Slideshow: Spencer Zahn's Bold Philly Concert Posters From The 1970s
Lifelong Philly graphic artist Spencer Zahn attended Fleisher Art Memorial as a kid before attending Philadelphia College of Art (now UArts), and hit the ground running when he began designing posters for Electric Factory Concerts in 1968.
“The timing, for me, was mindboggling,” he says, because as the business of rock and roll moved onto the 1970s, a concert boom made sure that Zahn was often working on deadline in much the same way a journalist would. (This was a time when concert posters were, for a huge audience, news.)
He says of his process then, that “[it was] sitting down and really pondering the posters’ designs [...] listening, problem solving.” By the time he moved on from this kind of work, he’d designed more concert posters of this ilk than anyone else on the East Coast.
What Zahn’s poster’s carry forth today, besides a great, tactile sense of that time, are an aesthetic that’s worth looking at anew. Zahn either leaves a great sense of space on the page, or almost none at all, routinely blending his own artist’s hand with big, bold type. (You definitely get a sense of how new and dominant Helvetica was in this moment, but he also has fun with Kabel and other typefaces.)
Zahn would move on to album covers and concert stages, which then gave way to advertising, architecture, marketing, painting, photography, printmaking and sound engineering. But it all started here, and in these generous-spirited posters — some funny, some just fun — you can see how someone with a mind this open could definitely do all of the above, and then some.
A Trip(py) Through Philly’s Music History: Concert Posters by Spencer Zahn will feature over 40 vintage concert posters by the renowned designer, offering a rare glimpse into Philly’s late 1960s and early ’70s music scene. The Print Center, 1614 Latimer St., Friday, September 9 + Saturday, September 10, 11am – 6pm. Free and open to the public.
