"I think street art is one of the most democratic, accessible, empowering, and inspiring art forms there is." -Shepard Fairey

 

Street art has become an endemic in the aging of the young adult generation. Street art was not always revered as the art form it is seen as today. Street art broke away from graffiti and became an unrecognizable cousin to the original pioneer. Graffiti and street art has the same passion for change pumping through their veins, but separate arguments when it comes to social deviance. Graffiti found its voice through loud colors and dramatic dramatic lettering of names. From the 1980's on these graffiti artists took their streets back by spraying their names wherever there was enough space. 

 

Street art has taken a provocative stance on issues of domestic politics, internal relations, and social justice. Rather than a street artist proclaiming their name, street artists have started to probe their audiences for independent thought on controversial topics. Many street artists align their art with a "V for Vendetta" theme towards these issues of domestic politics, internal relations, and social justice.

 

Shepard Fairey is a contemporary artist that has helped to bring street art to the masses. Fairey's unique approach is what separates him from many other street artist's around the world. Fairey is well-known for his repetitive images and political propoganda inspired themes. Shepard is best known for his repeating image of Andre the Giant with the word "OBEY" under his image. Fairey has accomplished something that arguably hasn't been seen since Andy Warhol. Fairey has built his own propoganda of rebellion against corrupt institutions. This book is a comprehensive body of work of Shepard's growth as an artist and development of his works.

 

I used Photoshop to develop this book cover. I chose to go with the repeating image with Andre to pay homage to Fairey's branding of this image. In the title I went with a clipping mask of one of the most recognizable and used pattern in Fairey's portfolio. The choice of this pattern in my clipping mask was just to show another dimension to this artist, Shepard is not all about stealing and repeating images. On the back of the book I crudely put a paint mark from a spray can. I chose to put this mark on the back to show that although Shepard's designs are usually methodical, deep down he is still a provocative artist even distrupting his own works. Within that paint mark I placed a quote from Fairey's manifesto that explained Fairey's artist vision. If Shepard Fairey would ever come out with a lookbook of his art, this is what I would envision the cover to look.