Grunge and Art Chantry

Grunge

Grunge is a subgenre of alternative rock that emerged as a fusion of punk, alternative, and heavy metal during the mid-1980’s in the American state of Washington, particularly in the Seattle area. A lot of people started to contribute with grunge, and this group began to expand. A lot of rock bands like Nirvana were born from this group. With 1987’s seminal Gluey Porch Treatments album, the Melvins would become one of the founding fathers of what eventually became known as “grunge”- a new mutant form of punk rock that absorbed heavy metal as well as hard rock bands such as “kiss” and “Aerosmith”.

The typography was messy, words were splayed and chaotic, letters blurred. Textures were thick and heavy. Concert posters looked like splattered paint and scratched out band names. It looks like unfinished and frenzied aesthetic.

David Carson

David Carson is known as the “Godfather of Grunge”. His style explore the ‘rule breaking’ ideas of Punk and Deconstructivist design. His style challenged the traditional editorial and advertising design of the 80’s and 90’s. His method was simple, his gospel two fold: you don’t have to know the rules before breaking them, and never mistake legibility for communication. In 1983 became the designer of ‘Transworld skateboarding’. In 1992 created the magazine ‘Ray Gun’. The covers of this magazine were bold and often disorienting.

His techniques were ripping, shredding and remaking letters and his characteristics were asymmetrical layers, pages with densely layered images and fragmented typefaces.

The rise of grunge typography coincided with the burgeoning popularity of the Macintosh, which, introduced in 1984, permanently altered the landscape of graphic design and typography. Young typographers in the 90’s, armed with new software and ideas, rejected the rule-based fonts of their forebears. The typography of grunge wasn’t just the experimental design of the letters, but the way they were placed on page.

These are some posters of today that were inspired from grunge.

Art Chantry

Arthur Samuel Wilbur Chantry is best known as Art Chantry, that is a graphic designer he is often known for the posters and the album covers he did for bands from the Pacific Northwest, such as Nirvana, Hole and the Sonics. Chantry also designed the cover for ‘some people can’t surf’.

The influences of Art Chantry are many forms of “outsider art”, such as monster magazines, hot-rod art, and psychedelic culture. The design of Chantry relates to punk scene in Seattle as he finds himself, with the avant-garde, creating posters for local rock concerts. Art Chantry was an Art director of the Rocket newspaper, which documented Seattle’s music scene in the 90’s. The posters that he produces where inspired from comics, pop art and industrial catalogues. His

design work for Independent record labels, commercial clients and political and community events, always on a low budget and with a quick turnaround, remains influential and much imitated today. His posters juxtapose large type, often fractured or distressed and lifted from vintage sources, with starting pictures appropriated from clip art, exploitation magazines and hot-rod culture. His posters mostly where produced from recycled materials which were simultaneously chaotic and clear.

Influences of Art Chantry today:

References:

History of Grunge. 2015. History of Grunge. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.citelighter.com/music/overall/knowledgecards/history-of-grunge. [Accessed 24 January 2015]



The Rise And Fall Of Grunge Typography - The Awl. 2015. The Rise And Fall Of Grunge Typography - The Awl. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.theawl.com/2012/08/grunge-typography. [Accessed 24 January 2015].


Art Chantry | Biography, Life, Work, Logos and Awards . 2015. Art Chantry | Biography, Life, Work, Logos and Awards . [ONLINE] Available at:http://famouslogos.net/art-chantry/. [Accessed 28 January 2015]


Search Artists / American Art. 2015. Search Artists / American Art. [ONLINE] Available at: http://americanart.si.edu/search/artist_bio.cfm?ID=7244. [Accessed 28 January 2015].