Midterm Project Description

For the midterm project, my partner and I will be creating a poster based on psychedelic poster art in a design that would have been seen during the 1960's-1970's, which was when it dominated the world of art. We will focus on the origins of the psychedelic art, including the tests performed by Oscar Janigar that first illustrated the effects drugs such as LSD had on artists, which appeared to have played a large part in the start of this movement. The characteristics that were often found within the art will be listed, as well as some of the bigger names in music that used this art form as a way to advertise their albums and concerts. The layout and actual design of the poster has not yet been determined but it will provide important information regarding psychedelic art.

Pyscheledia was born within the hippie subculture of the Hait-Ashbury district in San Francisco. The name “psychedelic” related directly the psychedelic drugs that was popular within the youth culture of the 1960s and psychedelic art is any king of visual artwork inspired by experiences induced by these drugs, such as LSD, mescaline and psilocybin. LSD was believed to enhance create output due to the experiments conducted by psychiatrist, Oscar Janigar. He had about fifty artists create a painting, the subject their choice, and then had them recreate the same painting while under the influence of LSD. The latter paintings were often viewed as the better work. Psychedelic art dominated the world of art from 1966 to 1972. However, psychedelia wasn’t just confined to painting. It was a style that flourished in fashion design, interior décor, underground magazines, tie-dye textiles, as well as extending into murals and the advertising world to promote campaigns and sell products.

Art Nouveau, Victorian Art, Underground Comics were an influence to this art form.

Many artists used psychedelic art as a way to advertise their albums and concerts. Some of the biggest names to do this included Big Brother and the Holding Company, Jefferson Airplane, The Byrds, Grateful Dead, The Doors and Country Joe and the Fish.

CHARATERISTICS OF PSYCHEDELIC ART:

·         Saturated, iridescent or acidic, bright and highly contrasting colors.

·         The subject matter that was generally used was in the realm of the fantastic and surrealist.

·         Kaleidoscopic, fractal and paisley patterns were used most.

·         Different subjects and themes were used and morphed in order to create collages.

·         Spirals, concentric circles, patterns of diffraction, and repetition of images and motifs were integral to this art movement.

·         The use of typography and lettering was unique to this art form. Artists would often use positive and negative spaces as well as warp text to create imagery.

ARTISTS:

Pablo Amaringo

Brummbaer

Mark Boyle and Joan Hills

James Clifford

Robert Crumb

Roger Dean

Warren Dayton

Scott Draves

Ernst Fuchs

H. R. Giger

Alex Grey

Rick Griffin

John Hurford

Alton Kelley

Mati Klarwein

Bob Masse

Peter Max

Stanley "Mouse" Miller

Victor Moscoso

Vali Myers

Martin Sharp

Gilbert Shelton

Grace Slick

Harold Thornton

Vernon Treweeke

John Van Hamersveld                  

Robert Williams

Wes Wilson

Oleg A. Korolev

Karl Ferris

Helvetica Screening

• Typefaces are seen everywhere, but the one that is seen the most is Helvetica.
• The type has better eligibility.
• It’s modern and clear.
• 1950s, interesting period in the world of graphic design. A real feeling of idealism.
• High modernist period.
• 1957, Helvetica emerges where there’s felt to be a need for rationale typefaces, which can be applied to all kinds of contemporary information, whether it’s sign systems or corporate identity, and present those visual expressions of the modern world to the public in an intelligible, legible way.
• Clarity, it should be clear, readable, and straightforward.
• Creating order is typography.
• Helvetica was a real step from the 19^th century typeface.
• It was more neutral, the meaning is not in the typeface, but in the text.
• Most characteristic design of Helvetica is the horizontal terminals.
• Eduard Hoffman wished to make a modernized version of the typeface Akzidenz Grotesk, which was a traditional 19^th century sans serif.
• Max Miedinger was the designer of Helvetica.
• Haas was controlled by German Typefoundry Stempel, which was controlled by Linotype.
• Linotype owned the Haas and Stempel foundries, and now owns Helvetica.
• Stempel suggested Helvetia, the latin name of Switzerland.
• Eduard Hoffman thought it was ridiculous to name a font after a country so Helvetica was then suggested.
• Once the font was introduced, it ran away.
• Businesses liked Helvetica because the smoothness of the letters made them almost seem human.
• The way the message is dressed is going to define our reaction to that message.
• Is the typeface of socialism cause it’s available everywhere.
• By the 70’s, conformity, dull blanket of sameness, and there was a need for change.
• Pushpin studios, fresh, alive, and witty.
• Typography can have personality like drawings, it could move and be your own medium.
• Post-modern period, designers were breaking things up to get away from the clean design and produce something that had vitality.
• Just because something is legible doesn’t mean it communicates.
• Something that may be initially difficult to read may be sending a completely different message that is valid for where it’s being used and it may require a little more time or the involvement of the reader.
• Thin line between something that’s simple, clean, and powerful and something that’s simple, clean, and boring.
• Grunge Period in typography was popular for maybe four or five years.
• Typography was so broken by the end of the Grunge Period, just lying in a twisted heap, with all rules cast aside, that all those designers could perhaps do by the end of the late 90’s was return to an earlier way of designing, but with a new set of theories to support it.
• Appreciation for typeface is changing.

GKF, 1962, Wim Crouwel

Huck Magazine Cover, David Carson

Miller, Matthew Carter

Helvetica, 1957, Max Miedinger

Machines, 1979, Push Pin Studio

Bauhaus Screening

• Chicago, epitome of the modern city, the face of modern man.
• Most of the 20^th century face, first fashioned in the old world in a revolutionary school of architecture and design in Germany called the Bauhaus.
• Bauhaus was the focal point of many avant-garde ideas and many revolutionary ideas in the 1920s.
• No other art school in Germany like it.
• Greatest design institution of the 20^th century.
• Born out of catastrophe.
• Idea of Walter Gropious.
• 1919, manifesto of published ideas.
• School was supported by public funds.
• Gerhard Marcks
• On the Bauhaus staff were some of the most original painters in the world.
• First time the focus had been put on the individual student.
• A great stress was laid on texture.
• Invented the modern art student.
• Marianne Brandt, member of the metal workshop.
• Most women were placed in the weaving, book binding, and pottery workshops.
• Theater was central to Bauhaus teaching.
• Albers was the first student to graduate from Bauhaus and then teach there.
• 1923, Bauhaus went public.
• The exhibition of 1923, made to show what was being done at the Bauhaus.
• National Socialism first became very strong in Thuringia, and artist matters were used as a pawn in the hands of the powerful, which was a clash of the parties.
• When the National Socialist Party grew stronger in Weimar, support was lost for the Bauhaus, and it was publicly declared closed.
• 1925, it reopened in Dessau, which was more liberal than Weimar.
• Began reproducing for the industrial manufacturer and mass production.
• Typography made modern statements.
• Last home of the Bauhaus was in Berlin.
• 1933, police closed the building and took some of the students away.
• By the beginning of 1933, Nazis were strong in Germany.
• The Bauhaus’ 14 year life had mirrored Germany itself.
• Teachers and students spread out to the free world, taking their ideas and convictions with them.

Poster for the 1923 exhibition, 1923, P. Keler

 Nesting Tables, 1926-1927, Josef Albers

Tea infuser and strainer, 1924, Marianne Brandt

Wassily Chair, 1925, Marcel Breuer

Schlitzgobelin Rot-Grün (Slit Tapestry Red/Green), 1927-1928, Gunta Stölzl

Toulouse-Lautrec Screening

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

• Worked during the years of the late 19^th century.
• Art form set off explosion in entertainment.
• Painted rural scene early in life.
• Friends with Van Gogh.
• Chat-noir.
• Began to paint working class women and the circus.
• Shared an interest for Japanese art and owned many pieces of Japanese art.
• Fascination with performers on and off the stage and it eventually became his focus.
• The simplicity from Japanese artist was reflected in his work.
• Expanded his love for lithography.
• Painted prostitutes.
• Depicted images of the circus to convince doctors at the hospital he was institutionalized at the he was well again.

Rousse (La Toilette), 1889, Toulouse-Lautrec

Poster for La Revue Blanche, 1895, Toulouse-Lautrec

At the Moulin Rouge, The Dance, 1890, Toulouse-Lautrec

The Hangover, 1888, Toulouse-Lautrec

Standing Dancer, 1890, Toulouse-Lautrec