Design Hero Wes Wilson

'The Father of the Psychedelic Poster Movement'

One stand out design hero of mine is American artist Wes Wilson well known for being one of the leading designers of psychedelic posters who invented a style that is now synonymous with the peace movement, the psychedelic era and the 1960s.

I first learnt about Wilson in my first year of college, after discovering his work I fell in love with his distinctive style and he quickly became one of my favourite artists. I hadn't seen anything like his work before which is why it stood out to me as much as it did.

These are a few of his famous psychedelic posters.

One of Wilson's major breakthroughs was in his use of color - inspired by the light shows of the concerts themselves, he mixed colours with wild abandon, resulting in jolting visuals that perfectly captured the revolutionary essence of the music his art promoted. He is generally regarded as the inventor of the psychedelic font which made the letters look as if they were melting or floating.

Something I especially love about Wes Wilson's work is that his creations were more than just announcements of who was playing on a given evening, but bold visual chromatic statements.

Soon after discovering Wilson in college I created some different project work inspired by him and his unique style. These experimentations are shown below.

Wes Wilson is a true inspiration to me and his work influenced the many other artists that followed him, his work introduced me to the psychedelic style which I find exciting and will defiantly continue explore in my own future work.