Shepard Fairey Speaks Out!

Shepard Fairey has been under the spotlight for the past year or so. Initially with his work on the Obama HOPE poster and how the image became the unofficial campaign image for Obama, which appealed particularly to the younger and more internet-savvy demographic. And lately, for the “fair use and appropriation issue” where the Associated Press threatened to sue Fairey, who used a photograph that an AP photographer took and turned it into the Obama HOPE image.

Shepard Fairey first came to fame through his early Andre Giant Has A Posse/Obey Giant campaign where he also appropriated an image of wrestler Andre the giant into posters and stickers, which later on evolved into the Obey logo. He also branched out to doing t-shirt and apparel through his brand, OBEY. He is also involved in graphic design & illustration as well as developing marketing campaigns.

You can read more about the issues in the following links below:

AP alleges copyright infringement of Obama image

Stanford Law School’s Fair Use Project and Durie Tangri File Lawsuit against The Associated Press on behalf of Obama Hope Artist Shepard Fairey

You can hear his side of the story from this interview with NPR here.

A Hate Post On Pop!

Psyche!

This isn’t really a hate post but it is related to pop. Pop can mean a lot of things, but the pop here, I figure is more in line with it’s musical reference, with pop equating to what is popular or mainstream. Or for some people, selling out.

As much as I support underground and less mainstream stuff as much as possible, whether it be clothing, music, art or simply culture, sometimes being POP has a lot of great advantages as well.

I thought of this while I was watching the VH1 Storytellers show featuring Kanye West. Now Kanye is as POP as they come and while he still appeals to some of the underground/independent scene, he’s mostly shunned. Even so, the show, visually was awesome. Great use of lighting, excellent sound quality and best of all, visually exciting with all the kick ass screens and stage set-up that he had.

My point being, I’m a visual guy and I love great design. And while being independent is cool because you get to do what you want without necessarily being dictated by something bigger than you. There’s only so much resources you have and thus at times, it may limit what one is capable of. It’s actually a two-pronged coin, sometimes some of the best and most creative shit I’ve seen is a result of not having enough resources, which forces an artist, designer, performer, whatever, to make do what’s available and that shit forces your hand and unknowing brings out the best in the person. But  then again, there’s so much more you can do with more resources, especially when it comes to things that are heavily visual.

This line of thought is applicable to most of the visual arts and I guess it’s really situational and up to the person whether he chooses to stay independent or decides to go pop. Some people work best with the former while other thrive on the big stage, opting for the latter.

FUC..THANK YOU!

I heard this over the weekend and I thought the copy and delivery was excellent. Funny shit, give it a listen.