Found this over at Barack Obama's fan website. Remind you of something? Apparently, Shepard Fairey got something started when he made his famous, screen-print Obama posters. Heck, he got something huge started. Thanks to Shepard Fairey and hundreds of other designers and artists alike, Barack Obama's political campaign has become one of the most "visually successful" presidential campaigns of all time. Found this interview with Shepard Fairey over at Supertouch.
Shepard Fairey: "I was impressed with Obama’s speech at the 2004 DNC and I started paying attention to him. When he announced his presidential candidacy I thought it would be great to make an image in support of Obama. However, with my rap sheet and my body of work critical of U.S. policy, I was worried my endorsement of Obama might be an unwelcome affiliation. I wanted to help, not be a liability, so instead of my usual “act now, apologize later”, I asked through some friends if I could get the OK from the Obama campaign. I was finally told by Yosi Sergant in mid January, after asking at the end of Oct. 2007, that it was cool for me to make a poster on my own. I figured I should act quickly because the often-decisive Super Tuesday was Feb.5. I illustrated my Obama image the day I got the go ahead, and had the poster in production the following day. I wanted to get the posters out in my usual ways and I was not thinking the image would be much different from any of my posters except that I did intentionally make the image more reverent and patriotic with the hope that it could transcend my counter culture niche because Obama was guaranteed to have the support of the counter culture anyway. My hope was that the image would be able to pique the interest of moderates."
This is a pic of Shepard Fairey standing in front of his famous Obama screen-prints. Obama has a posse.
Supertouch: "How is it even remotely possible that a graffiti artist with a lengthy arrest record and a history of breaking multiple laws in the name of “art” is branding the most visually successful presidential campaign of all time?"
Shepard Fairey: "I was impressed with Obama’s speech at the 2004 DNC and I started paying attention to him. When he announced his presidential candidacy I thought it would be great to make an image in support of Obama. However, with my rap sheet and my body of work critical of U.S. policy, I was worried my endorsement of Obama might be an unwelcome affiliation. I wanted to help, not be a liability, so instead of my usual “act now, apologize later”, I asked through some friends if I could get the OK from the Obama campaign. I was finally told by Yosi Sergant in mid January, after asking at the end of Oct. 2007, that it was cool for me to make a poster on my own. I figured I should act quickly because the often-decisive Super Tuesday was Feb.5. I illustrated my Obama image the day I got the go ahead, and had the poster in production the following day. I wanted to get the posters out in my usual ways and I was not thinking the image would be much different from any of my posters except that I did intentionally make the image more reverent and patriotic with the hope that it could transcend my counter culture niche because Obama was guaranteed to have the support of the counter culture anyway. My hope was that the image would be able to pique the interest of moderates."
This is a pic of Shepard Fairey standing in front of his famous Obama screen-prints. Obama has a posse.
3 comments:
Go to Spore's website: http://www.spore.com/ . Those candidates are spaceships in Spore.
-JenJen
this is quite an interesting article. Thanks Arnold.
wow, what a great story! thank you!!
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