Between the optimism at the birth of Rock ‘n’ Roll and the disillusion of Punk, the Pop generation created a lifestyle which reached its apogee in 1966 in ‘Swinging London’, and San Francisco’s ‘Summer of Love’ in 1967. Throughout the 1960s Pop values and attitudes constantly challenged those of the wider society. From its dynamic genesis in the seminally important film of teenage alienation and rebellion, ‘Blackboard Jungle’, of 1955, which featured Bill Haley’s iconic ‘Rock Around the Clock’, to its negation in the anarchy of ‘70s Punk, Pop was probably the most significant cultural phenomenon in the second half of the twentieth century. 'Pop! Design, Culture, Fashion 1955-1976’ covers all aspects of Pop design in Britain and America, from early rock ‘n’ roll to punk. It looks at record covers and packaging designs by Pop artists such as Andy Warhol, Peter Blake and Richard Hamilton, and the work of fashion designers such as Mary Quant, Barbara Hulanicki from Biba, Vivienne Westwood and John Stephen of Carnaby Street fame, as well as their contemporaries in America such as Betsey Johnson of Paraphernalia. Pop graphics are also covered, from the psychedelic posters of Alan Aldridge, and the design collective ‘Hapdash and the Coloured Coat’ to rock posters from San Francisco and the west coast of America. There are also reproductions of rarely-seen underground magazines such as ‘Oz’, ‘Gandalf’s Garden’, ‘l’ Actuel’ and the ‘International Times’. The ephemeral nature of much of Pop design is explored - from paper furniture and ‘throwaway’ paper dresses, to longer-lasting trends such as Union Jack clothing, metal badges, machine-embroidered denim, printed t-shirts and tin badges. The book also looks at the work of ‘Them’, an influential group of ‘Baroque Pop’ designers who coalesced around Zandra Rhodes in the early 70s, and ends with the anti-design of punk fashion by Vivienne Westwood, and the self-proclaimed ‘horrible by design’ punk graphics of Jamie Reid. Whilst there have been innumerable books on the Swinging Sixties, and on Pop Art, this is the first book to look at Pop design over a twenty year span, and to examine the interconnected nature of so many elements of the phenomenon such as books and magazines, music, film, fashion and graphic art. It is also unique in that the illustrations are not sourced from the usual magazine archive images, but are photographs of the artefacts themselves, from Elton John’s waistcoat, embroidered with suns, stars and rainbows, to Twiggy coathangers, psychedelic book covers and every teenager’s must-have item: ‘Glo Glo boots for Go Go girls’.
