Born July 15th, 1937 as “Robert Wesley Wilson” in Sacramento, California, Wilson was a American Artist and leading designer of the American psychedelic posters in San Francisco. Wes was synonymous with the peace movement, and the psychedelic posters of the 1960’s. Wilson is most well known for a font which made the letters look like they were moving or melting.

Wes Wilson was a student of philosophy and religion, and did very little reading before the age of 18 when he discovered there were books on the subjects he craved to learn about. His mother was a school teacher, and generally saw himself as an outdoor child. Wes saw freedom as experiences highly sort after and regarded it as a valuable asset. He served compulsory service duty for the military during the Korean War, and his schooling included electives of philosophy.

Wilson had an interest in Technical things, and in 1959 worked in an architect job. In 1960 enrolled at the San Francisco State College, and had interests in aeronautical engineering, architecture, forestry, eastern religion, and philosophy at the time. During this time had an creative impulse to become an artist. Since he had been drawing on and off during his life decided it was an option. 1964 Wilson studied Painting and Life Drawing, and took acid with Bob Carr.

1964 saw Wilson work for Contact Printing Company, where Wes learnt the basics of graphic layout and camera work. Wilson preferred to do a lot of free-hand lettering, while most jobs were black and white, or one color due to budget restraints. His work for Contact Printing, consisted of San Francisco Film Festival, and Influential Trips Festival, some promotional material for Mime Troupe, and a Diet book titled “Zen Cookery”.

While Wes Wilson was creating graphic art works that were getting notice by an emerging counter-culture, the rock scene was doing some serious developing in 1965. This was the year Wilson designed a full color poster that was trying to warn the American public of ‘policies of dictatorship’. The year also saw him designing his own wedding invitation.

Chet Helms worked with Wilson to create music handbills, while Contact Printing did the flyers for the 1966 Trips Festival. The same year Contact Printing closed its doors which enabled Wes to start freelancing. Wes saw himself as a traditional artist and was a member of the ‘Bay Area Figurative School’ who were the ‘new realists’.

In the 1960’s Commercial Art was simple and neat for businesses and poster art was the opposite and was generally an underground affair. Wes generally learnt on the job with poster art; however Wes took advantage of any circumstance. Wilson always worked by hand to assure what he was doing was a work of art. Wes was constantly experimenting with design form, and color in an attempt to energize, create dynamics, expression and a high spirit.

Wes Wilson’s posters would usually consist of imagery of the human female figure, in an often thoughtful treatment. He was known for his serious, positive portrayal of the feminine image of the modern era. His style usually had the ‘fill-the-sheet” style, especially in his Fillmore designs. Wilson’s typography was used in dense ‘blocks’ of text wrapped into a sculptural form. Wes Wilson’s style was and is still today; emblematic and iconic style of the 1960’s.

The style of Wes Wilson in general ignored the basic rules of poster design, created works of art related to ounter-cultural sensibilities. Wilson was given an extraordinary amount of artistic freedom while working for Avalon and Fillmore Ballrooms. Wes decided he was not satisfied with commercial-art and stopped working in poster design in 1967.

Around 1969 Wes started working with water color with people remaining his primary subject. After water-color Wes started working in colored glass with enamel paints which gave him more freedom. By 1976 Wes Wilson had found a property in Southwest Missouri and started a small beef cattle farm. He continued improving the land using new techniques and created a ‘farmscape’ around 2005 Wes converted a barn into a spacious painting studio.

External Links & Resources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wes_Wilson

http://www.wes-wilson.com/bio.html

http://new.myfonts.com/fonts/k-type/wes-wilson/

http://www.dking-gallery.com/store/Wilson.html

Herb Lubalin, born in 1918, and died May 24th 1981. Herb was an American Graphic Designer who collaborated with Ralph Ginzberg on three of Ginzburg’s magazines titled; Eros, Fact, and Avant Garde. He most famous accomplishment was designing ITC Avant Garde.

Lubalin trained as a graphic designer at Cooper Union, and was fascinated by the look and sound of words from the beginning. After graduating in 1939 he was fired from his first job for requesting a $2 Pay rise. His next job was at Reiss Advertising, and Sudler & Hennessy followed. Herb stayed here for twenty years.

After working at Sudler & Hennessy he began his own private practice which allowed him to work on three publications that would put his name on the map. The three publications were all with Ginzberg and called; Eros, Fact, and Avant Garde. Eros was the first one, and failed after an obscenity case with the US Postal Service. Fact was a magazine that let outsiders publish articles mainstream magazines wouldn’t allow. This magazine had a budget restraint and a minimalist black and white theme was chosen.

Avant Garde born from the failure of Fact looked to express “the advanced, the innovative, and the creative.” It was created to represent a Futuristic and instantly recognizable identity. It was at this magazine that Herb’s most famous typeface ITC Avant Garde was born. It was created from the logo of the magazine due to its popularity.

The font Avant Garde became stereo typical throughout the 1970’s and was misused in Lubalin’s opinion many times. Herb Lubalin’s personal logo is still a influential logo in modern typography. The magazine Avant Garde was a large format experimentation magazine measuring 11 x 14in with a hard cover. It is this that captured the attention of the New York Design scene. The magazine was stopped after a alphabet of nude models with a circulation of 250,000.

Resources and Links

http://www.typogabor.com/herb-lubalin/
http://www.linotype.com/483/aboutthedesigner.html
http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/crimes-against-typography
http://wapedia.mobi/en/Herb_Lubalin

The five pointed star or pentagram as it quite often related to has so many applications throughout history, graphic representation, and meanings to many people.

The 5 Pointed star has many symbolic meanings, especially through its association with the number 5 and its use to symbolize this.  To start with, 5 is regarded as mystical and magical and is essentially Human by nature. It is believed it is human through its association with the human body having 5 fingers, 5 toes, 5 senses, 5 stages of life, 5 Body extremities (Head, arms, and legs), there was 5 wounds of Christ. The medieval knight had 5 virtues and Wiccan’s lass have 5 parts. (Feet, knees, womb, breasts, lips, and blessed be)

The Pentagram also known as Pent alpha, pentangle or more commonly known as a Star Pentagon symbolically lives in Ancient Greece, Babylonia, a symbol of faith by Wiccans, Akin to the cross used by Christians, and the star of David by Jews.

In modern times the most popular association with the pentagram is its evil association with Neo-Pagans, Wicca, and all of the evil symbolism that goes along with these organizations. Historically the Pentagram has long been associated with mystery and magic, it is the simplest form of star shape, and can be drawn with 1 line. It has been given many names such as: Goblins Cross, Pent alpha, the Witches Foot, Devils Star, Seal of Solomon or more commonly the Hexagram.

Before the trend for evil association, it was seen as protection from evil & demons, as well as a symbol for safety. The freemasons have also gone through a major period where the knotted pentagram was used to sit above the master of the lodge, in its upright form called the Seal of Solomon. Its geometric properties and structure of the endless knot was incorporated into the 72o degree angle of the compass which the freemasons also use as a logo of sorts.

The USA uses the 5 pointed stars and the pentagram a lot throughout the symbolism, the first of note would be the stars on their flag. Thought to symbolize Nature & Science, the pentagram is associated with the Fibonacci ration. The number 5 is seen as the power of god through the reasoning of: Even numbers are seen as female, odd being male, 1 not being a real number, and if you add the first odd and first even you get the number 5. It is also speculated it has ties with the fact that there was 5 freemasons associated with the forming of the United States.

The 5 pointed star is a common ideogram, it has the angle of 36o with the same length points, it has a lot of common association with Military Power and War, and when red has a very common sense of communism. It is used with the Order of the Eastern Star which was a Fraternal organization associated with freemasonry. Another common association the five pointed star has is with Golden Rule. The golden rule is simply a rational number that equals approximately 1.618.

In the religion of Manichaeism the number five has many meanings including; the first man having 5 sons, the 5 elements of light, 5 elements of darkness, the body with 5 extremities, 5 virtues, and 5 vices, The number five plays a very central role within this religion.

In Islam five also plays a very popular role with the number 5 being a sacred number, the 5 pillars of Islam being; Decoration of Faith, Prayer, Fastings, Giving Alms, and making the pilgrimage to Mecca. There a five categories of Islamic law, and 5 more laws of giving prophets. (Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed)

 Resources / External Links:

http://www.ecauldron.net/pentagram.php

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentagram

http://eb.com.au/

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Why_did_America_use_a_5_pointed_star_rather_than_a_6_pointed_one

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five-pointed_star