Fairey attended the Rhode Island School of Design, where he received a BA in Illustration in 1992....
If you can't read please download the document
Fairey attended the Rhode Island School of Design, where he received a BA in Illustration in 1992. During his sophomore year, in 1989, he began his infamous
Fairey attended the Rhode Island School of Design, where he
received a BA in Illustration in 1992. During his sophomore year,
in 1989, he began his infamous Andre the Giant Has a Posse
campaign. Fairey, along with fellow designer, Ryan Lesser, then had
stickers printed and started sticking them around Providence, Rhode
Island. As others started to take an interest in his design, the
image circulated around the Eastern United States as well as
several other locations around the world. like the biggest coup in
history: the branding campaign with no product.
Slide 2
Slide 3
During the mid 1990s, the campaign expanded to a website, where
Fairey posted the Obey Giant logo, available for free download. He
also posted instructions for printing stickers and cutting stencils
as well as his technique for wheat-pasting posters. With the help
of the internet, Obey Giant went from being a small street art
campaign to interactive public art on an international scale.
Moving into the realm of commercial art, Fairey, along with Dave
Kinsey and Phillip DeWolff, founded the Los Angeles based BLK/MRKT
Visual Communications in 1997. Fairey left BLK/MRKT in 2003 to
start the design firm, Studio Number One. A year later, in 2004,
Fairey, with the help of designer Roger Gastman, rounded out his
growing commercial empire with the creation of Swindle Magazine, a
bi-monthly arts and culture publication.
Slide 4
Slide 5
Another significant event occurred in 2004 when Fairey heard
Barack Obamas keynote address at the Democratic National
Convention. He was inspired by Obamas speech and, four years later,
in January 2008, created the Obama Progress poster. Referencing a
news photograph of Obama, he simplified and stylized the image,
rendering it in red, beige, and pastel shades of blue. One side of
the poster is predominately blue, while the other is mostly red,
symbolizing a merging of the red and blue states. In a Washington
Post interview, Fairey says he wanted the poster to be recognizable
as my work, and to be appealing to a younger, apathetic audience,
yet tame enough not to be seen as radical or offensive to the more
mainstream political participants.
Slide 6
Slide 7
Slide 8
Slide 9
Slide 10
Slide 11
Slide 12
Slide 13
Slide 14
Slide 15
Slide 16
Slide 17
Slide 18
Since this was Faireys first time creating positive political
art, he did not want to be a liability to the campaign, so he asked
for their permission before spreading the image around. He was
given the go-ahead and was subsequently asked to create an
additional poster for the campaign. The second poster was done in
the same style as the first, except that the Obey Giant logo was
removed, and the word Progress was replaced with the word Hope.
With 50,000 official posters printed, the campaign raised $350,000.
With the help of the internet, the Hope poster became
internationally recognized in a manner much greater than Faireys
original Andre the Giant Has a Posse campaign. Fairey states, in an
interview with the Washington Post, Ive seen [the image] on
stencils, fliers, shirts, websites, places we had nothing to do
with. This is exactly what I wanted to happen.
Slide 19
Slide 20
Slide 21
Slide 22
Slide 23
Slide 24
Shepard Fairey Arrested In Boston BOSTON A street artist famous
for his red, white and blue Hope posters of President Obama has
been arrested on warrants accusing him of tagging property with
graffiti, police said Saturday. Shepard Fairey was arrested Friday
night on his way to the Institute of Contemporary Art for a kickoff
event for his first solo exhibition, called Supply and Demand. Two
warrants were issued for Fairey on Jan. 24 after police determined
hed tagged property in two locations with graffiti based on the
Andre the Giant street art campaign from his early career, Officer
James Kenneally said. One of the locations was the railroad trestle
by the landmark Boston University bridge over the Charles River,
police said.