ART

MR. TAMBOURINE POSTER

the most psychedelic poster of a psychedelic era

By Tiffany Xu

Psychedelic Dylan

Color isn’t just color. It is the visual perception of light produced by our eyes, brain, and, perhaps strangely, our life experiences. Consider that some people can technically see while still not being able to see. The light we see by the naked eye is generated by electromagnetic waves with a narrow wavelength range. Electromagnetic waves of different wavelengths show different colors. Blue is the color of a particular wavelength, say, for example, the blue sky. In many ways, color is a kind of message that we read through many different influences—mechanical, psychological, etc. As a graphic designer, I’m most interested in the psychological effects of color.

Color is one of graphic design’s most powerful tools and can seep into the minds of how people see the world. Graphic designers use color to express the mood of an occasion, unconscious messages, even how to think. Many colors have different meanings; for instance, people use the color black to indicate mourning or the idea of cool. And in many ways these different, though complementary uses of black proves the point: the use of color is always complex.

Martin Sharp knows red

One of the most interesting colors is red. It always offers a sense of dynamism and passion and Martin Sharp’s poster Mister Tambourine Man for the album of the same name is no exception. It is a complex and fascinating use of red.

The first thing you notice is Sharp’s surreal imagery which is suggestive of hallucinogenic drugs. He created it using a multi-stencil design printed on gold foil paper and was clearly influenced by Dylan’s performances and the architecture of Angkor Wat. The album cover was designed and ready to go when Sharp and the record company decided that the piece would first appear in London Oz magazine, preceding the release of the album. In my opinion, it is one of the most visually stunning magazine covers of an era of visually stunning magazine covers.

Let's take a close look

Sharp based Mister Tambourine Man on an original portrait of Dylan taken by photographer W. Eugene Smith. The portrait was first used on the cover of Dylan’s book of poems, Tarantula. With an explosion of red and gold circular motifs surrounding Dylan’s face, it exudes the multicolored, LSD-infused, free loving spirit of the 1960’s. Sharp uses red as a happy color and also as one that immediately grabs your attention. There are many different ways for graphic designers to use and combine colors. Here, the red bubbles surrounding Dylan’s head are just like his hair and so we unconsciously associate the two. Red now means Dylan.

Sharp also uses red as a psychological effect. Red is one of the warm colors and Sharp employs it in the kaleidoscope image to indicate happiness. For instance, the red tone is mostly concentrated on the upper part of the image. The color emerges from Dylan’s head and shows the effects of hallucinogenic drugs. Dylan’s face has less red and this makes us feel that the drug has taken over his brain and is bubbling out into the world.

The Man himself in black and white

At the lower side of the poster, the red circular pattern is scattered to indicate that here the drug is less potent. Therefore, the varying tone of the red color indicates the diminished impact of the drug on him. At the same time surrounded by red bubbles, there is a miniature Dylan at the bottom right in the middle of the poster. He is in profile and painted red. It gives me the feeling that Dylan is out of touch with himself. The contrast between the presence of ‘Big Dylan’ and ‘Little Dylan’ in different locations in the same poster splits our sense of his presence. We begin to fantasize about him and to wonder who he is. As the lyrics of this song say,

Hey! Mr. Tambourine man, play a song for me/I'm not sleepy and there is no place I'm going to/Hey! Mr. Tambourine man, play a song for me/In the jingle jangle morning I'll come following you/Take me on a trip upon your magic swirling shipMy senses have been stripped/My hands can't feel to grip/My toes too numb to step/Wait only for my boot heels to be wandering/I'm ready to go anywhere, I'm ready for to fade/Into my own parade/Cast your dancing spell my way, I promise to go under it.

The song and the poster really make you feel as if you are looking through a kaleidoscope.

©Tiffany Xu and the CCA Arts Review