By 1993, raves, which originated in Manchester, England, were a national phenomena in the United States, where promoters translated clandestine parties into more commercial forms of entertainment. The music for raves is made by disk jockeys who mix together existing recordings. Mike Szabo, a designer connected with the New York rave known as NASA, explained, "The music at raves is live. Although the source for the music is prerecorded, a disk jockey working at a mixing table is performing new music for a live audience." This aesthetic of mixing informs the distinctive graphics that promote raves. The designers of these palm-sized posters use desktop equipment to manipulate existing images and typefaces. Rave designers typically combine material from ads, stock photos, television, comic books, commercial packaging, and other sources, often producing a final design within a few hours and providing printers with films or electronic files for immediate production. The designers of rave flyers have frequently parodied the brand identities of well-known consumer goods, tapping the energy of the familiar to promote an underground, quasi-secret, event. Rick Klotz, who founded the Los Angeles company Fresh Jive Graphics in 1990, is credited with triggering rave culture's widespread borrowing of national trademarks and brand images with his flyer Truth, based on the Tide detergent box. This strategy is indebted, of course, to Pop art, rediscovered by a younger generation fascinated with the ability to use the aggressive iconography of commercial life to convey the attitude of a subculture. [back] © Copyright 1996 Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum

Nasooka Invitation, 1993, offset lithograph Designer: Mike Szabo Art directors: Scotto and D. B. Publisher: NASA (Nocturnal Audio Sensory Awakening), New York Collection Cooper­Hewitt, National Design Museum, Gift of the designer Cream of the Crop Soap Invitations, 1994, offset lithograph Designers unknown, New York