1960s Psychedelic Posters

After choosing my theme of 60s meeting the present, I have looked at music posters from the decade. They are an iconic part of the 60s art movements, and would work well with the XL Recordings brief as they are related to music. As I like using colour in my artwork, the use of colour in these posters is inspiring for my illustrations.

Looking for Inspiration - Various Artists

As I am struggling to find inspiration for my ideas, I have looked up various artists and found work that I like, and I will use when experimenting with my posters.

This is some of Sandra Suy's artwork. The style used on the models is simplistic, and is contrasted by the colours used on the clothing. I like this style as it mixes realism with hand-drawn, and the contrast in the beige background and the bold colours used on the clothes works well.

Steve Simpson's artwork also uses a lot of colour, and her uses a cortoon-esque drawing style on his characters to make his pictures look unique. His work also uses a lot of typography, which he uses to good effect.

I looked at Julie Dillon's work because the subject matter of her art interested me, as well as the way she drew her pieces. She uses a lot of bright colours in the backgrounds of her pictures, which contrasts with the realistic style used on the characters.

The Beatles Ablum Covers

These are the two Beatles covers that were in the Top 5 simultaneously in the 1960s. They were "With the Beatles" and "Please Please Me". It could incorporate these into my composition, along with Adele's covers, especially sing the "With The Beatles" cover has very similar lighting techniques to Adele's album covers. Adele also had a monochrome album cover, so I could make a composition combining the two.

Details on Adele's Ablum and Single Success

"Adele has become the first artist since the Beatles to have two top five singles and two top five albums in the charts at the same time. Buoyed by her rendition at last week's Brit awards, the singer's newest single, Someone Like You, jumped 46 spots to become her first No 1 hit. That song joins Rolling in the Deep, which sits at No 4; on the album charts, Adele's first two LPs – 21 and 19 – are also at No 1 and No 4 respectively.
The last time an artist had top five hits on both charts, Sir Alec Douglas-Home was prime minister. It was January 1964: Britain and America were in the throes of Beatlemania, with I Want to Hold Your Hand and She Loves You filling the airwaves while the albums With the Beatles and Please Please Me flew off the shelves."
http://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/feb/22/adele-matches-beatles-chart-success

Looking at Adele's Album Covers

For my research, I have looked at Adele's two album covers that were in the Top 5. They are both similar in design, , using a dark background and focusing on the face of Adele. They also both share similar lighting techniques, which uses a large contrast between dark and light.

Initial Ideas

For my poster, I have decided to use the event "Adele becomes the first artist since The Beatles to simultaneously have two albums in the Top 5 and two Top 5 singles.", as I have came up with the idea of mixing the past with the present, or to mix Adele's and The Beatle's album covers together to make a poster composition.

For mixing old and new, I was thinking of looking at artists movements from the era and looking at some artists from today that I like the art style of and mixing them into one composition.

Brief

The D&AD Brief I am looking at specifically is the XL Recordings brief, where the task is to illustrate an A1 poster around an XL artist.

"Illustrate a significant event, or series of events, from the history of XL Recordings, from the selection below:
Dizzee Rascal Boy In Da Corner wins Mercury Music Prize.  
M.I.A. performs at Grammy Award while nine months pregnant.
XL Recordings wins Music Week Best Independent Label Award.
Adele Skyfall wins Oscar.
Drake samples the Gil Scott-Heron & Jamie xx song Take Care.
Radiohead In Rainbows pay-what-you-want release direct from the band.
The White Stripes play the Amazon Theatre in Manaus, in the heart of the Amazon.
As an escape from the music industry’s long lead times The Raconteurs release their second album Consolers Of The Lonely within a month of announcing it.
10,000 ravers still make it through to XL’s Popham Airport rave, despite police attempts to roadblock the event. Prodigy and SL2 headline.
Adele becomes the first artist since The Beatles to simultaneously have two albums in the Top 5 and two Top 5 singles.
Richard Russell and Joby Talbot produced avant garde orchestral Aluminium album pays tribute to the White Stripes, and is turned into Chroma, a ballet premiered at the Royal Opera House in London.
Tyler, the Creator performs at MTV’s VMAs and wins Best New Artist award.
A mysterious John S. O’Leary pops up to sing the chorus on Electric Six’s disco flavoured smash hit Danger! High Voltage.
Fuck The Pain Away by Peaches becomes a defining track of Berlin’s burgeoning electronic music / arts scene later dubbed ‘Electroclash’.
Richard Russell and Nick Halkes’ Kicks Like A Mule rave outfit release The Bouncer via Tribal Bass Records.
XL The First Chapter rave compilation is first album release on XL.
Gil Scott-Heron passes away.
Banned Smack My Bitch Up discussed during Prime Minister’s Question Time.
Vampire Weekend come third out of four at Columbia University Battle of the Bands, their first ever gig.
Bobby Womack The Bravest Man In The Universe wins Best Album at the 2012 Q Awards. 


Celebrate the artist and highlight their seminal moment(s) in a way that engages and communicates to your audience.


Consider the broad context in which illustration operates in the 21st Century.

TARGET AUDIENCE: Music lovers.

MANDATORIES
An ‘illustration’ for one A1 poster. One ‘illustration’ for an online
exhibition. The spec for this is open – it could be static or moving and the size, etc. is up to you.
Document and show your research and how you developed your ideas."