Help! Design Ideas - Groovy 60's & 70's??

I am fairly new to face painting - I started doing some volunteer gigs about 3 years ago and have been practicing and learning a lot since then. I have been using Snaz paints to learn but am now adding TAG and DiamondFX to my kit.

I was approached and asked to help with a street fair in August which is a big event in my neighborhood (4,000 - 6,000 people attend). The theme this year is "Groovy 60's & 70's" and we are working on a design board that follows this theme per the request of the event coordinators but I am so stuck on boy designs.

I think of "flower power" type designs with rainbows and daisies which boys in today's age probably won't be a fan of. I also need to make sure the designs don't have any weird branding or copyright issues and will be quick and easy. This era was a little before my time so I could use some brainstorming help from some people who have done similar themes (or are old enough to remember some hot themes in the 60s!).

Any ideas out there?

For boys.... bandannas, mustache/sideburns, peace signs, muscle cars. Evil Knievel was big in the 70's. Music groups... Beatles, Rolling Stones, etc. Let's see... popular cartoons maybe? Jetsons, Space Ghost, Scooby Doo, Mighty Mouse, Loony Toons characters. Speed Racer, old-style Fantastic Four.

This sounds like a fun event!

good ideas, hoo. also, tie dye, paisley, graffiti, album cover art, psychedelic art (neon patterns), modern art designs, disco (shudder), specific popular cars were mustangs, firebirds, corvettes.

for things like this, Google images is your friend -

http://www.google.com/search?q=60's+70's&client=ms-android-verizon&hl=en&gl=us&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=mkChVfnEHNWwyASU9qCADA&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAQ&biw=683&bih=400

Neons, Peter Max...

Thank you! All great starting points for me. I was so stuck in the obvious "hippie" and "flower power" mode I was just drawing a blank.

post some pics from it, if you can, would be fun to see how it turns out

don't forget to have a regular selections list. You can have a 'theme' all you want, kids are still gonna ask for spiderman lol.

Themed designs are good to have as a option or idea's, but I find but having a strict theme can some times disappoint kids who don't get the opportunity to get face painted often.

Good luck let us know how it turns out!

good point, forest-fairy. for kids these day, the 60's and 70's are ancient history

I've found in my experience events and parties that enforce strict themes are less fun for the kids. Yes while it might seem like a nice dream of the organizer to imagine their fall themed event and children running with pumpkin faces, fall fairies, and apples on their faces. But you got to keep in mind what the kids 'really' want.

Few years ago I was doing an event with very strict 'winter' theme. I was not to paint anything 'Christmas' what so ever, and certainly not any super hero's. Only winter designs, period. I was even to make a design board for her and she wanted to review it before the event.

The organizer loved my ice and snow butterflies, but turned down my 'blue spiderman' (with snowflakes), lucky she let me keep the white tiger and the blue snow cat. Or else the boys wouldn't have had much besides a snowman for full faces. I had to convince her to keep the 'yeti' design so boys would have more to choose from. But it was still very limited.

On the night of the event, i had a board that said "Today's Selections" but still had to explain 'no i can't paint you as an orange tiger, I'm not allowed.' :/ 

The theme painting was pretty fun, but ultimately frustrating on both ends. 

Now for themed events I simply create an optional theme board for ideas, along with some of my regular designs, and people are much happier.

Met with the event coordinator today who told me she would bring me their design board from last year so I could see what it looked like and add my 60s/70s theme stuff to it.

The bad news: It is a chunk of cardboard wrapped in sun-bleached construction paper with 2" square cut outs of photos ripped from the internet. I am planning on re-doing the whole thing with my own drawings - both so it looks nicer and so I am not stealing someone else's work.

The good news is that out of the approximately 25 designs they put on the board only 5 were their actual theme and the rest were things like snakes, dinosaurs, spiderman, butterflies, etc. So I should be good to do my popular designs too.

I was told that they were having other face painters at the event and wanted everyone to do the same designs so I'm not really sure how that's going to work out. Thanks again for everyone's input. I'm learning a lot as I go.

nice that you have options, sounds like everyone will be happy. 2" squares are not going to cut it, lol. good idea to redo the board.