graffiti – the mehallo blog. beta.

Toilet tag

steve — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 22:35:28 +0000

‘does adding the sticker to your loo make it a work of art?’

R. Mutt sticker. A replicate of the signature on Marcel Duchamp’s ‘readymade’ Fountain (1917).

Snag one here.

Fire tagging

steve — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 14:10:56 +0000

‘Allegedly ‘the idea is to paint a tag and light it quickly before it dries,’ and we’d imagine a goal is to not set oneself or one’s surroundings on fire.’

Me thinks arson carries a bigger fine than tagging. But what do I know. Details here.

Found via Ashley Simko

‘If you want to stay alive, the speed limit is 45!’

steve — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 00:49:29 +0000

They used to put these digital roadsigns out on Madison Avenue, on the median.

They had taunting sayings about driving safety. Generic ‘don’t drive drunk’ or ‘be aware’ messages.

Saw the officers out there smiling as they typed in all the snotty safety messages. They would get really clever about it too. Rhyming, plays on words.

Frankly, I know I (personally) can’t easily drive AND be cleverly scolded at the same time.

The signs were dangerous to drivers. Almost crashed a couple times trying to see what the next ‘safety verse’ would be. Madison is a really busy thoroughfare.

The last time I saw the signs in use, a small graffiti tag said:

‘Fuck Cops.’

Never saw the signs again after that.

Pictured, a hacked roadsign from somewhere else. More at Urlesque.

The art of Calligraffiti

steve — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 11:41:49 +0000

The work of Niels Shoe Meulman, via Some Type of Wonderful

This comes up a lot in my type classes. Urban lettering – graffiti – is often practiced by students in my typography courses. The work is typically great, however, where things tend to fall apart is when I’m teaching traditional form, such as script or italic.

As one student put it, “in this class I learned not to be gangsta . . . . ”

There’s a time and a place.

So I actually consider urban lettering to be an advanced form of type; an evolution from forms we’ve been using for hundreds of years into something personal, different.

Which is nothing new: our lowercase alphabet evolved thru what was basically personal expression in lettering. And it makes sense that our letterforms will continue to evolve.

In that, I ran across this post today in the Upscale Typography blog. It’s about the work of Niels Shoe Meulman, who practices Calligraffiti: traditional lettering mixed with urban style.

Click on the image for a video and more info:

Then go look at Daid Daragones’ work. It’s also just as cool (also click image):