Holden

While Fernandez and Harrington’s design-led illustration has found favour with big name clients, animators are also soaking up the psychedelic influences of Glaser, Aldridge and Barney Bubbles, and adding new twists to the genre.

Steve Scott is an animator and illustrator based in London whose playful , experimental work for the likes of Volvo and Nokia, and stage graphics for Led Zeppelin, mix psychedelic characters and shapes with cutting edge transitions and effects.

Scott has a list of broad influences that span and eclectic mix from Herge’s The Adventures of Tintin to 2000AD, though the narrative of Yellow Submarine at a tender age shaped his of narrative and animation, while Terry Gilliam’s slapstick pop surrealism and Edward Gorey’s sinister Victorian gentlemen are influences as well.

Scott is not a fan of everything, but on first viewing Martin Sharp’s work, he was blown away. Sharp was the art director of Oz magazine as well as designing album covers and a series of fantastic prints on foil. Psych art should feel like tumbling down the rabbit hole whilst riding an elephant that is playing a 20-minute Moog solo through his trunk.

It is only through the freedom of expression within psychedelic-styled art which, twinned with more open briefs from clients, has caused this resurgence in the style. You don’t have to look far to see contemporary marketing campaigns from some of the world’s most famous brands drawing on the likes of Huford, Scarfe and Aldridge who, more than 40 years later, may have finally come mainstream.

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There’s been a resurgence in creative work in creative work and abstract work that’s able to co-exist with more corporate work. The abstract nature of psychedelic art lends itself to this and it’s the exact opposite of where a lot of brands were three or four years ago.

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Psychedelic-infused art and design is taking on the mainstream. The heydey of psychedelic art and design spanned but a few years from the rump end of the 1960’s, and yet its influence continues to resonate strongly, with a new breed of artists and designers drawing on the classic works of genre in fresh and exciting ways.

Unlike psychedelic music – which has rolled into the mainstream – psychedelic art remained very much a part of the counter culture, never gaining true acceptance by the established art community of the day. It was frowned upon by the art establishment, in much the same way as freestyle graffiti was in the 1960s.

Artist such as Hurford, Gerald Scarfe, Alan Aldridge and Barney Bubbles came to encapsulate 1960’s psychedelia. Hurford was one of the main illustrators working on famed counter-culture magazine Oz.

In London around 1967 there were psychedelic posters on walls and for sale from street vendors in Oxford Street. They advertised clubs, groups and shops.

From the outset, a main outlet for psychedelic art was the music scene, and UK design group Hipgnosis was at the forefrom of this, designing cover art for outfits such as Pink Floyd, Wishbone Ash, Led Zeppelin and Genesis. In the US, meanwhile, famed designer Milton Glaser won recognition for his psychedelic Bob Dylan poster design.

While never scaling the same heights as it did during the late 1960’s, psychedelic art has maintained a strong relationship with music, but it is the realm of visual communication that it is currently currying unexpected favour. As businesses and orginizations begin to appreciate the genre’s ability to communicate rich and varied visual messages, a new generation of illustrators and designers is putting a fresh spin on the genre.

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