Before Punk

Pre-1976: Punk’s Visual Antecedents

Punk graphic design had multiple precedents. Some, but not all of the first punks were aware of Dada collage, Situationist detournement, the proto-pop mail art movement, counter-culture protest graphics and the chiaro-scuro of the underground press of the 1960’s. Examples of pre-punk graphics foreshadow the image explosion of 1976-77, alongside direct sources of inspiration such as Jamie Reid’s work with the Suburban Press, the underground graphics of San Francisco’s Diggers, or New York’s Up Against The Wall Motherfuckers.

The trickle-down influence of punk’s graphic style now infuses everything from street art to corporate advertising. The punk DIY ethos impregnates blogs, literary salons, the curatorial slant of major cultural institutions and, less fortunately perhaps, mall shops and youth-targeted branding. Graphic design choices that once originated out of necessity—borrowed, cut out and pasted, photocopied, silk-screened, improvised and executed cheaply —nowadays provides an immediacy and energy that art directors and ad agencies constantly reach for, seldom realizing that imitating grassroots culture will forever remove them from it.

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