Riot by Roneo
Jonathan Hannon’s eighties nightclub posters might be a study in the decade’s DIY spirit and freewheeling hedonism but their influence is anything but fleeting.
Jonathan Hannon is amused. Driving into Melbourne from his home on Phillip Island, he has discovered that our agreed meeting point is smack-bang in the heartland of his earlier life, among streets and walls that were once awash with his graphics. As the designer for legendary Melbourne clubs such as Inflation, Sub-Terrain, Harlem and Checkpoint Charlie, late night punters would stagger out of venues to find Hannan’s mimeographed handbills tucked under the window wipers of their cars or taped to poles. Filled with grab-bag images and random text, they advertised similar subcultural events happening later in the week. It was hard copy Google for an energised clientele, the symbols of a life Hannon revelled in. Many of the venues were run by his comrade Camillo Ippoliti, whose aesthetic influence still shapes Melbourne via haunts such as Cookie, Curtin House and the ever-enduring Revolver in Prahran.
Ubiquitous and glaring, advertising posters have been part of the visual landscape since the first days of Australia’s music and entertainment scenes. In many ways, their stylistic evolution was faster and often more dramatic than the equivalent progress in the fine arts, but there has been the occasional international moment where these two trajectories have converged and inspired each other. The first is late nineteenth century Europe, an era that gave rise to Art Nouveau and nurtured the graphic talents of