Why the wrong face?
What happens when a social movement starts to grow that is anti-establishment and anti-corporation at its core, but you still have shows to promote and music to sell? Well you throw out the rules the corporations follow but steal their methodology, since making money is what they’re really good at!
And with that, in rolls the DIY punk scene.
Will they ever have the budget for real posters? Who knows.
Punk music was a near simultaneous explosion in the US and UK in the mid-70s going into the 80s. Kids from working class backgrounds, disenfranchised by the status quo (not the band, although, probably them too) and inspired by their rock n roll heroes started to political and social activism into their own hands. As with any great movement, there was a music scene to go with it. And where there’s a music scene, there’s design.
Minimal effort, moderate impact
These kids were not going to go to a big record label or promoter and ask them to advertise their basement level punk shows, record their albums or make their merchandise. Punk was a rebellion against all of that, but the truth of the matter is all those things still needed to be done. So screw the squares, we’ll do it ourselves!
I can't imagine the tone on that board is up to much
At the time punk got big, Xerox were changing the face of home printing forever. Personal computers were not yet available and as a result neither were home printers. But stationary shops were and they usually had photocopiers and they could be accessed by anybody and they were cheap to run. Especially if you worked the counter at a stationary store and hated your job.
Thank Jello for marker pens and photocopiers.
Most of these fliers would be made with drawings, hand written text and collage cut outs from magazines and album art. They were arranged on one single sheet of paper, sometimes including text typed up on their parents old typewriter, glued together and then photocopied to within an inch of their lives. The effect of the copier giving an inadvertent look that defined the style. This went on to be the basis for how zines were made, allowing the same movement to have their own unregulated press, where they could say all of the things Rolling Stone and the NME wouldn’t allow them to.
Well thanks Kristen, Jennifer, Greta, Heather and Meghan, that's very kind.
Of course, punk got to be so popular that the labels ended up cashing in on it anyways. Many trying to emulate the style and failing quite hard. After all, the one thing you can’t buy is soul.
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