The Craziest Brochure Ever Designed...
In 1968!

Here at Essence Design we're a bit partial to the odd brochure, the occasional design, and every now and then a bit of psychedelia. Oh yes! Our minds may be looking to 2009, but our hearts reside firmly in the late 60s – Well, this writer's anyway.

The front cover. Clearly copyright wasn't an issue in these innocent, less cynical times.

So when something comes along that combines all three of these things, well it's like listening to Jefferson Airplane's White Rabbit on a perpetual loop for the remainder of eternity. It's that good!

 
The eyes have it. Extra marks for the nice incorporation of that old psychedelic standard, the dove of peace.

Straight from 1968, when psychedelic designs were emerging from the underground into the mainstream, what we have here may be the bizarrest brochure you'll ever lay your "kaleidoscope eyes" on. It's for a Mazda 110S and the work of Tadanori Yokoo, a 'Pop artist', who has been called (some might say unfairly) the Japanese Andy Warhol.

Gadzooks, indeed. Did anybody ever really say "Gadzooks!"?

If this brochure's design is anything to go by, what is clear is that like Warhol, Yokoo was one for seeing a trend and exploiting it.The brochure has clearly been influenced by the work of designers such as Peter Max, Milton Glaser, and Heinz Edelmann who was responsible for the design and animation on The Beatles' Yellow Submarine film, another more immediate influence that was out at the same time.

My personal favourites. The funky psychedelic dashboard...

... Then the old switcheroo and a brace of funky psychedelic cows.

Which just leaves the question whether the intended market for the Mazda 'Supercar' were quite ready for such a psychedelic sensory explosion when all they wanted was a new car?

The "Absolute End". Indeed. The groovy cats jettison the scene, and fly off into the tricoloured horizon; leaving us safe in the knowledge that wherever mundanity may manifest itself, the 'Supercar' brochure will be on hand to swiftly dispatch it back to the generic, grey doldrums from whence it came.

Heavy. Peace and love.

Images courtesy of Keith Tanner's page de home