I HATE THESE: Rick Griffin Vans

HATE is pretty strong language.
The original design is one of Rick Griffin's, used in ZAP comix and later on a poster for Captain Beefheart, but since Rick passed in 1991, the VANS designs job is not really his fault.
Many of Griffin's late 1960s graphic images and lettering designs were precisely drawn but difficult to fathom even by the psychedelic crowd in those heady days, but now that chunks of those iconic posters have been cut up and applied piecemeal to the bottom, sides and INSIDES of VANS and other BRANDS, your chances of discovering their meanings are slim indeed.
Then again, you could just buy his book and find out.

Hideous, or beauty, is in the eye of the beholder, fer sure, but these VANS are not by Rick Griffin, who died in 1991, and has therefore had as much input into the shoe design as VON DUTCH did to the marketing of that BRAND. (Can you say NONE, NADA, NOT-AT-ALL?)
Elsewhere you can find web text claiming VANS worked with Griffin on the designs, but these and other images were actually cut, chopped, and lifted piecemeal from the Surfer magazine, ZAP COMIX and 1970s vintage posters. What's next? Maybe VANS will work with artist VAN GO to bring us Starry Night or Sunflower sneaks...
I, for one, actually will buy and wear these shoes, but if you truly want to know more about Rick Griffin and /or his art, buy his book, Rick Griffin by Gordon McClelland, (Last Gasp) or check some web sites such as (http://www.myraltis.co.uk/rickgriffin/) or (http://www.rickgriffinink.com/index.php)

These are actually pretty nice. But the trend of poaching the work of dead illustrators and marketing their work to spoiled teenagers is a freaking shame.

Rick griffin's work was amazing, he did a whole lot more than just eyeballs and skulls, do some research, pick up some books, give the man some more respect that just a 3 month fashion trend....

As others here have already noted: These can hardly be "by Rick Griffin", given that he died in a motorbike accident nearly two decades ago. At least Jerry Garcia could be blamed for his 'signature' apparel (neck ties, ironically).

Asking (even rhetorically) to have psychedelic art explained to you is an oxymoron, but if you must: the 'alien', as you call it, is a Zuni sacred sun-symbol. Griffin was an ardent fan of the rebus, so I will leave it to you to interpret the other symbols in this design piece.

In the meantime, perhaps we can see some of your own brilliant, and no doubt superior, graphic designs? Perhaps they are the collectables of tomorrow?