MONSTERKONZERT: Peter Blumer Poster

Artwork: Peter Blumer
Size: 45 x 63cm
Number of copies printed ?

Have you got an original copy of this poster, or do you know somebody who does, then please contact me: jimi.aeby@sunrise.ch

Peter Blumer, an eighteen-year-old art college student from Kloten, designed the poster for the Swiss youth magazine POP. It was not intended to be put up in public and could only be ordered directly from the magazine. It cost 7 francs (including postage and packing) to acquire such a poster, which in POP, No. 26, from April 1968, is described as follows:

In Switzerland and Germany posters existed long before Gutenberg invented the printing press. Small placards made with carved and inked wooden boards, so-called wood engravings, were used by quacks to advertise their knowledge of medicines, or by the church to promote their indulgence sellers. But those times are now past! Posters have become bigger, more colorful, more beautiful. Well, not always more beautiful: these days, great pictures and joyful colors advertise instant soup, Volkswagens and Valentine's Day. How miserable and inornate, on the other hand, do the posters announcing concerts and beat clubs look. It is the sad truth: artful concert posters just do not exist. While concert agencies in the United States and England seem to want to outdo each other by designing yet fancier and fancier posters, while San Francisco Hippie artists achieve world fame with their poster art, here nothing has changed: fat, black lettering on white, at best, unichrome paper. Meanwhile in the United States and England poster stores sell thousands of elaborately designed concert or hippie posters. But why should only English-speaking pop and poster fans be able to decorate their bedrooms with fascinating pop posters? How can we get concert agencies and club managers to advertise their events with posters which appeal to us and with art design worthy of the nature of popular music?

Peter Blumer 1968

POP makes the first move by setting a good example. We commissioned a young Swiss graphic artist to create the poster which you see on the opposing page. Not only does POP present Switzerland's very first genuine concert poster, but also one of the first posters in Europe to be printed in the new DayGlo colors. (And thereby beating even American poster manufacturers by a short head.) We are, to put it mildly, rather proud of our poster. For this reason we do not want to maltreat the POP Monster poster with staples or sticky tape, and will not, as originally intended, use it for promotional purposes. No, as a treat to all POP readers we want to give you the opportunity to become the owner of a piece of psychedelic bedroom decoration. To get your own POP Monster poster, simply fill in the coupon at the bottom of the page and pay the money to our postal check account. Deliveries start on April 30!

Peter Blumer 1968

Urs Blumer: I don't know exactly how my brother got to create this poster, but I still remember him designing artwork such as this on his own initiative. I recall having one of his posters hanging in my bedroom.