THE WEEKEND COLLECTOR: Paul Olsen Poster Collection

 I enjoyed Paul Olsen's website olsenart.com, which, if you can get through three pages of fascinating biography of living on the edges of the big-time San Francisco and London music scene of the 60s and 70s, you will finally come to Paul's incredible collection of highly collectible and valuable Fillmore and Avalon psychedelic rock posters of the '60s. (For those of you too young to know what the heck I'm talking about, these are the quintessential poster designs that advertised in amazing style, the great rock stars of the era, performing at the Fillmore, and Avalon Auditoriums in San Francisco). There is a certain wonderful organic style to these posters. There were several different designers and studios, but the artwork was top notch, and the original posters command top dollar today.  Here are a few examples: (You can see Paul's complete poster collection here. )

As a teenager in the 60s, I was very much influenced by the art style of these posters, and this type of design. It still resonates with me, and I can see how much my design sense was shaped by the way the images and typography were woven together. The incredible colors and beautiful illustrations bring back so many great memories of concerts I attended in LA (I saw the Doors, Cream, Jefferson Airplane, Jeff Beck, Iron Butterfly, the Buffalo Springfield, among many others.)