Psychedelic design originated in the mid 1960s through to the 70’s. Focusing on the United States, where it flourished the most, Victor Moscoso (a reputable graphic designer) designed 60 posters within an 8 month period in 1967.
Some of the primary factors of psychedelic art: fantastic subject matter, kaleidoscopic and spiral patterns, bright colour, extreme detail, groovy typography. The design/art movements of Art Nouveau, Vienna Secession, and Surrealism were those of what the psychedelic movement looked towards for inspiration
Art Nouveau
(Figure 1. William Bradley figure 2. Alphonse Mucha)
Vienna Secession
(Figure 3. Gustav Klimt figure 4. Wes Wilson)
Surrealism
(Figure 5. Salvador Dalí 6. André Masson)
Some immediate influences include “Op” and “Pop” art. These two combined would be the basis for which psychedelic designers would use to portray some of their works.
“Op Art” – ‘Op’ standing for optical art, the use of optical illusion within artworks to make something that isn’t moving to appear moving.
“Pop Art” – Using techniques of mass reproduction to reconfigure the figured of commodity culture.
Psychedelic Graphic Design
This is the cover of an album released from a band called “the 13th floor elevators.” This was released in 1966, and whats interesting about this is that the term ‘psychedelic’ not only refers to design and art but also to a music genre, after being named “psychedelic music” by this band themselves.
Deconstructing Psychedelic Design From Compositional Techniques
Form- Referring to line, shape, direction, scale, tone, colour, texture etc. even before words or any recognisable image.
The overall use of vibrant colours create the illusion that this image is almost vibrating, due to the contrast In tones used. The image directions is on the diagonal, and appears to be an interpretation of an eye, this sense of direction (along with the smaller eye in the middle of the pupil) creates the idea that the subject is deep in thought or even in hypnosis.
Bleeding – This refers to when the forms appear to leave the compositional space, where they are cropped (it’s like there’s a bigger picture however you can only see a little bit of the image. Like theres more to the story that you can’t see)
This is evident within this image as there is more to a face than just one eye, it’s connected to a head and a body.
Tone – Is the relative lightness or darkness of a colour. (Mood; how harsh or dark something is, or how light and uplifting something is)
This is clearly a compositional technique in this album cover, the vibrant tones create an intense and noisy image rather than something that would be relaxing, calming or soothing.
Kiryk Drewinski – posters
These posters created by Kiryk Drewinski create an illusion of a male life figure standing without his head attached whilst he is juggling some round shaped items, one of these is including his head.
Some Compositional Techniques Used Include:
form – Specifically direction, with the male juggling his head there is a centralised image, this being the man and the fact that he has no head.
The colour used within this image also allows the audience to recognise its importance. Without even reading the text you can tell that it’ll be a main feature of the work due to the choice of colours used int he poster.
The image also appears to be 3D without any shading whatsoever, just to the appearance of the hands we are able to recognise this.
boarder – This allows the audience to recognised that the image is isolated. Only what you see in the image is acknowledgeable, with no ‘bigger picture’ or “bleed” for this matter.
Tone – The use of black as the persons clothing but also the background colour allows the text to be very clear and vibrant.
Ignorance Is Not Bliss 