Punk was an explosion. It was an explosion from the rigid,
calm and controlled way of life found under the systems of Modernism. It was an
explosion from the Grid, from Jan Tschihold and all his clean and well planned
layouts. Punk began as a teenage rebellion. It was based mainly on anarchism,
and on getting the job done in a non controlled way as possible. This movement
was based mainly around music at the time. Teenagers took the sounds of the
50s, upped the tempo, and added lots of guitar and drums. The rise of punk rock
from the small bands playing around neighborhoods to getting accepted by
society as a new form of music was mainly due to two bands, The Ramones and The
Sex Pistols, New York and London based respectively.
With these new bands there came a new identity for
teenagers, a new sense of fashion, a new sense of ideals and expression. The
punk fashion was a DIY process, much like their posters. The overall idea we
get from Punk is it’s aggressive, raw and instantaneous feel. Since Punk was an effort to get away from the
mainstream media and mainstream everything of their lives they ditched all
methods of poster making and printing and buying clothes to tearing, pasting
and making their own.
Important Graphic Designers at the time were Jamie Reid, Neville
Brody, Peter Saville and Malcolm Garret. Jamie Reid is known mostly for his
working with the Sex Pistols. He made several of their album artworks,
including, Never mind the Bollocks, Anarchy in the UK and his famous God Save
the Queen. His methods of design were
mostly made of photocopies, made with shocking colours, collage, torn edges,
cut up lettering, screen printing, and deconstructed images. A safety pin,
cluttered pages, juxtaposition of images and anti-capitalist slogans were his
signatures.
Neville Brody started creating Punk album artworks while he
was studying Graphic Design, and he chucked design out of the window and
embraced Punk. Peter Saville was part of Factory, and created
some very beautiful sleeves which are iconic of Punk. Amongst these is his most famous Unknown Pleasures for Joy Division and New Order Power Corruption and Lies by New Order.
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