“Be In” poster
The typography on this poster design by Peter Max is quite different from the “Penney’s Rainbow Lane” poster he created around the same time. There’s only one typeface, and while Cooper Black isn’t exactly a shy choice, it’s a lot less eccentric than the faces Max combined for the fashion show announcement. The restrained color palette and the slightly misaligned registration might be blamed on the limited budget, see below. Note that the artist’s signature doesn’t yet use the logo in Reklameschrift Secession.
According to the biography on the artist’s website,
Max’s Be In poster inspires several hundred thousand “hippies” to gather in New York City’s Central Park, and immortalize the Summer of Love.
From Wikipedia:
The Easter 1967 be-in was organized by Jim Fouratt, an actor, Paul Williams, editor of Crawdaddy! magazine, Susan Hartnett, head of the Experiments in Art and Technology organization, and Chilean poet and playwright Claudio Badal. With a budget of $250 they printed 3,000 posters and 40,000 small notices designed by Peter Max and distributed them around the city. […] An estimated 10,065 people participated in the event at the Sheep Meadow in Central Park. […] Less than a month later, on April 15, another anti-war rally took place as a part of the “Spring Mobilization to End the War in Vietnam”. Once again the number of demonstrators grew drastically to an estimated 100–400 thousand attendees. This peace rally, which assembled and started off in Central Park and then marched to the United Nations, was said to be the largest of its kind at its time.
3 Comments on ““Be In” poster”
Oh I thought the misaligned registration was deliberate. I suppose it primarily became deliberate when replicating the effect in the digital era. Irrespective, I really like the effect, as it adds a bit of depth and movement.
I’m in Vietnam, and I try to figure out why there is Cooper Black everywhere in every sign shop. Maybe the poster to end the war in Vietnam is the beginning of the answer. Does someone have any clue to this?
I’d reckon there isn’t a particular Vietnam angle to it. Cooper Black is one of the most popular display typefaces for the Latin script, and has been a staple pretty much since its release. It has been produced for all relevant technologies, from metal type to photo and dry transfer to digital. Once you become aware of Cooper Black, you’ll start noticing it everywhere, see frequency illusion. It is immensely popular – but not just in Vietnam.