In 1957 two brothers, Bob and Joe Switzer, patented a new chemical process for manufacturing colors that seemed to glow. They combined fluorescent dyes with a new class of polymers, then milled the result to produce brilliant pigments. The brothers founded a company that would later be known as the Dayglo Color Corp.
In 1959, Tide Laundry detergent became their first commercial customer.
But within two years, graphic designer Bob Peak had discovered the paints and used them as rocket fuel.
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| Bob Peak’s ad for 7up combined the new colors with cinematic speed effects, bold angles and slashing lines |
Peak set the graphic arts world ablaze in the early 1960s. But some things are too hot not to cool down; like uranium that has passed its half life, the radioactive colors used in some of those early paintings no longer radiate so intensely. This enables us to re-approach the art and analyze the old fashioned drawing underneath.
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| Bob Peak’s 7up ad today |
It turns out that the drawing is pretty darn good. It is inventive yet confident. Like so much art that seems wild and spontaneous, beneath the surface it is carefully controlled.
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| By the 1950s photography had moved past Muybridge |
