John van hamersveld biography of mahatma
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Using a photograph by Bob Bagley, Van Hamersveld reduced the figures and landscape to vibrant blocks of color, outlined with hard edges in a simplified, abstracted style. One day he awoke out of a dream to a vision of the word “Pinnacle,” and so the three friends started Pinnacle Productions to stage rock dance concerts in LA at the Shrine Exhibition Hall near USC.
Van Hamersveld naturally designed the posters while his partners managed the deals and dates.
The image also, though highly stylized, conveys the essence of Jimi Hendrix"
His popular 1970 cartoon poster Johnny Face—a grinning face with wild eyes that a radio station later splashed across 224 billboards in Los Angeles and Orange County—represents “the end of the ‘60s era,” Van Hamersveld said.
John Van Hamersveld - prints and biography
John Van Hamersveld (born September 1, 1941) is an American graphic artist, illustrator, and designer whose bold, psychedelic imagery helped define the look of 1960s and 1970s popular culture. His use of intense color, optical effects, and surreal imagery reflected both contemporary art movements and the rebellious spirit of the counterculture.
Van Hamersveld’s influence extended into later decades as his work continued to be exhibited, collected, and celebrated.
This exhibit highlighted one-hundred of his extraordinary drawn works. Gingko Press published the 160-page Drawing Attention exhibit catalog.
Most recently, Van Hamersveld has created several public and private works including the Topaz mural, the Bambi mural, the Hermosa Beach Surf mural, and the Signs of Life visual experience installation at FIGat7th.
Van Hamersveld continues to create and inspire.
They produced 14 shows from November 1967 through mid-1968 with some of the most important artists at the time including Jimi Hendrix, the Grateful Dead, Buffalo Springfield, Jeff Beck, Cream, Jefferson Airplane, Pink Floyd, the Velvet Underground and Vanilla Fudge.
John Van Hamersveld’s landmark 1968 Pinnacle rock concert posters, especially the world-famous Jimi Hendrix portrait, created a monumental influence on pop culture artists for generations to come, including Shepard Fairey, who modeled one of the images in his "Obey Giant" series on Van Hamersveld's 1968 poster advertising a Jimi Hendrix show at the Shrine Auditorium and later wrote about Van Hamersveld's design, "It's an illustration with the perfect balance of designed restraint and idiosyncratic, organic style.
The Endless Summer poster remains a cultural touchstone, reprinted and referenced worldwide, while his album covers are regarded as landmarks of graphic design history.
Today, John Van Hamersveld’s career stands as a testament to the power of graphic art in shaping cultural identity. Using photo techniques for the central image and hand-lettering the title Van Hamersveld created a "national phenomenon" image that has endured as a 1960s neon masterpiece of the LA modernist poster.
Based on the immediate attention The Endless Summer commanded, Van Hamersveld became the Head of Design at Capital Records at the tender age of 25.
He was hired by director and filmmaker Bruce Brown to design the iconic “The Endless Summer” movie poster. His “Waterworks Collection” showcased the larger-than-life mural of his Billabong Pipeline Masters wave.
In 1964, Van Hamersveld was a student at the Art Center College of Design and the art director of Surfing Illustrated and Surfer magazine. He launched the business Post-Future with his wife Alida Post, selling prints of his past posters, and also reworking them.
Van Hamersveld continues to produce art in Los Angeles
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Each design demonstrated his ability to fuse psychedelic aesthetics with striking visual clarity, giving bands an unmistakable visual identity that complemented their sound.Beyond album covers, Van Hamersveld became known for his innovative poster designs, including work for the Pinnacle Shrine Exposition, which became legendary in the Los Angeles art and music scene.
His designs distilled the vibrancy of music, surfing, and social change into images that remain instantly recognizable, bridging the worlds of fine art, commercial design, and popular memory.
In his career of fifty years and counting, the iconic multidisciplinary pop artist John Van Hamersveld creates influential, instantly recognizable, and ubiquitous graphic design.
At the start of his career, Van Hamersveld created the timeless, culturally transcendent “Endless Summer” film poster while he was still attending art school at Art Center and Chouinard.
Over his long career, he has created more than 300 album covers and countless posters, blending fine art sensibility with the energy of rock, surf, and countercultural movements.
His first major breakthrough came in 1963, when filmmaker Bruce Brown asked him to design the poster for The Endless Summer. An enormous mural of a javelin-throwing man for the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles highlighted his ‘80s forays into corporate graphic design, teaching and large-scale art.
This success launched his career and led directly to his work with major record labels.
From 1965 to 1968, Van Hamersveld served as head of design at Capitol Records. He had money from his Capitol Records job to travel and had two two loft studios with his roommates wanting something to do. The “Endless Summer” image proved to be just the beginning, as Van Hamersveld immersed himself in the rock n’ roll scene, creating renowned poster art and album design for the Stones, Hendrix, and the Beatles, to name a few.
Subsequently, Van Hamersveld designed the official poster and mural for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games, the branding and logos for Fatburger, the 2009 Billabong Pipeline Poster, and the current Viva Vision “Signs of Life” Las Vegas Fremont Street experience.
In 2013, CSUN Art Gallery displayed Van Hamersveld’s impressive “Drawing Attention” exhibition.
Learning from graphic designer and friend Saul Bass in the ‘90s, he shifted his career and designed the restaurant chain Fatburger’s diamond-and-circle logo and sign.
Returning to his rock roots more than 20 years since drawing his last concert posters and record covers, Van Hamersveld created the swirling 2005 reunion poster for Cream.
During this period, he worked closely with some of the most influential artists of the time, including the Beatles, the Beach Boys, and Jefferson Airplane.