Gary Grimshaw

Gary Grimshaw
Gary Grimshaw in 1973
Born	(1946-02-25)February 25, 1946 Detroit, Michigan U.S.
Died	January 13, 2014(2014-01-13) (aged 67) Detroit, Michigan
Nationality	American (United States)
Education	Wayne State University
Known for	Graphic design, Illustrator
Movement	Poster art

Gary Grimshaw (February 25, 1946 – January 13, 2014) was an American graphic artist active in Detroit and San Francisco who specialized in designing rock concert posters. He was also a radical political activist with the White Panther Party and related organizations.

Grimshaw was born on February 25, 1946 in Detroit, and raised in Lincoln Park, Michigan. His best friend in high school was Rob Derminer, later known as Rob Tyner, lead singer of the Detroit protopunk band, the MC5. Another friend from his youth in Lincoln Park was Wayne Kramer, later the renowned guitarist for the MC5. According to Kramer, "Grimshaw was the best artist in our neighborhood" and "We drew hot rod cars and he knew the secret of how to capture chrome, which made him the coolest to a Downriver greaser like me." Grimshaw's social circle called themselves an "art gang" and they were also interested in jazz music, and Grimshaw was the only one among them who owned a car, a 1953 Ford two-door sedan. He would drive his friends from the working class, mostly white Polish Catholic suburb of Lincoln Park to the more cosmopolitan areas around Wayne State University in Detroit, looking for "beatnik parties" and listening to jazz performers like John Coltrane on the car radio.

After high school, Grimshaw briefly attended Wayne State University, but was more adept at partying than studying. He enlisted in the United States Navy to avoid being drafted into the Army. He served on the USS Coral Sea, an aircraft carrier stationed in the South China Sea during the Vietnam War, which sent aircraft on bombing raids over Vietnam. He was first exposed to psychedelic concert art when his ship was being repaired in the San Francisco Bay Area. While there, he visited two famous rock concert venues, the Avalon Ballroom and The Fillmore, and studied light show operators at work. He was discharged from the Navy in 1966, and returned to Detroit.