Looking Into Historic Visual Periods
Psychedelic Period
The Psychedelic period (the early 60s to the mid-70s) was an exciting, vibrant era where music, art, design, and society as a whole were largely influenced by the use of LSD (a psychedelic drug). This period in time otherwise referred to as the ‘hippie’ movement, evoked a psychedelic style among musicians and artists, creating a unique and ‘trip’ like state visually, as psychedelic drugs were the contextual drug of choice. This style was characterised by abstract swirls of bright block colours with curvilinear calligraphy and shapes. The idea was to create an optical illusion of being free-spirited and under the influence of psychedelic drugs. Those in the hippie movement advocated for peace, free-love and strongly against sending soldiers off to fight in the war.
With reference to the poster promoting the line up for the ‘Austin Psych Fest’, April 2013, headlining the psychedelic American blues-rock band ‘The Moving Sidewalks’, we see these periodic characteristics come into play through compositional strategies. At first glance, it is hard to comprehend what is happening and where to look due to the posters lack of a conventional structure, however via vertical vector lines, the viewer’s eye is drawn up into the centre salient point where there is finally some negative space surrounding the four band members. At this stage, you are drawn up and out of a circular shape to the large contrasting and curvilinear calligraphy as its scale is far larger than any other element. The text, ‘The Moving Sidewalks’, as the salient form of communication, allows audiences to understand the purpose of the poster; to promote the return of a classic psychedelic band at a psychedelic-themed festival. How do we know it belongs to the psychedelic era without knowing the band name? Well, first of all, the text ‘The Moving Sidewalks’ is a metaphor as sidewalks are stationary objects. The speech references hallucinations as, if a sidewalk was to move, one would have to be imagining it in a psychedelic-like state. Although the colours of the text are complimentary (orange and blue), the intense optical design and low tonal value of the colours makes the letterforms harder to read. Filling all that space with such strong colours makes the poster quite intimidating for audiences. It is definitely not for everyone, and in this way, it attracts those who live under the same intense and flowy vibe. The colours in conjunction with the flat 2D perspective and psychedelic shapes, as though expanding in a drug like fashion from the girl’s head, convey a further symbolic and warped psychedelic state. Through these elements, the poster promotes a vibe that is reflective of the music and atmosphere of the festival, hence audiences will know what they hope to encounter and experience when at the festival. This allows for the appropriate target markets to be reached and attracted easily.
Pop Art Period
The Pop Art period (1950s-1960s) challenged the traditional conventions of fine art and aimed to blur the boundaries between high art and low culture. It did this through the use of compositional imagery from popular and mass culture characteristics such as comic books, mundane objects, and advertising. By glorifying and giving audience to kitschy elements or objects in art spaces, critics were outraged and elitist art culture was protested. However, through this practice art become more relevant to the common citizen and hence more enjoyable and popular. Pop art is characterised through stylized reproductions of comic strips, using the colour dots and flat tones of contextual commercial printing. Famous pop art artists include Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, and Keith Haring.
The global brand Coca-Cola caught onto the movement and used its compositional elements within their advertising sector. Clearly influenced by the pop art period, the poster below possesses its compositional characteristics. The colour palette features the warm block colours of orange and yellow, commonly seen in the works of pop art. These colours directly contrast the iconic dark brown glass Coca-Cola bottle. Such contrast allows the bottle to stand out in the foreground, acting as the salient point and key commercial product. The block yellow that sits behind the bottle is monochromatic, not only to reference pop art design but to limit the audience’s eyes from any distractions that may detract from the visual hierarchy. The bottle silhouette/shadow in the background is overlapped by a red band at the bottom to create perspective and dimension, similarly to the periodic layering of the bottles in the tray. This design is very simple and easy to comprehend, making it easy to translate the letterforms reading – ‘delicious’ and ‘refreshing’. The largest element on the advert is the textual logo, which strategically demands attention due to its scale and surrounding negative space. This makes the brand name and product clear for consumers, hence fulfilling the poster’s purpose of attracting consumers and promoting its product. The lack of tonal qualities makes the image flat like a pop art piece also. Through these compositional choices, the poster ultimately glorifies the object of the Coke-Cola bottle to an audience who is becoming increasingly accepting of such a practice. In terms of context, this is crucial, as the corporation has adapted to the changing attitudes of their contextual consumers by glorifying a typically kitschy item in society.
Both posters have drawn inspiration from historic visual design periods to conduct their own compositional strategies when marketing. These compositions have helped to visually communicate a message which is relevant to the product/service they are aiming to sell to their contextual consumers. In this way, both promotion and attraction strategies are used to evoke the participation of audiences, hence successfully fulfilling both the poster’s purposes. Ultimately compositional strategies are crucial to any visual design as designs are made to attract and engage audiences. If you can use visual techniques like the composition to pull at contextual attitudes, experiences, trends, and cultures then your design is more likely to reach audiences and cause its desired effect.
By Kayla Mathew
LSD or Acid (1960’s) [WWW Document], 2011. . Mortal Journey. URL http://www.mortaljourney.com/2011/01/1960-trends/lsd-acid (accessed 3.19.19).
Pop Art Movement Overview [WWW Document], n.d. . The Art Story. URL https://www.theartstory.org/movement-pop-art.htm (accessed 3.19.19).
Psychedelic era, 2019. . Wikipedia.
Capture By Kayla 