The Psychedelic Experience, DAM!

A few weeks ago, our friends at the Denver Art Museum invited us to attend the VIP media preview of The Psychedelic Experience, their newest exhibit featuring rock posters from the San Francisco Bay area created from 1965-71. Instead of going ourselves, we thought it’d be much cooler to send a group of first generation Denver designers (all retired now) to the show in our place – to relive the era they began designing in more than four decades ago. Needless to say, they dug it. What follows are their thoughts from a show you’ve got to go see.

It started in the 1950s, breakthrough creative stuff we had never seen before. Color for the first time – pink/charcoal, aqua with orange/red, ivory and lemon yellow. Great automotive that was fresh every year. Out-of-control rock music, Elvis, the world was coming to an end! Amazing patterns in clothing, fabrics, outer space furniture. Nothing could top this.

Until the 60s, when the 50s paled in comparison. Now we saw day-glo colors, fluorescent green, orange, lime yellow, magenta. Mind altering drugs, outrageous music, lightning fast cars. Something happened in consciousness that broke the barriers for creativity and blew it through the roof.

No one really understood it. Just make it as wild as possible was the criteria. And on top of all this, the psychedelic San Francisco rock music posters appeared – the creative icing on the cake. Lettering that was illegible, colors that vibrated together, extreme complexity in design, advertising that only a few could actually decipher – talk about creative freedom.

Here in Denver, the creative trends were of course much milder – but this rock stuff won all the awards and was constantly featured in Art Direction and CA mags. So we all wanted to do this kind of design, but very few clients would allow it. (Sound familiar?)

^ Caption: Larimer Square was the closest thing Denver offered to San Francisco during the 60s. You could buy a paisley shirt or a handmade leather vest at Poor Richard’s Leather shop or a giant orange paper flower at the Emporium and top it off with a beer inside the Bratskellar’s old brick walls. This piece we created back in the day is typical of the psychedelic posters – weak concept, found art, original lettering, vibrating colors – but this one was actually legible. Typical for Denver, always a client restriction – they had to be able to read it. It’s not in the DAM show, but still far out!

There were lots of influences and rub-off from it with wild typography, color and art styles like those in the Beatle’s “Yellow Submarine” that were soon seen in advertising. Even on the national level, 7UP’s Uncanny in Cans campaign comes to mind, Life magazine covers, Peter Max art, etc. was seen every place – until it became commonplace.

The DAM show clarified that picture for us by showing the past. And even though we may not realize it, today’s work has its roots from those revolutionary creatives. If that work had not been done then, we would not have evolved to where we are today with an open mind for ideas to flow.

It’s hard to explain how much the 50-60s affected us. It was so outrageous at the time, nothing that has happened since has had that same mind boggling impact. Maybe it was because everything before then was so vanilla. But we lived it and it was an amazing ride.

Facts About The Show:
• DAM is the first and only museum to have a comprehensive collection of this kind
• The collection was purchased from David Tippit who collected the pieces for 20 years, all together about 900 pieces, each is in prime condition
• The collection covers work from sound, promoters, dance concerts, tickets, covers, flyers and underground comics designed in San Francisco from 1965-71
• The exhibit features an area called Psychedelic Side Trip with a period living room of the 60s, stained glass, black and white TV running the Laugh-In show, light show, tie dyed items and phone booths where you can record a 60s story that will appear as a YouTube video
• The Psychedelic Experience runs from March 21 – July 19
• More info here

NOW GO SEE THIS BAD BOY!