Woody Pirtle - Milton Glaser

This is a poster by the artist Woody Pirtle (one of my favorite graphic designers). I was attracted for two reasons, as I said, Woody Pirtle is one of my favorite designers and I have fond childhood memories of the original poster.  The poster is entitled After Dylan and was done for the Dallas Society of Visual Communication announcing a lecture by Milton Glaser on the subject of plagiarism.  This poster is a "copy" of Glaser's famous poster from Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Album 1967.   Glaser designed the poster with Dylan's face in black silhouette, the famous rainbow swirled psychedelic hair, and the iconic Glaser font (Baby Teeth) at the base of the poster.  I grew up in the '60s and had older siblings in high school and college during the flower child era.  We had the Bob Dylan poster and album in the bedroom I shared with my sisters from the time I was seven until I was about ten when my sister who owned them went off to college.  Sigh...  I think the poster was pretty trashed ever before she took it to college.

For After Dylan, Pirtle used Glaser's aging silhouette  -  glasses, receding hairline, and all to illustrate the concept of plagiarism.  The audience for the piece would be people attending the interested in attending the lecture by Milton Glaser, the Dallas Society of Visual Communication and its followers, Milton Glaser fans, Woody Pirtle fans, and lovers of great graphic design.

The design style is psychedelic - Milton Glaser is one of the most famous designer of this underground graphic design style, along with Peter Max, Seymour Chwast, and Victor Moscoso.  This poster is typical of Glaser's style - telling a story using simple but strong illustrations. The design uses many of the principles that we discussed in class - unity, emphasis, visual rhythm, and balance.  Unity is created through the use of repetition of shape and color in the hair, the strength of the black silhouette, and the closure created by the edges of the poster and the silhouette.  Emphasis is created through by the black/white silhouette and the rainbow hair.  The thin, white glasses also stand out on the black.  A flowing visual rhythm is created by the hair - very smooth yet the colors are very vibrant.  The poster is highly balance through color in the silhouette, hair color, and placement & color of the title.  The typography is Glaser's own representational font he entitled Baby Teeth.  The rounded letters are almost circular - like the G but also angular with a wedge cut to create the center.  The E is created by a series of stair-steps.  Very interesting - a little bit Art Deco-ish. 

Check out Pirtle's website.  I love his sense of humor, application of his art to social causes, ability to engage his audience, and the broad scope of his work.  Amazing artist.

Source: http://www.pirtledesign.com/