Jamie Reid and Punk

To start off with a bit of cultural context, the 1960’s to 70’s brought about some tough times. From the Vietnam war to the Market Crash. These events without a doubt had an effect on the general population and attitudes were changing as a result. The start of this could be seen with the protests and riots in 1968 in England. This civil unrest eventually moulded itself into this new young generation, filled with a rebellious voice and an outspoken nature. While punk culture was very prevalent to the design world, it did not technically start there. The term ‘punk’ started to be used to describe the new emerging type of music and fashion trends of the time. This music was the lyrical representation of the attitudes of the time. The music was loud, unruly and filled with anarchic messages which perfectly summarises what people were feeling at the time. The fashion was also a representative of general feelings of the people as these ‘punks’ wore outlandish attire that seemed to be put together for the sole reason of standing out and rebelling against a norm.

So we've got this growing music genre and a subculture under the punk umbrella, now it’s time to discuss the imagery and design that was used in support of this culture. The ‘Sex Pistols’ were pretty much the most popular punk band of the time and design wise, some of the album covers and poster they had to advertise their music were also very popular and highlight some of the characteristics of the visual language used at the time. Jamie Reid has made a number of designs for the ‘Sex Pistols’ and this image over here is one of them. This is the album cover for the album ‘Anarchy in the Uk’ and I feel that this poster really characterises the punk image and philosophy. The first thing that instantly gains the viewer’s attention is the torn and burnt Union Jack. The flag appears to be torn apart and shoddily attempted to be fixed back together. This was an aesthetic that was fairly common for the punk style, partly as a symbolic statement to the attitudes of the time and partly due to the lack of monetary resources of many of these bands. Other elements of this album cover lend itself to this very same design aesthetic of being purposefully messy with the use of clips and pasted together typography. Another thing of note with this design pretty much any other done in the punk style is how in your face the message and aesthetic is. With many of the other styles and movements we have seen this far, imagery and symbolism has been almost predominantly subtle compared to how blatant these designs are.

As a personal note, the hand crafted nature of many of the punk designs does intrigue me quite a bit as it is an aesthetic that was pretty innovative and original for the time. The visual language that the designs tend to use is also something I am quite fond of, with the use of often politically charged sarcasm and wit.

References:

·         Biography-biography.com-2015 [http://www.biography.com/people/jamie-reid-20937155#later-career][last accessed on 23/01/2015]