Psychedelic Poster Art vs Rave Graphics
Rave Graphics was influenced by Psychedelic Poster Art.
Psychedelic Poster Art
The hallucinatory concert-poster style of 1960s San Francisco, built on vibrating complementary colors, melting hand-lettering you can barely read, and swirling Art Nouveau revival forms.
- Vibrating complementary colors placed edge to edge
- Melting, hand-drawn lettering bent to fill the composition
- Sinuous Art Nouveau and Vienna Secession revival curves
- Dense, all-over compositions with little empty space
- Deliberately challenging, near-illegible typography
Rave Graphics
The hand-drawn, fluorescent chaos of acid-house and rave flyers, anchored by the manic yellow smiley face and a cartoon riot of melting type, aliens, and dayglo swirls.
- Yellow acid-house smiley face icon
- Fluorescent dayglo inks on black or white stock
- Hand-drawn cartoon characters and aliens
- Melting, bubbly psychedelic lettering
- Dense collage of clip art and photocopied texture
At a glance
| Psychedelic Poster Art | Rave Graphics | |
|---|---|---|
| Era | c. 1966–1971 | Late 1980s–1990s |
| Discipline | Graphic Design | Graphic Design |
| Region | United States | United Kingdom, United States, Europe |
| Family | Vernacular/Pop, Counterculture | DIY/Subculture, Vernacular/Pop |
| Formal traits | hand-lettering, vibrating-color, art-nouveau-revival, dense-composition | fluorescent, hand-drawn, collage, cartoon |
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