Counterculture was born into a time of austerity due to the cold war.Rebellion was a crucial key to the counterculture movement, “summarised in (embracing) an alternative lifestyle characterized by…, brightly colored clothes, communal living, free sex, and rampant drug use”. The art created represented this hedonistic yet antipathy towards politics of the time.

Hapshash and the Coloured Coat consisted of two graphic designers, Michael English and Nigel Waymouth.

I find it interesting how in the left-hand corner, the same male figure thats in the centre, is posed differently,slightly distorted and in this gold ink. I feel this alongside the repetitive patterns of the flowers and elongated shapes emphasise the psychedelia that strongly influenced the work of this time period.

The collaboration described their work as “a precursor to a sort of graffiti.” which I feel is shown in the colour scheme which solely consists of three colours.

Wes Wilson is seen to be the ‘godfather’ of psychedelic art that emerged
within the 1960s. His most well-known work would be the typeface he created which was heavily used within the 1970s in the psychedelic and counter culture movements. The piece of work which interested me the most that Wilson created was for a playboy magazine cover. I find the way in which the type frames and creates a sense of movement to the central image, but also makes up the body of the girl, i think the use of movement was pivotal to the whole psychedelic movement.

Milton Glaser’s work, though still in the vain and strong within the counter culture movement, this particular piece of work has rather colour palette compared to the work of other artists within the movement, this piece of work compared to Wilson’s playboy cover shows how the colour schemes within the movement, though still bright, did not necessarily have to have that bright fluorescent or metallic look to them. I found this particular piece interesting because of the way in which the movement created by the abstract-esque shapes are all contained within a silhouette of a face.

(1)http://visualarts.britishcouncil.org/collection/artists/hapshash-the-coloured-coat

(1)quoted in Summer of Love Art of Psychedelic Era, Tate 2005, p. 107

Hapshash and the coloured coat-Luv Me Promotional Film Poster,1967: https://paddle8.com/work/hapshash-and-the-coloured-coat/102695-luv-me-films-promotional-poster

Johnson,K Summer of Love:

http://www.coldwar.org/articles/60s/summeroflove.asp