Punk & Grunge Design Report

Introduction

If you've ever found yourself staring at a rock poster wondering what the f*%k was going on in the mind of that kid, disturbed by the disarray and triggered by the lack of symmetry, this book may not be for you. On the other hand, if these things give you some kind of sick pleasure , as if the angsty teen inhabiting your soul has been awakened, read on and prepare to relive the past, when grimy vocals, soapy mo-hawks and safety pins were still edgy and audacious, and when the style meant true rebellion and discontent for the orthodox.

-Lacey Baumer

Punk Style

Around 1976, a youth-oriented movement in art, music, and fashion emerged from London called Punk. Punk was the expression of a philosophy celebrating youth, individuality, nihilism, aggression, non-conformism, free self-expression, and rebellion against the establishment.

ThePunkRockMovement

The punk movement was an extremely volatile mix of youth rebellion and political dissent. Punk values and aesthetics demanded a total rejection of apathy and society's straightjacket rules, with the core ethic of punk being to do it yourself and be more than a witness. Punk had a unique and complex aesthetic. It was steeped in shock value and revered what was considered ugly.

Disillusioned youth felt the previous generation had hypocritically sold out their liberal idealism to conservative corporate interests, and they expressed their contempt through loud harsh music , shocking fashion statements, and aggressively irreverent self-published designs.

The whole look of punk was designed to disturb and disrupt the happy complacency of the wider society. Outside of punk's torn and safety pinned anti-fashion statements, this impulse to outrage was never more apparent than on punk album covers.

Jaime Reid is an English artist and anarchist with connections to the Situationists.

His work features letters cut in the style of a ransom note.

He comes close to defining the image of punk rock, particularly in the UK.

His best known works include the Sex Pistols album Never Mind the Bollocks, and the singles "Anarchy in the UK", and "God Save The Queen"

Sniffin' Glue

and Other Rock 'N' Roll Habits

British magazine New Musical Express acclaimed Sniffin' Glue as "the nastiest , healthiest and funniest piece of press in the history of rock'n'roll habits" and it really became the true chronicle of the early days of British punk rock as well as pioneering the DIY punk ethic. Later, some called it the Bible of the punk movement.

" Sniffin' Glue was not so much badly written as barely written; grammar was non-existent , layout was haphazard , headlines were usually just written in felt tip, swearwords were often used in lieu of a reasoned argument. . .all of which gave Sniffin' Glue its urgency and relevance. " - Tony Fletcher

Grunge Style

The Grunge design style grew out of the disheveled aesthetic of the Seattle music scene around 1990. Grunge designs extended the work of Deconstruction by featuring distressed, decomposing, and messy type and imagery in chaotic, multilayered emotive compositions.

G R U N GE

tioned the veracity of common assumptions about legibility by designing demonstratively dingy and erosive typefaces and using them in expressive compositions that were purposefully mucky and cluttered.

a common feature of grunge bands was the use of lo-fi and deliberately unconventional album covers, for example presenting intentionally murky or miscolored photography, collage or distressed lettering. Early grunge album covers and concert flyers appeared Xeroxed not in allegiance to some DIY aesthetic but because of economic necessity, as bands had so little money .

David C a rson

David Carson is an American graphic designer, art director, and surfer. He is best known for his innovative magazine design, and use of experimental typography. He was the art director for the magazine Ray Gun, in which he employed much of the typographic and layout style for which he is known. Carson was perhaps the most influential graphic designer of the 1990s. In particular, his widely imitated aesthetic defined the so-called "grunge typography" era.

1992

Gun magazine , art dire

cted by D avid Carso n