The evolution of the rock poster as an art form began in San Francisco in the mid sixties, as artists who were commissioned to create affordable advertising for concert events broke free from the confines of commercial poster design.
The influence of French Belle Epoque figures Mucha, Toulouse-Lautrec and Cheret began to dominate, notably through their use of lettering as a permanent compositional element, nouveau lines and the fluid melting of text.
The result of this intense exploration of positive and negative space led to the eventual creation of psychedelic imagery portrayed in the "vibrating" colours, reflective of the psychedelic experience.