This Poster Showcases Some of Rock 'N' Roll History's Most Iconic Moments

The world of rock 'n' roll has produced larger-than-life personalities and some of the most indelible moments of pop culture. From legendary groups like Queen and the Beatles to solo acts like Prince and Chuck Berry, rock artists have had cultural impact far beyond album releases—and the UK-based design shop Dorothy Studios has attempted to illustrate as many of these moments as possible.

To encapsulate the many on- and offstage moments that have helped shape rock history, Dorothy designers created "Inside Information: Vox AC30," a cutaway-style print that showcases famous people and events within the confines of a Vox AC30 guitar amp—a classic amplifier that soon became an industry standard. If you look closely, you can see everything from the Rolling Stones performing at the outdoor Stones in the Park music festival in July 1969 to Johnny Cash's live album performance at the Folsom State Prison in January 1968.

The poster print also has a helpful key that explains who, and what, each of the 40 separate illustrations showcase. In a way, the piece also serves as a handy beginner's guide for music fans looking to explore the depth of rock 'n' roll lore.

James Quail, creative director and partner at Dorothy, acted as the designer of the piece (as well as on this alternative music history poster) and explains that inspiration came from his love for diagrams. "The idea for the series came from thinking about memories of scientific cutaways from when I was in high school," Quail tells Mental Floss. "I loved diagrams which showed how machinery worked, or cut the Earth into portions and showing what was happening inside."

Quail also designed all of Dorothy's other pieces in their "Inside Information" collection. After Quail researches the genres being spotlighted and chooses the events he wants to feature, he works with Liverpudlian graphic designer Malik Thomas, who illustrates the print.

"We had the idea of taking real things apart but introducing levels of fantasy inside, so musical instruments might be filled with the artists and bands who used them, or film cameras filled with all the iconic moments from film that we could think of, and scenes playing out from a different perspective than we were used to seeing them," Quail says.

While the poster is chock-full of references, Quail admits there were still plenty of events they didn't have room for.

"Rock history is so rich with incident and anecdotes that to cover them all we would need a whole wall, but we picked a snapshot, hopefully covering off things that represent most eras, be it era-defining moments like the Beatles playing on The Ed Sullivan Show or the Sex Pistols playing Manchester's Lesser Free Trade Hall," Quail says. "Or moments that meant something big to us personally—like the first time I saw Nirvana playing 'Smells Like Teen Spirit.'"

This print, "Inside Information: Vox AC30," is available from Dorothy Studios for roughly $38. Other pieces in this collection including the movie-inspired "Director’s Cut," the portable music synthesizer "Minimoog," or the "Apple Macintosh," which chronicles the history of, well, Apple.