At the PSFK Conference Los Angeles, contemporary artist and graphic designer Shepard Fairey spoke about how he takes his art and applies it commercially, exploring how he works with brands and agencies.
- “A lot of stuff for corporations – it’s not even that they don’t mean well, it’s just that they’re a little bit clueless as to the right way to go about addressing what skateboarders, street artists, punks, and hip-hop kids want to see. So finding someone who can be a liaison to that culture and help them deal with it authentically can be a real benefit for the artist and the company.”
- “At 14, I started skateboarding, which was linked to the culture of punk rock. Neither were mainstream and they were both very DIY. It had a creativity that said it was better just to make your own stuff.”
- “After getting some attention for my stickers, it really opened my eyes to the idea of putting something in public that people see and get curious about. It really opened my eyes to the power of communication in public space.”
- “My early stuff, I more or less just hijacked pop culture.”
- “I think almost everything I’ve achieved has come from me perusing what I felt really strongly and passionately about and not second guessing my instincts and trying to have a level of authenticity.”
- “My idea was always to make my work seem bigger and more important that it really was. The result was, it started to resonate with a lot of underground culture types – skateboarders, people into punk music, etc – but additionally from people representing companies that wanted to identify with that demographic as well.”
- “I try and consult as much as I do art.”
- “If your budget is low, make your aesthetic work with it. Don’t let it hold your aesthetic back.”
- “I really firmly believe that art and commerce need each other.”
- “My feeling has always been, if I can continue to produce the work for myself that I want to do for companies – that there will be much less compromise when it comes to doing commercial work.”
- “The cool thing about street art is you don’t get attached to it – which totally prepped me for the commercial art world.”
- “There’s so many times where you go, ‘OK, should I be spending more time on my art or on my business?’ And I’ve found that I’m not happy doing either exclusively – that its all important.”
Shepard Fairey’s Design Studio: StudioNumberOne
Shepard Fairey on Wikipedia
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A lot of the artists I know have this invisible fight against most things mainstream. They have a certain pride with their work and really don’t venture off into other opportunities. I believe Shepard Fairey to be a wonderful balance of everything. And I think balance is one thing we all need.
November 27th, 2007 at 12:36 am
I am SCANDALIZED. How does a company like PSFK – who claims to be progressive, by promoting fresh ideas and creative thinking – endorse such a fraud? Have you totally lost touch with the meaning of “art”? When respected curators and artists like Mat Gleason and Mark Vallen are speaking out with outrage against Shepard Fairey & everything he represents, how do you even conceive having Fairey as a guest speaker? As a role model to aspiring young artists? Or as a spokesperson for innovation to fellow entrepreneurs? This is UNHEARD of. Shepard Fairey has polluted pop culture, and is single-handedly ruining the visual environment as we know it. His speeches are redundant and meaningless. There is NO message. You are giving a platform to someone who does not deserve this big of an audience, or this much credibility. Let it be known that any bit of information that Fairey provides, be it through seminars, vanity books, videos, etc… is nothing more than shameless self-promotion. As Mark Vallen stated so eloquently in his critique about Fairey: “It should make obvious that anyone so ill-informed should not be in the vanguard of today’s political art”.
Please see these links:
http://www.art-for-a-change.com/Obey/index.htm
http://www.brghtnghts.com/blog/?p=150
November 29th, 2007 at 3:35 am
Mark Vallen is simply trying to jumpstart his go-nowhere career by bashing someone who actually HAS one. It’s a time-honored tradition among the second-rate and failing. The fact that he passed out literature– including HIS OWN ART– amongst those standing in line at Fairey’s show ought to tell you he’s simply an opportunist out to raise his own profile. If he were truly interested in constructive dialogue he would have picked up the phone and made the local call to Fairey to ask him about it. Then, if he wasn’t satisfied with the answers– or at least wanted to include them– he could have offered up the other side of the coin. Instead, he posted a shrill call of “Look at Me!” in hopes of selling a few more canvases of his Jr. High caliber artwork. Pretty sad, really.
December 8th, 2007 at 10:07 am
Super Touch just posted an article about this whole plagarism deal:
http://www.supertouchart.com/2009/02/02/editorial-the-medium-is-the-message-shepard-fairey-and-the-art-of-appropriation/
February 2nd, 2009 at 2:37 pm