The 60s and 70s was a tough time to live in. The post WWII permissive society had led to what was referred to as a decaying society. The 60s had changed many things, open sexuality, the pill, rise in divorce, increase in teenage pregnancies, as well as a rate of unemployment. Without a doubt this had an effect on the general population and attitudes were very much changing as a result. The Punk era first came to light around the 1968 with protests and riots in England. This civil unrest eventually rose a new young generation filled with an understandable attitude of rebelling against everything. While punk culture was very dominant to the design world, it did not technically start there.

Traditional norms were challenged as well on other grounds. By the 70s rock music developed into a mature music industry. The fact that the general feeling of the people involved disillusionment, and the attitude was mainly a ‘no hope for the future’ attitude, led to a subculture of punk. This subculture was a rebellion through sarcasm and cynicism. A subculture motivated by negativity and nihilism, with a scene of freedom brought about living outside social norms.

Taking centre stage in all of this and most probably mostly known and linked to the era are the Sex Pistols. One thing we should mention is that the 70s was a street culture movement and everything from music to fashion was affected. Hence when such an iconic leading figure dominates the centre stage, they inspire everything through visually imagery. Hence the Sex Pistols where so iconic because they changed the design of the modern generation. In fact the Punk movement found expression through music and fashion.

The most spoken designer of the time was Jamie Reid who was asked to design posters, T-shirts and adverts for the Sex Pistols. He used collage techniques, random unusual typography, and use of Letraset transfers, random note lettering, day glow inks and highlighter pens. Hence anarchic graphic design was created.

The first album cover by James Reid came in 1976. These designs were referred to as ‘the art of plunder’ because of the fact that Reid took icons of the British establishment and mutilated them. This juxtaposition of order and anarchy created shock elements throughout the entire nation.

Reid developed a style known as ‘The Ransom Note’. This style was a style that got picked up by an underground culture of very interesting magazine, made by the fans, known as ‘Fanzines’. All that was needed was a typewriter and a photocopier to print these fanzines. These were different from the commercial magazines however this aspect made them all the more appealing. There was a sense of immediacy and authenticity in the design. A do it yourself look. Punk was about doing something and saying something. The fanzines and anarchistic qualities are similar to Dada.  However the homemade quality of the posters made it different. While Dada remains artistic Punk was not. Text was not proof read.

In other places Post Modernism started to take the form of New Wave Design and the whole DIY culture gained even more motivation with the new introduction of the Mac which gave designers the opportunity to take this new level of design and exploit it even further. It is important to note that in the past 40 years these punk aesthetics have largely remained the same. Bands still frequently use many of these visual tropes to place themselves within the punk community and associate themselves with the scene although elements like stenciling; graffiti style and crude writing can appear all around the design world to evoke the coarse edge of punk.