Psychedelic Movement

The Psychedelic movement was born in the 1960s within the hippie subculture. It is a style which was influenced by the drug taking mainly of hallucinatory drugs such as the LSD. It resembles the Art Nouveau features as abstracts contain swirls of intense colours with curvilinear calligraphy.  It had influence not only the music but also the fashion, language, art and among others.

Before…

At the end of World War 2 the United States was hit by the post war economic boom and also by the baby boom. As those children grew into young adults, they questioned about the political norms, the traditions and more. In the mid 60s, a youth movement emerged. The youth wanted to be free from discrimination. As time went along the young Americans discussed on various subjects such as on the civil rights to Vietnam War to nuclear proliferation and finally to sexual freedom and drugs. 

Around the 60s, music festivals and concerts were famous and so art. Thus art and psychedelic music were combined and a new art form was created to make use of it on band posters.

Psychedelic Posters

One can see that the designers were influenced from the preceding movements to create these posters. These movements were Art Nouveau, Pop Art, Op Art and Victorian Art.

Here is a good example:

In this poster one can see the use of curvilinear shapes which was influenced from the Art Nouveau movement; the vibrant colours to create the ‘psychedelic effect’ which was influenced from the Pop art movement.

Psychedelic Designers

Victor Moscoso

Victor Moscoso was born in Spain in 1936 and moved to San Francisco in 1959. He was the first of the poster artists with formal training and also to use the photographic collage in his posters. Moscoso created the ‘slow read’ posters with the effects of the contrasting colours and intense patterns. He even turned his colour theory upside down and created ‘colour discord’ by putting colours of similar intensity next to each other. He invented the visual motif for psychedelic and made the type as illegible as possible.

Wes Wilson 

Another designer who was much known for his psychedelic posters was Wes Wilson. He was also known as the father of the 60s rock posters. Wilson invented a style which was similar as the 60s peace movement. In 1966, Wilson created a new font which is known as Psychedelic font. 

Nowadays…

This art movement is still present even today. These artworks below were made by Luke Brown:

Luke Brown is well known in the psychedelic community. He is the first artist which he creates complex, vividly colourful psychedelic art where he combines traditional and digital techniques.

 

References

Graphic Design History, (2011). Psychedelic 60s. [online] Available at: https://visualartsdepartment.wordpress.com/psychedelic-60s/ [Accessed 28 Jan. 2015].

Psy-amb.blogspot.com, (2015). 42 Modern Psychedelic Visionary Artists You Need To Know. [online] Available at: http://psy-amb.blogspot.com/2012/11/42-modern-psychedelic-visionary-artists.html [Accessed 28 Jan. 2015].

Slideshare.net, (2015). Psychedelic Art Movement. [online] Available at: http://www.slideshare.net/arishachannah/psychedelic-art-movement [Accessed 28 Jan. 2015].