God Save The Queen…

We mean it man!

Roughly pasted letters cut from newspapers, bold colours, distressed images, torn edges, collage and crude layouts. A ransom note aesthetic. What could be more malevolent than promoting your band using the visual language of criminals?! Did anybody order visual immediacy? As American Art Director David Carson put it much later - “Feel the message before you read the message.”

A souvenir carrier bag celebrating the Queen’s Silver Jubilee from 1977.

In 1977 London, Silver Jubilee souvenirs were everywhere. Celebrating exactly the establishment that Punk was rebelling against. You can’t help but be influenced by your surroundings, though, and Jamie Reid’s graphics for the Sex Pistols certainly tapped into the zeitgeist.

An early poster promoting the band’s first single Anarchy in the UK (top of page) used a shredded plastic souvenir flag held together by safety pins (the most punk of DIY jewellery items/clothes decoration), bulldog clips, torn paper and letters cut from newspapers. Angry much?

The cover for the Sex Pistols second single God Save The Queen, designed by Jamie Reid.

The cover design for the Sex Pistol’s second single, God Save The Queen, used an official Jubilee portrait of the Queen. Crudely reproduced in a bold colour with the eyes and mouth torn out and replaced with the band name and song title. Message received!

The look and feel of these examples, was as much based on limited reprographic resources as considered aesthetic but none-the-less, they played a huge part in defining the look of Punk.

The above examples were featured in the skills development workshop - I’m With The Brand run by Valhalla for musicians and businesses within the music industry. If you would like to host the I’m With The Brand workshop or talk about how Valhalla can help get your brand to the top of the charts get in touch… hello@valhallabranding.com