SIXTIES'
PSYCHEDELIA
1960 - 1975

Introduction
• It was born within the hippie subculture in
San Francisco in the 1960's.
• It was inspired by psychedelic experiences
while the artists were on drugs like LSD and
mescaline.
• The intent was to discover a new realm of
freedom and to liberate peoples minds.

Influences
• Surrealism
• Art Nouveau
• Victorian Art
• Pop and Comic Art

Characteristics
• Use of bright contrasting colors and loud textures.
• Optical vibrating effect of graphic lines.
• Use of curviliniar shapes.
• Type was made illegible.
• There was often metaphysical elements attached.
• Text was used to create imagery.
• Collage technique was used.

Victor Moscoso
• Born in Spain in 1936, moved to San Fransisco in
'59.
• First of the poster artists with formal training and
also to use photographic collage in many of his
posters.
• He created “slow read” posters with the effects of
the contrasting colours and intense patterns.
• Turned his color theory upside down, creating
"color discord" by putting up colors of similar intensity
next to each other.
• Invented visual motif for psychedalia and made
type as illegible as possible.

Avalon Ballroom , Big Brother
and the Holding Company.
1966
San Fransisco Poster 1966
Victor Moscoso Avalon
Ballroom ,The Doors, Steve
Miller Blues Band. 1967

Victor Moscoso, Quicksilver
Messenger Service, Avalon
Ballroom. 1967
Youngbloods, Poster.
1967
Concert Poster.
1967
Poster.
1969

Wes Wilson
WE
• Born in 1937.
• Acknowledged as the father of 60's Rock Posters.
•He invented a style that was synonymous with the
60's peace movement.
• His major breakthrough was in his use of color inspired by the light shows of the concerts, he mixed
colors with wild abandon, resulting in visuals that
perfectly captured the revolutionary essence of the
music his art promoted.
• Invented a 'psychedelic' font in 1966.
• His work was very similar to Victor Moscos's work.

Jefferson Airplane, Grateful
Dead, Poster.
1966
New Year Bash, Poster.
1966
Grateful Dead, Junior Wells,
Chicago Blues Band, and
The Doors, Poster.
1966

Concert
Posters
Circa 1966
Wes Wilson's
'Psychedelic' Font.

Heinz Edelmann
• Born in 1934. (d.2009)
• Was a German illustrator and graphic designer.
• Began career as a freelance illustrator and designer for
theater posters.
• Also designed posters for various plays and films.
• Most famous for his art direction and character designs for
an animated film ( Yellow Submarine ) about The Beatles.

Cinema Poster
1964
The Beatles Album Cover
1969
Lord of the rings, Book
cover (German Edition)
1970

Stills from the
animated film
' Yellow Submarine'
1968

‘Andromedar SR1′ Book Illustrations
1970

Marijke Koger
• Was born in 1943.
• Dutch Visual artist and designer.
• Hailed as the mother of Psychedelic Art.
• Member of ' the fool', a dutch design collective and band.
• Worked with bands like The Beatles, Cream and The Move.
• Created Fashions/costumes for bands.
• Invented Psychedelic style in British Popular music in late 60's.
• She defined the Techni color hippy look.

Love Life, Poster
1966
A is for Apple,
1967
Tiger man, Poster
1970

Keiichi Tanami
• Born in 1936.
• Japanese designer and illustrator.
• Heavily inspired by the Psychedelic culture and Pop art.
• Was a member of the Neo-Dada organization in Post- war
Japan.
• In 1967 he went to NY and was inspired by Andy Warhol's
work.
• Designed album covers for bands like Jefferson Airplane and
The Monkees.
• Credited for introducing Psychedelic art to Japan.

Jefferson
Airplane
Album
Covers
1967
The Monkees
Album
Covers
1967

Japanese Poster PB
Grand Prix.
1968
No More War, Poster
1968
Magazine Cover
1968

End of an era
• The early years of the 1970's saw advertisers using
psychedelic art to sell a limitless array of consumer
goods.
• Even the term "psychedelic" itself underwent a s
shift, and soon came to mean "anything in youth
culture which is colorful, or unusual, or fashionable.
• By the mid-1970s, the psychedelic art movement had
been largely co-opted by mainstream commercial
forces, incorporated into the very system of capitalism
that the hippies had struggled so hard to change.