Psychedelic Poster Art vs Vienna Secession Graphics

Psychedelic Poster Art was influenced by Vienna Secession Graphics — borrowed Alfred Roller's squeezed, space-filling Secession lettering.

Original specimen in the 1960s psychedelic poster style

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
Full Psychedelic Poster Art guide →
Gustav Klimt — poster for the 1st Vienna Secession exhibition (1898)

Vienna Secession Graphics

The graphic output of the Vienna Secession and Wiener Werkstätte, marrying gridded geometric ornament to gilded, Klimt-era pattern, custom square lettering, and the near-square journal Ver Sacrum.

  • Geometric gridded ornament and checkerboards
  • Custom geometric display lettering
  • Near-square Ver Sacrum format
  • Gilded flat decorative pattern fields
  • Generous, structured white space
Full Vienna Secession Graphics guide →

At a glance

Psychedelic Poster ArtVienna Secession Graphics
Erac. 1966–19711897–1920
DisciplineGraphic DesignGraphic Design
RegionUnited StatesAustria
FamilyVernacular/Pop, CountercultureArt Nouveau, Secession
Formal traitshand-lettering, vibrating-color, art-nouveau-revival, dense-compositiongeometric-ornament, custom-lettering, flat-color, gridded

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