Rick Griffin – Poster Artist


Rick Griffin was one of the great poster artists of the late twentieth century. He is best known for his 1960s and 70s poster designs and album covers. Griffin’s hallucinatory imagery helped define the psychedelic Haight-Ashbury era – and his distinctive style of lettering is also immediately recognisable. Among Griffin’s most successful album covers were the Eagles ‘On The Border’ (1974), the Grateful Dead’s classic ‘Aoxomoxoa’ (1969), the first Quicksilver Messenger Service album (1968), Neil Young’s gritty ‘On The Beach’ (1974) and various sleeves by 80s Brit-rockers the Cult. Griffin’s work is also highly valued on the underground comix scene and is worth seeking out in titles such as ‘The Man from Utopia’, ‘Tales from the Tube’ and ‘Zap’. But it is for his magnificent poster designs that Rick Griffin will be most remembered…

Griffin was born near Palos Verdes, Southern California in 1944. In the mid-60s he gravitated towards the emerging counterculture scene in San Francisco. Griffin’s early posters were designed for underground bands such as Quicksilver Messenger Service and the Charlatans and for psychedelic bills on the old ballroom circuit. Many of these events were promoted by the Family Dog collective and Griffin’s posters for this series are usually prefixed FD. Griffin also designed posters for Bill Graham’s gigs at the Fillmore West. These are usually prefixed BG. One of Rick’s finest posters from this period is BG 140 – a terrific ‘flea’ design promoting the Jimi Hendrix Experience’s brief residency at the Winterland in October 1968. Expect to pay about $1500 for a near mint copy of this classic image (Griffin’s BG105 – the Flaming Eyeball is probably worth even more!). In a similar style, Griffin’s striking cover artwork for the Grateful Dead’s ‘Aoxomoxoa’ was also used to publicise their show at the Avalon Ballroom in 1969. Again, expect to pay over $1500 for a first printing of this psychedelic milestone. Incidentally, Griffin is also credited with coining the palindrome which gave title to the Dead’s landmark 3rd album. Tragically Rick Griffin was killed in a motorbike accident in 1991 – and now nearly a decade after his death, collectors are buying rare posters as much for his name as they are for the names of the performers ‘topping the bill’.