The psychedelic posters weren't the first time the world was fascinated by unintentional works of art. Previously, during the nineteenth century, the world had been inundated with posters in cities advertising everything from magic remedies to bicycle bells. The posters created by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec transported even the poorest people to distant places, but as the belle époque gave way to a much harsher reality that would be strewn with war and social unrest, the beautiful poster eventually became a forgotten item. art. Until they had a resurgence in the 1960s thanks to a small group of artists based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Fueled by rock-n-roll, psychedelic hallucinogens, and inspired by images borrowed from around the world, psychedelic posters became an identifiable element. trademark for the revolutionary period that was the 60s. When a younger generation was starting to look at their surroundings and be dissatisfied with them, they took it upon themselves to create something that better represented their ideology. Walter Medeiros writes, ''The media age with its strong dose of visual input, especially from television. For them, all images were part of a common visual vocabulary'' (Owen and Dickson 62). Because of this, the 1960s became a melting pot that hosted a myriad of new ideas, from social norms to music to the works of art inspired by it all. Artists and musicians were experimenting with new ways to take their art to a new level. Across the nation, people were experimenting with drugs like LSD and marijuana, and artists were no exception, especially in the San Francisco Bay Area. This excessive use of drugs by the artist created unique and creative psychedelic posters… in the middle of paper… images from the 1960s and would be “one of the most widespread of all time; six million or more were distributed with the hugely popular album” (OWEN EDWARDS 26). The rise of rock'n'roll ushered in a new level of artistry that continues to resonate. In conclusion, the psychedelic posters of the 1960s have become a symbolic representation of the changes that occurred during the 1960s. The posters depicted nights full of music and dancing fueled by a free-spirited approach to mind-altering drugs. The San Francisco Bay Area has changed forever. Venues left over from that era continue to put up posters, places like The Fillmore and The Warfield continue to hand out posters at the end of the show to take home. Paying homage to a time when they were collected, perhaps with the hope of once again bringing a new approach to poster design.