# Ah, they're the 1980s style "Photo Squiggles". **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 3, 2016, 10:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ah-theyre-the-1980s-style-photo-squiggles/751053 "2016-04-03T10:25:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2016, 10:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ah-theyre-the-1980s-style-photo-squiggles/751053/1 "2016-04-03T10:25:02Z")
One of the staples of 1980s graphic design was photos (or even videos) overlaid with colourful hand-drawn squiggles. Some examples: [ul] [li][The album cover for the Nylons’ _Happy Together_](http://www.allmusic.com/album/happy-together-mw0000191161) (1987)[/li][li][The album cover for Janet Jackson’s _Control_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Control_(Janet_Jackson_album)) (1986)[/li][li][Andy Warhol’s advertisement for Gordon’s Dry Gin](http://www.calibanbooks.com/pages/books/B32024F/andy-warhol/signed-1980s-magazine-advertisement-for-gordons-dry-gin-with-haring-style-squiggles-around) (date unknown)[/li][li][The music video for Dire Straits’s _Money for Nothing_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTP2RUD_cL0) (1985)[/li][li][The movie poster for _Flashdance_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flashdance) (1983)[/li][/ul] Does anyone know the origin of this design fad? The earliest example I’ve found is in the promotional material for 1983’s _Flashdance_ (movie posters, soundtrack album and single covers, etc.). The page for the Andy Warhol advertisement I linked to above calls the squiggles “Haring-style”, presumably a reference to artist [Keith Haring](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Haring). Is Haring really responsible for inventing, or at least popularizing, the technique? And for all those reading this thread who don’t know the answer but just want to admire (or mock) more squiggle art, feel free to post your favourite examples. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2016, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ah-theyre-the-1980s-style-photo-squiggles/751053/2 "2016-04-03T14:08:49Z")
> [@psychonaut](#): > > The page for the Andy Warhol advertisement I linked to above calls the squiggles “Haring-style”, presumably a reference to artist [Keith Haring](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Haring). Is Haring really responsible for inventing, or at least popularizing, the technique? I’d say no, when I think of Haring, I think mostly of the simplified humanoid figures and geometric mazelike structures he did, not squiggly outlines. A lot of the figures did have comic-book-style movement lines, but those are black, not the fluorescent lines of your examples. haring for me is thick black outlines and primary colour fills, not photos and dayglo squiggles. ---
**Author:** ![Channing\_Idaho\_Banks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/channing_idaho_banks/32/250_2.png) [@Channing\_Idaho\_Banks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Channing_Idaho_Banks)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2016, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ah-theyre-the-1980s-style-photo-squiggles/751053/3 "2016-04-03T15:08:44Z")
Does Tron count? ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2016, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ah-theyre-the-1980s-style-photo-squiggles/751053/4 "2016-04-03T15:18:06Z")
The _Tron_ lines aren’t really drawn on, are they? They’re just glowing highlights on the characters’ costumes. And the lines tend to be straight or circular, not squiggly freehand-like lines. So I think that _Tron_ would at best be a precursor of the sort of art I’m talking about. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2016, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ah-theyre-the-1980s-style-photo-squiggles/751053/5 "2016-04-03T15:24:08Z")
> [@psychonaut](#): > > The _Tron_ lines aren’t really drawn on, are they? They’re just glowing highlights on the characters’ costumes. And the lines tend to be straight or circular, not squiggly freehand-like lines. So I think that _Tron_ would at best be a precursor of the sort of art I’m talking about. IIRC, Tron was heavily rotoscoped over years. Guys painstakingly drawing the glowing parts over the footage, frame-by-frame. That said, I don’t feel Tron was of any inspiration at all to that style of graphic design. No one comes to mind in particular. It was most likely a self-perpetuating trend in the design world at the time. Like the “grunge” fonts of the 90s. ---
**Author:** ![DonLogan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/51bf81/32.png) [@DonLogan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DonLogan)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2016, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ah-theyre-the-1980s-style-photo-squiggles/751053/6 "2016-04-03T15:29:05Z")
Except for the obvious one around the bottle in the Warhol ad, none of them seem derived from Haring, the squiggles are just squiggles and the outlines are just outlines. Just cases of someone saying, “you know what this picture needs?” I’d love to blame it on coke, lol, but I don’t think so. I do sense it being a little of an 80’s thing though, I think what they were after was “Party!” ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2016, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ah-theyre-the-1980s-style-photo-squiggles/751053/7 "2016-04-03T15:36:11Z")
Keith Haring was very open that the biggest influences for his art were anonymous graffiti artists. The concept of adding colorful lines to photo images was originally a graffiti practice - poster ads that adorned subway walls and bus stop shelters would often get outlined in spray-painted (“tagged”) in ways that altered the image. Graphic designers adopted the practice to spice up photo shots that were otherwise static and dull. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2016, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ah-theyre-the-1980s-style-photo-squiggles/751053/8 "2016-04-03T17:18:51Z")
Neon in general and very bright colors were all the rage in the 80s. It was the aesthetic at the time. ---
**Author:** ![brossa](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brossa/32/3040_2.png) [@brossa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brossa)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2016, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ah-theyre-the-1980s-style-photo-squiggles/751053/9 "2016-04-04T14:53:30Z")
I was going to argue for the influence of [Patrick Nagel](http://www.patricknagel.com/index.html), as per memory I remember his illustrations having those sort of squiggles, and he died in early 1984. Looking at most of his work, though, it seems that he used fewer squiggles than I remember - note that links include non-nude but racy pinup-type Nagel images- [lots](http://www.patricknagel.com/gallery_images/1342New.jpg) of [color](http://www.patricknagel.com/gallery_images/1311.jpg) [blocks](http://www.patricknagel.com/gallery_images/1350.jpg) and [lines](http://www.patricknagel.com/gallery_images/1369.jpg) behind or in front of the figures, but [only](http://www.patricknagel.com/gallery_images/1344sfp_1983-LAYER.jpg) a [handful](http://www.zeniastept.com/products/patrick-nagel-nagel-september-30-october-3-dallas-texes-1983) of ‘[floating](http://patricknagelart.tumblr.com/post/10595034327/piedmont-graphics-serigraph-7-colors) [squiggles](http://www.patricknagel.com/gallery_images/1382.jpg)’. Still, he was influential enough on the design and art style of the 80’s that others might have taken that [idea](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1ctruSRCtm8/VKFfWdPwLxI/AAAAAAAD0UQ/5Q68T5UaxL4/s1600/Patrick%2BNagel-www.kaifineart.com-3.jpg) and run further with it. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2016, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ah-theyre-the-1980s-style-photo-squiggles/751053/10 "2016-04-04T15:21:26Z")
One source of squiggles was the Memphis Group–mostly Italian designers of striking & uncomfortable looking furniture. As of last summer, [the look was coming back](http://www.racked.com/2015/7/6/8900071/memphis-group-fashion)… ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2016, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ah-theyre-the-1980s-style-photo-squiggles/751053/11 "2016-04-04T16:11:21Z")
Remember, this was the early days of “computers” infiltrating mass culture. Primitive [wireframe](http://uploads.neatorama.com/images/posts/749/80/80749/1428066105-0.jpg) [graphics](http://media.creativebloq.futurecdn.net/sites/creativebloq.com/files/images/2013/09/bf1.jpg)and unnatural [colors](https://media.giphy.com/media/l41lSjoGFWbjYlQQw/giphy.gif) were all the rage. The sort of hand-drawn squiggles that the OP cites were popular because they echoed these same design elements. ---
**Author:** ![journeyman\_southpaw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5e9695/32.png) [@journeyman\_southpaw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/journeyman_southpaw)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2017, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ah-theyre-the-1980s-style-photo-squiggles/751053/12 "2017-06-26T19:59:30Z")
> [@Bridget\_Burke](#): > > One source of squiggles was the Memphis Group–mostly Italian designers of striking & uncomfortable looking furniture. As of last summer, [the look was coming back](http://www.racked.com/2015/7/6/8900071/memphis-group-fashion)… Thought this thread was worth bumping, since Vox posted a [six-minute video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCI8lPvr6SM) today about the Memphis Group and its role in defining the '80s aesthetic. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2017, 8:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ah-theyre-the-1980s-style-photo-squiggles/751053/13 "2017-06-27T08:54:19Z")
> [@Don\_Draper](#): > > The concept of adding colorful lines to photo images was originally a graffiti practice - poster ads that adorned subway walls and bus stop shelters would often get outlined in spray-painted (“tagged”) in ways that altered the image. That’s _not_ what tagging is, in graffiti.