The Daisy form, reduced to 5 petals and a contrasting circular center, is as ubiquitous as the Smiley face is for people who grew up in or lived during the 1960s and 1970s. It is associated with the hippie movement and the Peace movement of that era.
This month I designed my high school’s 50th reunion and selected this Daisy image as the starting point for the design of the event. It is both curious and remarkable how the simple Daisy instantly is associated with my class, our generation. It showed up in period graphic design, advertising, fashion and visual media for a span of nearly 20 years.
For this project, I utilized this Daisy icon to bring those students, who had passed away since we graduated, into the reunion celebration by reproducing yearbook portraits and printing them on round labels that became the Daisy centers. I applied these Daisy portraits to a major table centerpiece that focused on the Peace icon which I rendered in daisies and other flowers. Back then, Hippies were the leading proponents of “Peace, not War” in their demonstrations against the war in Vietnam. They took on the Daisy as “their flower” which soon came to be associated with Love.
Taking this idea still further, it seemed a perfect association for our dearly departed friends whom we ardently hope Rest In Peace. And so it was that our departed alums were brought from the registration and memory tables to our 50th reunion celebration.
