Anyone else obsessed with signatures?
As a designer/artist there's an obvious appeal to them.
I used to do graffiti, and many of my friends were also graffiti artists.
The 'tag' or hand-style was basically your signature, and done with a large-nib marker or a spray-can.
Usually if you didn't have a good tag/signature you probably didn't have good real pieces or throw-ups.
Your tag could also be done very quick/discrete.
Wikipedia has a surprising number of SVG's of signatures for famous people.
Here is my collection of the ones I thought were good or interesting.
The absolute stand-outs: Donald Trump, John Hancock(obviously).
Donald Trump's signature reminds me of a style you'll see repeated in graffiti artists in the USA.
There was a painter local to me who went by the name ORACLE, and his hand-style was sort of similar.
They are a very personal thing, but I wonder if people use them less now. We used to have to sign cheques back in the day. Now even documents may use digital signatures.
I've seen plenty of graffiti tags such as 10 foot on bridges and around railways. I just don't see the point of covering things in your tag as it doesn't seem that creative. I'm not into that culture at all, but some people produce impressive art.
That's a good question. I know very few people are taught cursive now, but I was forced to. I write mostly in cursive because it was required of us, and I had to stop so that other people could read my notes and stuff lol.
I was doing the graffiti thing in my late teens, and my opinions on it have changed as an adult.
We would often find walls in the woods that weren't visible so we could take our time, or we'd sneak into the CSX yards and paint on the freight cars.
Private/personal property was always off-limits, but commercial was murky. Public property was always considered fair game though. That guy writing that on the tunnel didn't even do anything creative with it. But i agree it doesn't serve the community at all, but as a kid I'd have said "it's public property" or something.
There was always theft involved too of the paint cans or markers.
But for the people that do those high-quality pieces they buy Montana or other brands designed for graffiti. I even have a huge marker designed for it I bought at a store in Baltimore that sold graffiti products.
Krylon & Rusto have thinned their paint probably to curb theft.
In Los Angeles and Baltimore there are actually sanctioned and protected locations.
I have an entire book of only LA graffiti.
Also I know guys who started doing it illegally, and eventually moved on to selling canvases in galleries.
I'll never forget being in a gallery in Baltimore, and looking at a painting and finding it reminded me of a local graffiti guy. The girl who ran the gallery overheard me mention him, and come to find out this painting was actually his. It wasn't even a graffiti, but a more traditional scene and somehow it reminded me of him.
Price was over a grand for 3.5 foot wide by 1.5 foot tall canvas.
I know there's a whole culture around it. People take real risks and there have been fatalities in the UK. I don't mind seeing some art by the railways, but some of it just seems to be marking territory. Some of the artists have made it big with Banksy being a prime example.
Yeah I was going to ask you if you're familiar with him because he's probably the most well-known street artist in the world. He used to be really respected, and now I think people consider him hack.
For the longest time he remained anonymous.
Gang graffiti is also a thing, and usually it's different from the artist stuff.
It was really big in 90's especially in California, and NYC.
I think plenty of people have known who Bansky is for years, but does it really matter. His art can make people think and that's what it should do. It can just be a hassle if he paints on your property.
Graffiti can stray into vandalism, but there are places where street art is accepted and celebrated. I guess some prefer to be more outlaw about it.