commercial street art
by emma anacootee on jun 20, 2003, 00:15
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| louis vuitton urban combat gear |
street art has evolved from graffiti, from unique signatures of tagging to more abstract, figurative and conceptual pieces. street art has strong associations with fashion, music and style. it has its own culture, from its connections with hip-hop and a unique dress sense, youths sporting stussy t-shirts, caps, kangol hats, kazal sunglasses, baggy jeans not forgetting the wide laced adidas or pumas.
so it’s no surprise that everyone from fashion designers to interior shop designers and even commercial business’ have begun to use street art and its associated culture to sell their brands. the style itself is being used widely on clothing, accessories, not only on the high street but also in the most desirable fashion houses, including louis vuitton and luella bartley.
however, when graffiti and street art is used to 'enhance' the brand of a company it is often done by the companies own graphic designers, who themselves have no knowledge of the history of street art. this use of counterfeit graffiti, is seen by those serious graffitists and street artists as disrespectful of the cultures origins.
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| dreph for reebok |
dreph explains the how graffiti is now being used as a fashion, “graphic design is saturating all aspects of advertising and i have noticed that many think street art is a vehicle to get their name recognised. a few years ago graffiti was a dirty word, now its a fashionable commodity.” its used in a way to tap into the urban market.
the best way for a company to use street art to advertise their brand, is to employ a street artist to work with your brand. dreph has done this on projects with reebok, selfridges and more recently a project for vibe bar in brick lane. “as long as the relationship with the company and the artist is not exploitive and the client product is consistent with what the artist is about it is not a problem”.
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| dreph installation - vibe bar, brick lane |
many companies can be naive at times, suggesting that the artists can work for free as they have previously shown their work for free on the street, “ unfortunately many people don’t understand that because much of the art we do is free, when it comes to commissioning we need a fair deal.”
at vibe bar, dreph has covered one wall with a piece done in his own style. the piece represents a scene taking place in vibe with people drinking and talking.
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| ibm street marketing |
“here at vibe, we respect dreph’s work as an artist and his style fits into what vibe is trying to create.” say the vibe bar
choosing a suitable artist can be beneficial both to the artists name and the value of art form.
the use of stencil art is now being used to promote clubs, events, record labels and even multi-national companies. stencil artists banksy with his distinctive style, has now embarked on a new project working with album covers, more recently the blur think tank album. ibm had a campaign, employing writers to spray ads for them on footpaths in san francisco, new york, boston and chicago.
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| banksy for blur |
street art is beginning to be an accepted and appreciated art form, it has moved on from the days of neon lettering to take on other influences, allowing the artwork and the artists to evolve. the artists are no longer concerned with changing the definition of an environment , but to question it with their own language. dreph himself has no intention of wanting to change people’s perception of associating street art with graffiti, such as tagging or painting trains.
dreph like many other street artists began as a tagger and see this form of graffiti just as important as the work they make a living from. to dreph, tagging is part of growing up with graffiti and although concentrating on figurative, commissioned pieces, dreph still gets visible excitement from the spontaneity of tagging. “ i see no distinction between street art, tagging and the figurative, i see it all as art”.
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| jenny holzer |
when we consider the history of public art, we can date back to cave paintings and to frescos and panel paintings in the 17th and 18th century. these were all done free hand, with speed and would appear on public spaces in major towns. public art then became known and in some cases still known as, large geometric shapes, but maybe with the introduction and exposure to figurative street art, the idea of public art will no longer be geared to results of illegal activity.
the idea of public art or street art, meaning art on the street, does not necessarily have to stop with graffiti. street art is anything that is considered art on the street. artist jenny holzer, is a traditionally trained artist, who chose to place her work on the street. beginning in 1977, holzer used writing as her inspiration for the inflammatory essays. these were typeset essays printed on colourful square papers as a response to the urban environment.
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| jenny holzer |
another artist, christo, uses the techniques of wrapping major skyscrapers in large sheets of material. on a grander scale, christo covered 11 islands in miami’s biscaye bay with 6 1/2 million square feet of woven pink fabric. after photographs are taken the landscapes are restored to their original states. this is a prime example of art on the street, placing art in a public environment.
alex, is a fine art student studying at bedford college and likes to call himself an urban artist. working under the name draz, his work mainly consists of track sides, but wants to bridge the gap between fine art and street art. being a young graffiti artists and an art student it is difficult to combine both elements into your art. dreph explained that when he was a student he would have a separate portfolio for his graffiti work to his college work. for alex he feels like his tutors are not open to new styles of fine art, “ they are not challenged by my work, not taking it seriously as fine art, i want to combine my graff work with college projects, but at the moment it’s not possible.”
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| keith haring for absolut vodka |
for young graffiti artists wanting to make a name for themselves in street art, it is difficult to get your work and style recognised if you are not complying to the graffiti in your area. “you’re a graff writer and you get other gangs of graff writers, if you’re not doing the same stuff as them, they’re gonna diss you, if you want to do something different you’ve got to believe in yourself, try and push your style.” however it will take time and more understanding for people to accept graffiti and street art simply as art, without a knowledge of its culture, people will never be fully aware of the depths of the artform.
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with so many cultural influences in society today, artists varying in all practices can take every influence to make their own work. with street artists the influences are the same with the environment being the subject, the possibilities are endless. the associations of street art with vandalism and other criminal activities will only hinder its progression and accessibility. with its commercial interest, it’s ironic that the use of graffiti in this way was a result of illegal activity.
this has however, highlighted street art and allowed it to cross the border of criminality to be looked at as a highly sophisticated art form. it has a unique ability to communicate with the lives of everyday people. bringing mainstream artistic thought into life and the reality of mainstream life into art.
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