At sixteen, Rick Sharp won a national poster contest sponsored by Seventeen magazine, marking an early milestone in his artistic career. His pen-and-ink ecology poster Survival—a serene forest disrupted by oil wells polluting a stream—drew national attention and led to a full-page commissioned poster for Rolling Stone magazine on behalf of a major record store chain. Before turning seventeen, Sharp had already created a striking body of pen-and-ink work for head shops, surf shops, and a concert poster by rising Texas musician Leon Russell.

On his own at seventeen, working out of Santa Barbara, California, Rick Sharp’s posters became visual touchstones of the era, appearing as concert posters, album covers, and marketing imagery tied to the rise of natural products and ecological events. Brands such as Hang Ten Sportswear featured his designs on T-shirts for years, alongside many other companies seeking to reflect the burgeoning natural counterculture movement emerging from Southern California.