An Analysis Of Shepard Fairey's Obey Giant

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Fairey, an American Artist from South Carolina, graduated from Rhode Island School of Design in 1992. During his young adult years, Fairey “realized his desire and interest in the street art culture and graffiti movement” while he was working in a skate shop as a part-time job. As seen and described in his documentary, Obey Giant, Fairey’s first piece of work, the Andre Posse, was the sticker he used as an example to teach his friend about printmaking. This sticker once simplified and made into what today is known as the Obey logo. Fast forward to the presidential election of 2008, Fairey produces the Hope poster. The poster almost immediately turns into a global icon which is still recognized and even derived from today. This is the second art piece, to be discussed in this essay. Shepard Fairey’s Artwork, and Shepard Fairey’s influence on the world, each with their own various sub-topics such as the global iconography and impact within the means of copyright law. These pieces stress that from the smallest pieces within an artist’s portfolio to the largest can have a major impact on the world around us. The Obey Icon is one of the prime examples of the idea of street art, …show more content…

The creation of a graphic should be simple enough to always recognize but also impactful enough that it is memorable and synonymous with the identity or brand it is created for. This also comes into play with the idea that as an artist your goal, “is about getting people to engage their environment” whether it is through sonically making them experience something or viewing something which can change their entire viewpoint. Within Shepard Fairey’s manifesto, he touches upon two key elements that should be looked upon within all pieces of art that you interact with, these being the phenomenology and the human nature to follow trends and the “CONSPICUOUSLY CONSUMPTIVE nature of many members

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