Earl Segal during the 60’s. This poster sparked an interest as it is very controversial and doesn’t follow any societal guidelines at all which appeals to Counter Culture area of design.
The text is tucked away diliberatly in the top left hand corner as the main focus is imagery used in the centre. The skull behind replaced with the Statue of Liberty’s head would cause a stir within the common societal audience, however that’s what makes it powerful. Colour here is very mild and soft toned as a sense of death reeks from the imagery and shouldn’t be too impactful for the viewer.
Milton Glaser is another psychedelic illustrative designer based in New York, USA. Glaser’s work immediately strikes the viewer with vibrancy and unorthodox motion with the colours present. The strokes and lines used are very thin but fill with heavy amounts of colours.
This kind of design displays more positivity than other Counter Culture pieces as it doesn’t have anything controversial but still follows its oust set of rules instead of the common design guidelines that would normally be present.
Victor Moscoso – Joint Show, offset litho, 1967 © Neon Rose
( https://www.grafik.net/category/archive/victor-moscoso)
Chicago Seed – “power to the people”
(https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/249316529348657433/)
Milton Glaser – La Peau Grasse
(https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/457326537133091767/)