Today's Illustration: The rebirth of Illustration? - Eva

Today’s Illustration: The rebirth of Illustration?

Eva De Block Master Grafisch Ontwerp - Illustratie Hogeschool Sint-Lukas Brussel 2009 - 2010 Promotor: Professor Fatima Pombo

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Acknowledgement

Acknowledgement I dedicate this thesis to all graduate students who have endured the long struggle of writing their essay. First I would like to thank my parents and siblings for their unconditional support and love. I would also like to thank Professors Fatima Pombo and Tom Pijnenborg, my thesis advisors for their guidance and help.

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Table of Content Table of content

Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................. p.2 Table of Contents ..................................................................................................................... p.3 I. Introduction ........................................................................................................................... p.4 II. Illustration today .................................................................................................................. p.5 2.1. What has changed in the last decade? ............................................................................................ p.5 2.2. A few recent trends .......................................................................................................................... p.6 2.3. Marketing illustration ........................................................................................................................ p.7 2.4. Illustration used in advertising ........................................................................................................ p.11

III. My interests in Illustration ............................................................................................... p.13 3.1. My interests in street art and the underground culture .................................................................. p.13 3.2. What is Street Art? ......................................................................................................................... p.14 3.3. Street Art going commercial and selling out .................................................................................. p.22

IV. My work in Illustration ...................................................................................................... p.26 4.1. Culture Jamming ............................................................................................................................ p.26 4.2. My master project .......................................................................................................................... p.30

V. Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... p.37 Bibliography ........................................................................................................................... p.39 Appendix ................................................................................................................................. p.49

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I. Introduction I. Introduction

After graduating as a bachelor in marketing communication and advertising I decided to go for a master in illustration to finalize my studies. My heart wasn’t in the mere advertising part of my bachelor’s degree. Through all those years I still loved drawing in sketchbooks and whenever there was an assignment involving this skill, the final product clearly showed better results as a reflection of the extra motivation. It seemed only logic to further develop this skill through an extra year of education. Since the beginning of the 21st century a lot has been published about contemporary illustration. When looking at the dates of publication of books on this topic, it shows the year 2004 being one of the earliest referred datesI. Amongst these books we can find many different editions bearing the same title like the three different editions of ‘Illusive’II or ‘Illustration Now’III, showcasing many different types of illustrators and styles. Books like the latter one introduce illustrators and show their work without categorizing them. The ‘Illusive’ books however place the different illustrators in a very distinctive illustrative class, depending on their style, like vector or tactile. Where does the need to categorise illustration come from? The discipline of illustration has become so broad and diverse that it is almost imperative in order to get an overview of this new form of art, although it is quite difficult to put a stamp on certain styles. The number of publications increased so extensively during the past few years that it is certainly worthwhile to take a further look onto this trend. Looking at the recent evolution in this sector it is further interesting to discover the cause of these rather extensive changes, to take a look at illustration from a commercial point of view and to situate my interests and my work. With this research I expect to broaden my knowledge in this field and to give a good background for my project. The first chapter of my thesis will approach and define illustration as it is today. It will give an overview of what has changed in the last decade and show a few recent trends. It will also show how illustration is being marketed and used in advertising. The second chapter will discuss street art and my fascination by it. It will document the way it is being marketed and used in advertising, similar to today’s illustration. It will also show how street artists feel about the concept of selling out. The final chapter will start with a part on culture jamming in order to introduce my master project, which will be discussed in the second part of this chapter.

I- Amazon. “Illustration books” (visited on August 16, 2010) (http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-ke ywords=illustration&x=0&y=0&ih=1_0_1_0_0_0_0_0_0_1.136_119&fsc=-1) II- Klanten, Robert. 2005. Illusive: contemporary illustration and its context. Berlin, Germany: Die Gestalten Verlag. III- Wiedemann, Julius. 2005. Illustration now! Cologne, Germany: Taschen.

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II. Illustration today II. Illustration today

Two decades ago photography used to be a more popular choice than editorial1 and advertising illustration for art directors. In printed artwork it kind of took over illustration after it’s glory days in the 60’s and the 70’s, leaving illustrators with little or nothing to work on2. Illustrators were left without commissions and were badly treated by art directors who had little respect for the craft of illustration. In a way it was the death of illustration3. Also photography was so popular back then that clients preferred to stick to what they were used to, out of fear of having a bad or misunderstood image, which would have been a waste of money. Hence, illustration became the less appealing option for art directors. As advertising evolved over the years, we came into a time of visual overload, where people became saturated and indifferent to all the images they were exposed to, a sort of numbness that could only be shaken by something new and unseen. As a result clients demanded their design agencies to come up with something else than photography so they could differentiate themselves from all the others and once again draw the attention of the people. One of those options was illustration. Where illustration had been forgotten by some or hadn’t been discovered yet by others, people started noticing some positive changes within that discipline at the end of this last decade. In the digital era, that along with photography caused illustration to undergo a near death experience in an early stage, it was undergoing a revival. A person that has written a lot about this phenomenon is Lawrence Zeegen, a critic and an illustrator who is head of the School of Communication Design at Kingston University4. In a first part it seems interesting to look at the causes and the results of the changes in this last decade. Discover what it is today and why illustration became so cool and popular. Subsequently we will take a look at the latest trends in illustration and finally how illustration is being marketed and as a result how it is used in advertising.

2.1. What has changed in the last decade? One thing is certain, illustration has changed since the end of the last decade. There are several factors that have influenced its evolution. Firstly, as I have earlier mentioned in the introduction, Illustration was known as an underdog during a certain period before undergoing its revival. The cause of this was for a great part the technological evolution. It was said there was no place for illustration in a digital era where graphic design and photography took the lead5. But that same technological evolution led to a certain democratization, making hardware and software drop dramatically in price and allowing more and more people to have a computer at home. This as a result allowed independent illustrators to experiment with digital formats and practice their skills6. It also allowed new practices like the application of illustration in fashion or textile design, or in animation, to emerge, offering new markets and formats such as vector, video or 3D, for illustrators to apply their work to, and it gave illustrators a bigger access to a wider range of tools like Adobe’s Creative Suit including Photoshop and Illustrator amongst others. All these elements somewhat gave illustrators the freedom to reinvent the discipline7. 1 “Editorial illustration, or advertising illustration, is a particular kind of art that is used to convey meaning without words and often helps to illustrate the ideas contained in a particular article, report, or news item in a magazine, newspaper, journal, or other publication” (123 techinfo. “What is editorial illustration?” (visited on August 2, 2010) (http://123techinfo.com/index.php/2010/05/what-is-editorial-illustration/)) 2 Grannell, Craig, “Illustration – today and tomorrow”. Computer Arts (visited on July 8, 2010) (http://www.computerarts.co.uk/in_depth/features/ illustration__today_and_tomorrow) 3- This of course is the case of the single image illustration form. Illustrative forms like comics or graphic novels were experiencing better times as they kept on becoming more popular. (Heller, Steven, “The fall and rise of illustration: An Interview with Charles Hively”. AIGA Journal of Design, 01 May 2006. (visited on July 8, 2010) (http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/the-fall-and-rise-of-illustration-an-interview-with-charles-hive)) 4 Kingston. “Lawrence Zeegen” (visited on August 14, 2010) (http://www.kingston.ac.uk/pressoffice/findanexpert/profile/82/Lawrence-Zeegen/) 5+6+7 Zeegen, Lawrence, “Illustration renaissance”. Computer Arts. (visited on July 8, 2010) (http://www.computerarts.co.uk/in_depth/features/ illustration_renaissance)

II. Illustration today

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As illustrators started expanding towards other media, mixing illustration and graphic design, and as designers, fed up with the high costs of photography and the demands of their clients, were starting to make their own collages with layers in Photoshop, the gap between illustration and graphic design started fading. Secondly, the Internet revolution, followed by the standardisation of fast broadband and WIFI8 , caused some illustrators to take new interest in the computer thanks to email communication. It allowed illustrators to distribute and promote their work through their own websites or via Internet communities. These latter ones allowed illustrators from around the globe to meet each other and exchange their work9 and ideas, inspiring each other and bringing them closer together. It can also be a very useful tool or resource for inspiration: you just type a word in a search engine and you are provided with a whole bunch of useful images. I speak out of my own experience. All in all, the Internet allowed illustration to become global. Thirdly, these young artists were a new breed of digital artists who had grown up with a computer at home or at school, and who weren’t afraid of experimenting new things. In addition, these artists presented themselves as being self-sufficient, despite their education. Being tired of illustration’s bad reputation, or just not having experienced the bad days, they just wanted to do their thing and introduce illustration the way they saw it10. This made them emerge from Art schools catching the attention of others, such as big companies. Like the fore-mentioned Internet communities, young artists also organised themselves into creative collectives, enabling them to share sources and a common vision, or giving mutual support and promotion. An example of such a creative collective is “Le Gun”, a diverse group of graduates from the Royal College of Art’s, department of Communication Art and Design in London, that tries to experiment through self-direction and collaborate across illustration, graphic design and moving image11. This new generation of illustrators also didn’t just passively sit around and wait for a phone call from a client in order to get a job. Nor did they wait around for a new market to materialize. Instead they started making their own work and finding new markets by, for example, self-publishing fanzines and magazines, launching own-label products like T-shirts, badges and stickers and by promoting limited editions of their own artwork through exhibitions12 and events or through online portfolios and stores13. Some claim it was the digital evolution that caused a major development for the discipline, others claim it was the Internet revolution, and yet another group claimed it was the new generation of illustrators. It seems right to me to say that it was the combination of these events that caused illustration to evolve and make it what it is today. But this doesn’t cover everything of what illustration is today. This is why I will elaborate on a few trends in illustration in the next part and later, on how illustration is used for commercial purposes and in advertising these days.

2.2. A few recent trends There are a few trends in the world of illustration that are worth looking into when it comes to getting an image of what contemporary illustration looks like. In the previous part I have already mentioned a few, such as the self-promotion of young artists through 8 Zeegen, Lawrence, “The illustration revival”. Computer Arts. (visited on July 8, 2010) (http://www.computerarts.co.uk/in_depth/features/the_illustration_revival) 9+13 Zeegen, Lawrence, “Illustration renaissance”. Computer Arts. (visited on July 8, 2010) (http://www.computerarts.co.uk/in_depth/features/illustration_renaissance) 10 Heller, Steven, “The fall and rise of illustration: An Interview with Charles Hively”. AIGA Journal of Design, 01 May 2006. (visited on July 8, 2010) (http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/the-fall-and-rise-of-illustration-an-interview-with-charles-hive) 11 http://www.legun.co.uk/ 12 By exhibiting illustration in art galleries, the boundaries between fine art and illustration (a form op applied art) are lowered.


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exhibitions and the blurring of the border between illustration and graphic design. But there is another major trend in illustration. A drift that started a decade ago and still is up to date, we can’t ignore, is the one that illustrators tend to return to more traditional techniques of illustration, despite the dispersion of their work through digital channels. This doesn’t mean they make work for traditional media like editorial and publishing as we will see in the next part. On the contrary young illustrators tend to make work for new media like the web. With the digital move everyone wanted to experiment with the newly discovered tools and make clean and digital visuals. Being something new in those days it was appealing to everyone. But as everyone was doing it, it became a standard practice and in the end people weren’t impressed by it anymore. It seemed that with a little practice, anyone could make a digital illustration14. People were longing for something more human and personal. Something handmade that reflected an illustrator’s personal touch, ideas, and his own style, whereby he could distinguish himself from other illustrators and stand out. After all it’s important for the success of an illustrator to get noticed. Milton Glaser once said; “Computers are to design as what microwaves are to cooking”15. Just preheating a meal isn’t anything special, anyone can do it, and people can get fed up easily with a mediocre result, whereas experimenting new things and making a home cooked meal can be much more innovative and taste so much better. I guess the same applies to illustration. Also at the beginning of this decade, a first wave of Art students graduated with a D.I.Y (do it yourself) sense, wanting to go back to handwork. People have a stronger connection with something handmade like the silkscreen technique for example. It shows a more personal side of the artist and reflects the hard work that the illustrator has put into his artwork. This of course didn’t mean there was a total rejection of the use of the computer, because it still is a vital tool, even in combination with handmade work, and there are quite some illustration practices today that require a computer. Also not every illustrator is that gifted at making handmade illustrations. Vector illustrators shouldn’t be scared of lagging behind as long as they can put a personal touch and their own ideas into their work16. If illustrators use digital techniques it is important that they find a good mix in combining analogue and digital techniques to create a unique personal visual language. In the end every illustrator’s objective is to be original and to stand out. In order to do so, they should keep experimenting and innovating while being aware of any trend in design that could be a possible threat and while staying ahead of what people are interested in, in order to avoid visual exhaustion. It doesn’t suffice to recycle things that have already been done before, like re-using graphics of the fifties, the sixties and the seventies and calling it vintage or retro17. Globally, the revival of illustration can also be seen as a trend. But trends come and go. The question we could ask then is whether illustration is to here to stay or to disappear in a few years when people get fed up with it or when a new technique shows up?

2.3. Marketing of Illustration18 Thanks to technological evolution the discipline of illustration has spread out to many other branches, allowing illustration to be applied to many different formats. Designer toys are a good example of how an illustrator can turn his concept into a marketable product, making an object that people can touch and buy. Depending on the illustrator’s concept, the toys can be made to play with like Byron Glaser’s19 ‘Zolo’, a post-modern Mr. Potato Head, or they can be used as canvas for other illustrators to put their own design 14 Grannell, Craig, “Trends 2008”. Computer Arts (visited on July 8, 2010) (http://www.computerarts.co.uk/in_depth/features/trends_2008) 15+16 Grannell, Craig, “Illustration – today and tomorrow”. Computer Arts (visited on July 8, 2010) (http://www.computerarts.co.uk/in_depth/features/illustration__today_and_tomorrow) 17 Mattus, Matt, “Beyond trend”. Computer Arts (visited on July 8, 2010) (http://www.computerarts.co.uk/in_depth/features/beyond_trend) 18 Heller, Steven & Arisman, Marshall. 2008. Marketing illustration: new venues, new styles, new methods. New York: Allworth press.

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on it like Paul Budnitz’s20 ‘Munny’. Customized or not the ‘Munny’ can just be put on a shelf and function as an iconic statue that emits some kind of attitude.

The Zolo5 by Byron Glaser, is a set of 32 handcrafted woodpieces, for children to play with. (http://www.zolo.com/zolo5.html)

The Do-It-Yourself Munny (packaging and contents) (http://unknownonline. wordpress.com/2010/01/07/win-een-6-munny-met-de-mintyfresh-nl-kleurplaat-actie/)

Munny designed by Jon Burgerman for the Munny show in LA in 2005 (http://sites.kidrobot.com/munnyworld/?p=gallery)

19 “Byron Glaser is an illustrator and designer who, with design partner Sandra Higashi, created the award-winning Zolo and Curious Bonz line of toys. Their business, Higashi Glaser Design, now provides services to a variety of companies, including the Cartoon Network and Sanrio, maker of the popular “Hello Kitty” products. Glaser and Higashi have also collaborated on the artwork for Zolo A-B-Z: An Alphabet Book, Bonz Inside-Out!: A Rhythm, Rhyme, and Reason Bone-anza!, and other picture books” (Answers. “Byron Glaser” (visited on August 3, 2010) (http://www.answers. com/topic/byron-glaser)) 20 Founder of Kidrobot, a producer and retailer of designer toys founded in 2002, specializing in artist-created toys and imports from Japan, Hong Kong, and Europe. Kidrobot has a commercial website, as well operating retail stores in North America. (Wikipedia. “Kidrobot” (visited on August 4, 2010) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kidrobot))


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Thanks to the increase in options, illustrators are able to explore a personal vision and able to publish their work themselves, which has made them more independent. A little over ten years ago it was impossible for illustrators to work without an art director, an editor and a publishing house. Now illustrator’s can function alone, but they must make a portfolio website and join a group in order to market themselves and their ideas effectively. Below are a few examples of portfolio websites, which are mostly very simple but quite clear.

Portfolio website Bernstein & Andriulli (http://www.ba-reps.com/artists/bigshot-toyworks/3639#image_260954)

Portfolio website Jimmy Turrel (http://www.heartagency.com/artist/JimmyTurrell/gallery/1)


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Portfolio website Alex Williamson (http://www.debutart.com/artist/alex-williamson)

In the traditional editorial and advertising, the market for illustration was limited by the art director’s choice of an illustrator, and limited to print. Print is no longer the only option for an illustrator. Instead the illustrator can apply his work to vinyl or other types of toys, to video games or motion animation, to pure design and concept, to book or magazine covers, labels and packaging, to books and graphic novels, or to wallpapers, fashion21 and textiles or T-shirts. The list of choices becomes greater every day, opening doors to many for work22 and to market their artwork. Aside from the importance of illustrators to market themselves, it is equally important for them to understand issues of intellectual property and copyright, and to know good contacts and venues to expose their work, in a growing global world. Sharing information, allowed illustrators to make contact with groups that are engaged in marketing and that have information about manufacturing, distribution and prototyping. Next to the Internet communities, conventions for toys, games, comics, graphic novels and self-publishing, are a small depiction of what’s happening on the Internet. As I have mentioned before, the Internet has been a revolution for illustrators, it has made illustration a global thing. By promoting their work on it, they can support themselves even if they only make work for a select part of the market. Internet and websites have deleted borders on the market and opened the world to illustrators. A downside of this is that there are more competitors all over the world which makes it important for an illustrator to have his own personal voice that he can reflect through his portfolio website, so clients can remember him. Success isn’t always a guarantee, but it sure is worth trying. In the book “Marketing illustration: new venues, new styles, new methods”23, the writers, Steven Heller and Marshall Arisman, did a survey by interviewing artists that work with different types of media, making a distinction between traditional media like editorial and publishing, and non-traditional media, like the web, advertising and corporate, animation, games, murals, clothing and textile, etc… They also asked them how technological evolution has affected their work and style24. 21 Hats, accessoires, shoes, etc... 22 Even for amateurs like celebrities or housewives who decide to make a children’s book. 23 Heller, Steven & Arisman, Marshall. 2008. Marketing illustration: new venues, new styles, new methods. New York: Allworth press. 24 Interview with John Hendrix: Style being something different than your own voice. Style is an aesthetic decision while your voice is a point of view that differentiates you from others. (Heller, Steven & Arisman, Marshall. 2008. Marketing illustration: new venues, new styles, new methods. New York: Allworth press, p 127.)


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According to the survey the old generation of illustrators tend to work more on traditional media, but their work is sometimes used for the web, and sometimes they try to make something in new media. This generation had to adjust itself to the new technologies and learn the new software programs that could facilitate their work, but in most cases the technological revolution hasn’t changed their style. They still like the handcrafted work that they can later on scan by computer and adjust thanks to programs like Photoshop or Illustrator. Mostly the old generation will learn just the basics of an application in order to work with it and use those tools to make their work easier. The new generation on the other hand, goes straight into non-traditional media when they leave school. Items like clothing, toys or animation are very tempting for young illustrators to make their work in and sell it. The technological evolution hasn’t changed their working habits much, since they grew up with it. Young illustrators tend to evolve with the new technologies, and keep up-to-date. Today it isn’t enough to stick to one type of medium. Illustrators should be able to use a mix of media in their portfolio and focus on the idea they want to express emotionally and expressively as the content has become more important than the medium. The survey is concluded with the observation that editorial and publishing marketplaces still are the primary source of income for freelance illustrators, and that it is their preferred genre. The targeted audience has already been there for a while and the methods for reaching it have already been established unlike in the newer areas like toy, game or product design. And even though most illustrators say that new technologies are their new reality, they all agree that print is not dead yet. People still like something they can hold in their hands. Traditional media may still be popular, and print will certainly not die, but it might lose popularity in a few years. A lot of print work already moves to the web and other digital platforms. And illustrators keep on searching for new and alternative ways to make illustration more accessible to a broad public.

2.4. Illustration in advertising Having a background in advertising I find it interesting to take a look at the use of illustration in advertising, which is increasing by the day. When observing advertising posters, one can see that there is more and more a use made of some kind of illustrative form, like in the following two examples.

Advertising for the Ford Ka (taken at Brussels North station) (own resource)

Advertisement for Skills Belgium with use of illustrated typography, 2010 (http://www.euroskills.org/cms/index.php?option=com_content&view=ar ticle&id=46&Itemid=37)


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People are tired of being confronted with an overflow of advertisings. They overlook them, making it more difficult for advertisers to catch their attention, and obliging them to find new ways to attract the public’s attention and to differentiate themselves in a market where there are just too many brands. One possibility is to use illustration. As the number of styles within this discipline continues to grow, it makes it easier for advertisers to reach certain target groups by using an illustration style that is related to a certain subculture, like the underground culture, which we will see in the next chapter. Before moving on, we would like to pay a look at certain changes in the advertising world, making it easier for illustrators to make work for advertising. This could be, in part, the reason why we see more illustration in advertising, but we must keep in mind that advertising is only one of the many markets where illustrators can apply their work. Illustrators had known a place in advertising since it existed. When photography became popular, Companies didn’t have confidence in illustrators anymore, except for making mood boards or storyboards for a TV spot. Illustrators were just told what to do and had very little or no involvement in the creative process of the campaign image or identity. But since their newly found interest in illustration, companies again rely on the illustrator to give their campaign or brand a personal and unique identity attracting the consumer, who is looking for a more direct, human or emotional bond with the images. Also companies find it more simple and cheaper than photography and now relax, and make less tight briefs so illustrators have more room to experiment and to do their thing25. Although illustrators in advertising are given more freedom in their work, they still have more restrictions than illustrators working in publishing, as they are bound to the concept of a campaign and the message that must be communicated. In addition to this the illustrator is pulled out of his corner and now has to learn to collaborate with photographers and designers and vice versa, mixing the different disciplines.

Illustration today has a newfound status. It is now considered integrated in design and is able to compete with other artistic practices on a global scale. Watching the increasing number of illustration studios, many designers and art directors decide to close their own shop and become illustrators themselves26. Illustrators on their side decided to become more independent by focusing their talents on art direction and design. Constantly crossing boundaries and disciplines, illustration has become so diverse, that you can practically find it anywhere; on print, on screen, in galleries, on architectural spaces or apparel, on posters, on CD, on TV, on the web, and so on… there are just no limits anymore and the range of potential applications for illustration continues to expand27. What we could call “traditional illustration” within this context, such as printed illustration, still exists and has expanded into new forms gaining more and more importance. People that tend to go back to handcrafted methods of illustration will continue to use the computer as it makes work a lot easier, and people just need to continue evolving with technology. Illustration didn’t die but it evolved and it has adapted in order to survive. Having treated illustration in advertising, in the next chapter emphasis will be put on the underground culture and style. A culture that has its own vision on using artwork for commercial purposes.

25 Grannell, Craig, “Illustration – today and tomorrow”. Computer Arts (visited on July 8, 2010) (http://www.computerarts.co.uk/in_depth/features/ illustration__today_and_tomorrow) 26 Zeegen, Lawrence, ‘Illustration: New opportunities”. Computer Arts (visited on July 8, 2010) (http://www.computerarts.co.uk/in_depth/features/ illustration_new_opportunities) 27 Zeegen, Lawrence, “Illustration renaissance”. Computer Arts. (visited on July 8, 2010) (http://www.computerarts.co.uk/in_depth/features/illustration_renaissance)

III. Street Art and Illustration

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III. Street Art and Illustration In the previous chapter we have seen how illustration has evolved and how it has obtained its new status, thanks to the technological and Internet revolution, but also thanks to a young generation of independent artists. Another important aspect is how illustration is being marketed by illustrators and used in advertising. In this chapter a closer look will be given to street art. In part because I find it a very interesting form of art, and some aspects of it inspire me in my work, but also because street art is linked to today’s illustration, and because it shows similarities with what has been described previously. Street artists too have been influenced by the technological and Internet revolution, and they also seem to have started marketing their work or let corporate brands use it in advertising. In a first part I would like to talk about my interests in the style and the underground culture. Subsequently I will elaborate deeper on what street art is, and illustrate this by means of two popular artists worth mentioning, namely Banksy and Shepard Fairey. Finally I will talk about how the fore-mentioned evolutions have influenced street art, the use of it for commercial purpose, and how street artists feel about it.

3.1. My interests in street art and the underground culture I must admit that there are other aspects in today’s illustration that cought my eye, like toy design or character design, as I find them all part of the wide discipline that illustration is. An illustrator shouldn’t limit his/her interests to one specific element, as in the end this will only limits the options. But why street art? It is a very popular form of art that comes from graffiti and that has strongly evolved over the past years. It was and still is considered as vandalism and street cluttering as it is often illegally placed on walls as an expression of the artist’s opposition towards the so-called mainstream. But what is advertising then? It’s an even worse visual clutter. Only, there is a big difference: it is ‘legal’. Having a background in advertising I find it interesting to approach visual communication from another point of view. After all they both are used to convey a message. Street art is the artistic expression of a whole underground culture, of rebellious people refusing to follow the stream and who are spreading their own opinions and are communicating through subversive forms of art. This assumption might be a little outdated since the whole underground culture has gained popularity the last couple of years, and is now even being marketed as we will see later on. But it hasn’t always been like that. These people mostly were considered as lower class outcasts, and some still are today. I guess I have always been attracted to things that represent a form of rebellion. I have my own opinion on today’s consumption society and on those people that tend to follow the herd in order to be popular or feel accepted. Individuality disappears and make for a dull and shallow world. As for the art itself, when visiting big cities, I don’t specially need to go and see a museum. I’d rather wander the streets and discover all kinds of forms of street art. For me the streets are one big museum. I like the fact that they stand out from the grey walls they cover, and that they make me smile and think how easy and clever it is. In most cases I will try and find the underlying meaning, but I also enjoy simply looking at it. Sometimes it even inspires me to pick up my own pencils or markers. Take the street where I live for example, someone tagged a huge “Feux aux prisons” on the wall. In my opinion it’s ugly and unnecessary. But I have thought of ways to respond to it by adding a sticker next to it with a drawing of fireman or a fire extinguisher. All in all these are things I find appealing about street art, but I specifically chose to talk about it because my master project is connected with street art in that way that I find some of my goals to be similar to those of street artists.

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The main one is to catch the attention of people by using controversial images, but I intend to elaborate on this in a later chapter that will handle Culture Jamming28 and my master project.

3.2. What is Street Art? Street art or post-graffiti, is an urban art developed in public spaces, more specifically in the streets, and covers a lot of different media and genres with many different formats and different people or groups that create them29. This art form has emerged out of traditional graffiti, though both are quite different. Graffiti artists use spray paint or markers to tag their names in big and small letters on walls of industrial factories or under bridges, making it public signatures. These are mostly places that are hard to reach, since graffiti is illegal and it takes quite some time to make a work of art. Also artists don’t want to be interrupted nor fined by cops30. Graffiti artists find it important to mark their territory and to be recognized, and lay the focus on the name itself and the complexity of the graffiti31.

cartoon graffiti by Mr Stack, Ivry City, 2006 (http://keusta.net/blog/index.php/2006/10/11/308cartoon-graffiti-art-character) One of 30 Great Examples of Graffiti Writing and Graffiti Street Art, artist unknown, 2008 (http:// www.youthedesigner.com/2008/05/21/30-greatexamples-of-graffiti-writing-and-graffiti-streetart/)

Street artists on the other hand use tools that allow them to quickly apply their work and that are much less expensive than spray cans. Most of the work is done at home and later on quickly applied in public spaces, allowing street artists to strike by day, unlike graffiti artists. Typical tools are stickers, stencils32 or street posters, as you can see in the examples on the next page. These are tools that are cheap, simple and quick to use.

28 “A form of political and social activism which, by means of fake adverts, hoax news stories, pastiches of company logos and product labels, computer hacking, etc., draws attention to and at the same time subverts the power of the media, governments, and large corporations to control and distort the information that they give to the public in order to promote consumerism, militarism, etc.” (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/ culture+jamming) 29 Metro Jacksonville. “Street art” (visited on July 27, 2010) (http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2009-jun-what-is-street-art-why-is-itaround-jax-street-art) 30 Bou, Louis. 2009. Street Art. Barcelona: Maomao Publications. P.6 31 Level of difficulty. 32 “A sheet, as of plastic or cardboard, in which a desired lettering or design has been cut so that ink or paint applied to the sheet will reproduce the pattern on the surface beneath.” (The Free dictionary. “Stencil” (visited on August 10, 2010) (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/stencil)


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Sticker of a silicone breast character by the Buffmonster posted by Ivan Corsa in 2005 (http://www.globalgraphica.com/2005/11/10/buff-monster-strikesdowntown-new-york-city-2/)

Cum* girl made with stencil by the Belgian trio from Gent Cum* posted by ‘kriebel’ in 2009 (http://www.flickriver.com/photos/kriebel/tags/ghent/)

Street art posters by Tommy Armageddon , 2009 (right: regret man poster) (http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2009-jun-what-is-street-artwhy-is-it-around-jax-street-art)


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But street artists still use traditional spray-cans in their work if they want to make wall paintings as seen in the following image. Sometimes events like workshops33 are organized for artists to spray-paint their creations on walls, making it legal.

Spray-painted wall by the artist Freaklüb with his famous character Aunara (Bou, Louis. 2009. Street Art. Barcelona: Maomao Publications. P.40)

Between artists there is also a big demographical difference. Graffiti artists in the late sixties were younger than most street artists are today, and belonged to the lower social class. They spray-painted on walls and trains to rebel against their social status. Street artists on the other hand mostly have an interest or an education in graphic design and are between twenty-five and thirty years old. Their art is much more subtle and anonymous34. This sounds like street art is something new, while it isn’t really. In the seventies the youth used stickers or self-adhesive tags, or even used stencils for text, to leave messages behind in the street. Only these were more politically loaded with actual slogans. The street art that re-emerged thirty years later, and that we know now, consists of rather confusing and alienating imagery like weird creatures or text, and is discretely placed in public spaces35. Some artists do it for fun or as a challenge as they see urban space as a nice format to apply their personal artwork, and some do it to get a kick out of it, or to be recognized and become well-known. Others question today’s society and want their work to communicate with everyday people about the emitted themes, such as adbusting, subvertising36 and other forms of culture jamming, with the idea of abolishing the private property and reclaiming the streets37. It clearly depends on the artist himself and the environment of the city where he lives, what will inspire, influence or motivate him. Some cities show art that is very political or that challenges causes like social and anti corporate themes, in others it can be very colourful and multi cultured38.

33 Graffiti Jam (Graffiti Jeugddienst. “Graffiti jam” (visited on August 5, 2010) (http://www.graffiti-jeugddienst.be/default.asp?nid=134) 34+35 Hofland, Gideon, (2003) “Street art/ Een boodschap op een sticker”. (visited on July 27, 2010) (http://aciddome.com/images/Street-Art.pdf) 36 “The practice of making spoofs or parodies of corporate and political advertisements. Subvertisements may take the form of a new image or an alteration to an existing image, often in a satirical manner. A subvertisement can also be referred to as a meme hack and can be a part of social hacking or culture jamming.” (“Subvertising” (visited on August 13, 2010) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subvertising)) 37 “Street art” (visited on July 28, 2010) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street_art) 38 Metro Jacksonville. “Street art” (visited on July 27, 2010) (http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2009-jun-what-is-street-art-why-is-itaround-jax-street-art)


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Of course street art doesn’t limit itself to the images on the walls. It has expanded and now also includes guerrilla art39, video projections, art interventions, street installations, and flash mobbing40. An example of flash mobbing is the flash mob dance in Antwerp’s Central Station, which can be seen on the Internet41. Below are examples of street installations.

Street installations of Mark Jenkins in various cities, pictures by Mark Jenkins (http://www.xmarkjenkinsx.com/outside.html)

39 “Guerilla art is the surreptitious, and often sudden, creation or installation of unauthorized public art, often with the purpose of making an overt political statement. The term is often used interchangably with “street art.”” (Concept T-shirts. “Guerilla art” (visited on August 10, 2010) (http:// www.concepttshirts.co.uk/guerilla-art.php)) 40 “A flash mob is a large group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual and pointless act for a brief time, then disperse.” (“Flash mob” (visited on August 9, 2010) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_mob)) 41 Link to flash mob video in Antwerp: http://www.noob.us/entertainment/antwerp-central-station-flash-mob-dance/comment-page-1/

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These forms of street art are interesting to be mentioned, as they are part of the whole art which tries to turn public spaces into an open-air museum, making it a form of high art for everyday people, reaching a broader audience than traditional artwork or galleries. But my interest lies in the typical forms of street art and I intend to illustrate it further by emphasising on two famous street artists and their work. The first one is the street artist Banksy, from Bristol and the second is the American Shepard Fairey known for the Obey Giant sticker campaign. Banksy: Banksy is the pseudonym of one of the most famous street artists. Unlike his work, his identity remains unknown except for his closest friends, making it difficult to find true information about him. This is the reason why I had to base my information on what I found on Wikipedia and in some articles I gathered from the Internet. Public knowledge is his website42 showing some pictures of his work (indoor and outdoor) and the books he published. But they only feature his art. For him his anonymity is vital to his work. Without it he wouldn’t be able to function, as everyone would recognize him, even cops. His work, that was born out of the Bristol underground scene, can be described as satirical and subversive combined with mocking dark humour. His artwork is a combination of graffiti writing and the stencilling technique, which is similar to ‘Blek le Rat’, his source of inspiration. Blek le Rat is a French artist who was one of the first to start using the stencilling technique in 1981 because he didn’t want to imitate the American graffiti43. This artist was unknown to me before my research on this topic. His art indeed shows great similarities with Banksy’s work as you can see in the images below and on the next page.

Blek le rat for subliminal projects gallery in L.A. in 2008 (http://supertouchart.com/tag/blek-le-rat/)

Blek le Rat for his solo exposition ‘Art is not Peace but War ‘, 2008 (http:// www.vinylpulse.com/2008/04/05/index.html)

Banksy makes satirical artwork with political and social commentary in the streets, on walls or bridges in cities around the world with his stencils. Mostly they are humorous images that include rats, monkeys, policemen, soldiers, children or old people. He frequently combines these images with slogans, consisting of anti-war, anti-capitalist or anti-establishment messages. He even did some artwork on the Israeli West Bank barrier wall separating Israel and Palestine, and on street walls.

42 http://www.banksy.co.uk/ 43 Blek le rat (visited on August 9, 2010) (http://bleklerat.free.fr/stencil%20graffiti.html)

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One of Banksy’s art works on the wall, posted in 2008 (http://alemdocubobranco.wordpress. com/2008/02/)

One of Banksy’s stencils in Palestine on a security wall in Bethlehem, posted in 2007 (http://www. dailymail.co.uk/news/article-499346/Graffiti-artistBanksy-strikes--Bethlehem.html)

Another artwork of Banksy in Bethlehem, by Amar Awad, Reuters 2007 (http://www.abc.net.au/news/ photos/2007/12/04/2108770.htm)

Stencilled monkey by Banksy, by vertebrae 2009 (http://www.brandbanter.com/banksy-18)

Banksy’s Art of War with two kissing policemen, date unknown (http://solehiphop.wordpress.com/2008/10/02/ art-of-war-banksys-revolution/ banksy-11/)

Banksy graffiti removal, 2008 (http://ethur.org/wp/ blog/?m=200809)

One of Banksy’s Rats, by Niznoz, 2009 (http://flickrfanstan.wordpress.com/tag/flickr/page/191/)

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To illustrate some more of his subversive work it is interesting to take a look at his website. On the shop page you’ll find a text that mentions: “Banksy does not produce greeting cards or print photo-canvases or paint commissions or sell freshly baked bagels. Please take anything from this site and make your own (non-commercial use only thanks)”44 on the shop page. People can download the artwork to print it on a t-shirt for themselves for example, not to sell it. Bansky sometimes updates his website with pictures of auctions, where people pay extreme amounts of money for his work. An example of this is a picture featuring people that were bidding on a painting that said: “I can’t believe you morons actually buy this shit.”45 Sometimes Art auctioneers even try to sell his street art on location and leave the removal of it to the winning bidder. The artist himself actually doesn’t see a penny from these auctions or from any other merchandise since he is not behind the sale. Neither does he make a fuss about the copyright law46. He keeps on making subversive paintings emphasizing the absurdity of paying such amounts of money for something you can find in the streets. I guess it only shows how materialistic people can be, how they have to show their status by buying Art and how people would do anything to make money. It also questions the fact that art is only defined as art when it hangs in a gallery or a museum and not when it is in the streets. These are the topics, which Banksy tries to communicate through his work. The work he makes is for common people to see, as art for everyone. Banksy’s existence is somewhat of a paradox. He is anonymous and at the same time world famous, his work is sold for millions and yet he doesn’t profit from it. And while his work is put up in galleries he chooses obscure places like underneath a canal bridge to bring his messages47. Shepard Fairey: Shepard Fairey is an American graphic designer and illustrator who emerged out of the skateboarding scene48. He became known with his street art and viral marketing sticker campaign in 1990, featuring ‘ André the Giant has a posse’ which he later turned into the more stylistic ‘Obey Giant’ featured in the images below.

Shepard Fairey’s André the giant, in 2008 (http:// perdidojournal.blogspot.com/2008/04/andr-gianthas-posse.html) Obey Giant poster, by Elizabeth Daniels, 2008 (http://perdidojournal.blogspot.com/2008/04/andrgiant-has-posse.html)

44 http://www.banksy.co.uk/shop/index.html

Obey Giant sticker, by joo0ey, date unknown (http://www.takepart. com/news/2009/09/11/questioneverything-shepard-fairey-on-hisinfluences-his-legal-battle-with-apand-being-a-sellout/)

45 the Banksy effect (2006-2007): “Banksy” (visited on August 9, 2010) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banksy) 46+47 Times online. “Banksy” (visited on August 9, 2010) (http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/article7041167. ece) 48 “Shepard Fairey” (visited on August 10, 2010) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shepard_Fairey)

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As Fairey mentions on his website49, the sticker campaign was an experiment to attempt to stimulate curiosity of people and bring them to question both the sticker and its relationship with the surroundings. It’s just a sticker with a face. It doesn’t have a message or a meaning, and only exists to cause people to react, contemplate and search for an underlying meaning. People aren’t used to seeing such things in advertisements or propaganda. When they are repeatedly confronted with the sticker, it can provoke frustration because they don’t know what it’s for. They try to look for the message but it just isn’t there. On the other hand the sticker does have a positive effect, in so far that it makes the viewers pay more attention to detail. Of course there are two different types of people; those who are familiar with stickers and street art and those who are not. The first ones think the image is amusing and don’t bother searching for an explanation because they know there isn’t any. The others are more conservative or paranoid people who get confused by the sticker’s determined presence and immediately see it as underground or vandalism with subversive intentions. They sometimes even try and peel it of because they can’t stand it. This is ironic since people are much more confronted with advertising and its commercial graphics on a daily basis. You don’t see people tearing down an advertisement poster. Aside from different reactions the sticker brought something else to light, which is the consumptive nature of many people in this society. People who liked the sticker wanted one as a souvenir, just for the idea of possessing one or the feeling to be part of something. These people are, or at least want to be rebellious. They enjoy the disturbing underground character of the sticker and even want to contribute to adding more stickers in the streets. The experiment was a success as people reacted to it, whether by embracing it or rejecting it. People started to question the details and their surroundings. This is something, I guess a lot of street artists wish to accomplish. Not necessarily the way Shepard Fairey intended to, but they too want people to observe their work and to react by putting things where they usually don’t belong. The previous two artists being from abroad, it might be interesting to take a look at the street art scenery in Belgium. Most street artists are anonymous, and no one is really famous except the trio from the Cum* collective in Gent. Their work, which initially started in the streets, moved to the studio in a later phase. It consists of raw and provoking paintings and installations that explicitly refer to the vulgar porn industry50. An example of this is the Cum* girl represented by stencils of a women in dirty poses, that can be found here and there on a wall in their city.

Stencil of a Cum* girl, posted in 2008 (http://www. gentblogt.be/2008/01/15/cum)

Another stencil of a Cum* girl on cardboard, posted by Marc in 2004 (http://www.woostercollective. com/2004/04/25-week/)

49 Obey. “about” (visited on August 8, 2010) (http://obeygiant.com/about) 50 Kask. “Cum*” (visited on August 3, 2010) (http://www.kask.be/index.php?/kasklezingen/artikel/cum/)


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Even if these artists don’t influence me as an illustrator per se, I find their goals and the message behind their work very interesting and relevant to mention. Whether foreign or Belgian, street artists have the same goals in mind; they wish to convey a certain message or critique through their work. This is what inspires me in my work. Until now I elaborated on the description of street art and my attraction to it. As mentioned in the introduction, street artists show similarities with illustrators when it comes to the influence of technology and the fact that some artists market their work or let corporate brands use it in advertising.

3.3. Street art going commercial and selling-out Just like illustration, street art has known some changes. Technology and the Internet, enabled street artists to experiment new things with the computer, blurring the borders between digital and manual like in illustration51. Here too the digital camera allowed artists to document their work so they could share it on the Internet with other artists, through forums or blogs, allowing it to evolve and become an international movement52 bringing artists closer together. The subversive art has become popular over the years, going from subculture to the international culture, and has remained a source of inspiration for people who wanted to escape mainstream. It has also become a respected art form that inspires design students to bring its visual language into their own work53. But as street art grew popular, some things started to change, and more and more people started to take interest in it, even corporate brands. On one hand designers, that got inspired by it, started to use it in their work for big brands and street artists, whose work is based on everything that stands against mainstream and sometimes consumption, started selling their work and turning it into a brand. On the other hand corporate brands started to use it in their advertising as they saw how appealing it was to people. As street art became so diverse and somewhat overpopulated, its influence on urban graphics kept on growing. As a result graphic designers that got inspired by it used it in their work to be applied to sports gear, like skateboards, snowboards, bikes or even to clothing of urban brands54. This is something many designers or illustrators want to do and I guess I am one of them. It is one of the evolutions that caused the underground counter culture to become a consumer culture. As street art and the whole underground culture became popular, big brands and corporations recognised it as an opportunity to attract more consumers. They took a look at an existing, ’cool’ medium, wrapped it up in a nice package and branded it up a little, selling it back to youth55. This was considered a first example of the marketing of subcultures. Another phenomena in commercialising street art, is the street artist turning his artwork in a brand it self. A perfect example of this is a street artist that I have mentioned earlier, namely Shepard Fairey. Realizing the success of the Obey Giant sticker he started commercialising the Obey propaganda by using it for posters, accessories, bags and clothing, going from T-shirts to socks56. He even executed some corporate advertising campaigns through his design agency, Studio Number One57. 51+52+53 Blackshaw, Ric, “Urban Digital”. Computer Arts. (visited on July 8,2010) (http://www.computerarts.co.uk/in_depth/features/urban_digital) 54 Blackshaw, Ric, “Urban Art”. Computer Arts. (visited on July 8, 2010) (http://www.computerarts.co.uk/in_depth/features/urban_art) 55 Zeegen, Lawrence, “Going underground”. Computer Arts. (visited on July 8, 2010) (http://www.computerarts.co.uk/in_depth/features/going_underground) 56 Obey. “clothing” (visited on August 8, 2010) (http://shop.obeyclothing.com/c-137-new-arrivals.aspx) 57 Question Everything: Shepard Fairey on His Influences, His Legal Battle with the AP, and Being a Sellout by Adriana Dunn (Take part. “Shepard Fairey” (visited on August 10, 2010) (http://www.takepart.com/news/2009/09/11/question-everything-shepard-fairey-on-his-influences-his-legalbattle-with-ap-and-being-a-sellout/))


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Examples of Obey clothing found on the Obey clothing website (http:// shop.obeyclothing.com/c-7-shirts.aspx)

Fairey claims the money he earns from all his art allows him to produce his propaganda work and to travel to other cities to put it up. It also allows him to keep an art gallery open that isn’t so profitable58. Followers who buy his things love him for it, other artists consider him a sell-out and even hate him for it. They see it as a kind of treason, as he crossed over to the side of brands and corporatism that per definition is supposed to be despised and criticized. In a way he contributed to making street art part of mainstream. What’s funny is that he wasn’t always criticized for it. No one called him a sell-out early on in his career when he took any job just to survive59. Banksy on the other hand, who doesn’t really sell his work, has a dual attitude towards brands. He is against corporate branding but has become his own brand in the process, and he doesn’t mind other people selling his work for their own profit as he used to sell things illegally before60. But not all street artists consider an artist turning his work into a brand and selling it, a sell-out. There are also those who accept to work for advertising agencies whose purpose is to sell products.

58 Heller, Steven, “Interview with Shepard Fairey: Still Obeying after all these years”. AIGA Journal of Design, 04 June 2004. (visited on July 8, 2010) (http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/interview-with-shepard-fairey-still-obeying-after-all-these-year?searchtext=street%20art) 59 Question Everything: Shepard Fairey on His Influences, His Legal Battle with the AP, and Being a Sellout by Adriana Dunn (Take part. “Shepard Fairey” (visited on August 10, 2010) (http://www.takepart.com/news/2009/09/11/question-everything-shepard-fairey-on-his-influences-his-legalbattle-with-ap-and-being-a-sellout/)) 60 Interview with Banksy by Simon Hattenstone (Guardian. “Banksy” (visited on August 9, 2010) (http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2003/ jul/17/art.artsfeatures))


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Brands are not the only ones who have started digging into the underground scene, also advertising companies did. Running out of good strategies and ideas to get the public’s attention, they started to look into other possibilities. Illustration went this way before them. A few years ago, advertising started using Guerrilla marketing as a new strategy for communication. It definitely shows similarities with street art as it uses the public space to communicate a strong visual message in a surprising way. Advertising saw it as a cheap and unavoidable way to sell products with a guarantee of provoking response61, although it was a risky business. In order not to be considered as vandalism, advertising companies started carrying out their campaigns with permission, making it legal. The success of this alternative form of advertising led to the creation of a new category of agency, specialized in guerrilla marketing62. But there’s always a downside to using something too often, as the effect it intends to provoke wears off after a while when people get used to it. Guerrilla marketing needed to evolve in order to keep attracting consumer attention. Advertisers started looking further in the underground culture, noticing how street art and graffiti had grown into a solid part of the youth culture, and decided to integrate it in their campaigns to attract the young public63. Take the Nissan ‘Altima’ street poster campaign of 2003. Billboards for the car were being vandalized with spray paint as Nissan was making an attempt to seem cool and blend in with the youth culture.

Nissan Altima campaign with ‘Electric Moyo.com’ (http://rojeliocabral.com/nisaltmix.html)

Some street artists thought it was cool; others were more cynical about it, seeing that corporations were using their art to sell brands64. 61+62+63 Computer Arts, “Selling out”. (visited on July 8, 2010) (http://www.computerarts.co.uk/in_depth/features/selling_out) 64 Marketingvox. “Nissan, electric Moyo campaing” (visited on August 10, 2010) (http://www.marketingvox.com/nissan_attempts_street_cred_ with_electric_moyo_campaign-013258/)


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Street artists will recognize anything that is corporate, but artists that do accept the use of street art in advertising think it should be executed convincingly, by genuine street artists that still have their own values and who aren’t tied to a corporate vision65. In my opinion the concept or degree of selling out varies from artist to artist. The reasons why artists sell out are manifold; to make more money giving them more options and freedom to execute their work or to get noticed and gain more fame. The choice is a personal one and I guess it is acceptable as long as the artist himself agrees selling his work to, or working for the big corporations he usually criticizes. There will always be others who won’t agree with it, but it is something they can’t prevent from happening. Either they sell their art and work along with the big brands and corporations in order to improve visuals, while still sticking to their own values, or they keep on working the non-commercial scene, staying original, gaining fame on their own and ultimately earning less money. Before concluding this chapter we must take a quick look at the relationship between today’s illustration and street art. Even though street art can be seen as a different discipline than illustration, I think that street art is a part of illustration. The urban visual language and its execution can be adopted by illustrators for their work, as can the ideas behind the whole art form. For instance, illustrators can also use stencils or stickers to draw something and later on apply it to a wall or bench in the street. Both type of artists illustrate and convey an idea through their work. As there are elements from both disciplines that overlap each other or show similarities, it is difficult to categorize them, just look at the way the disciplines are used or marketed. This makes the separation between the two art forms arbitrary, just like the gap between illustration and graphic design. Globalization has been a big factor in all these changes, bringing not only artists from around the globe closer together, but also bringing the disciplines closer to each other and sometimes even merging them.

Like illustration, street art has found a new status, although some people still consider it vandalism. But what makes advertising more legal than street art? They only try and copy their techniques to sell their products. I guess most people don’t really question those things. Usually it’s the older generation who will define street art as vandalism or clutter. Younger ones will just think it’s nice and cool, and buy the products from corporate companies who have adopted the art in their campaigns. Though illustration is a different discipline than street art, they show similarities and can be seen as part from each other, even if illustration isn’t so much considered as vandalism. In the introduction of this chapter I mentioned the different aspects of street art that inspired me for my master project. The next chapter, along with my actual project, will more specifically handle these aspects.

65 Computer Arts, “Selling out”. (visited on July 8, 2010) (http://www.computerarts.co.uk/in_depth/features/selling_out)

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IV. My work in Illustration IV. My work in Illustration

In the two former chapters I talked about today’s illustration and street art, how they became popular and how they are used for commercial purposes. I chose these two topics because not only are they interesting, but also because they are important to situate my master project. Before I talk about my project it is important that I shed some light on the culture jamming movement. Culture jamming is intrinsically connected with street art, mainly because they both try to disrupt mainstream and make people question their surroundings. The fact that this art form and my project show similar features will further clarify the idea behind my project. A first part explains what culture jamming is and where it comes from. Some examples of culture jamming activists and street artists are featured to illustrate the whole concept. The second part will be about my master project and its evolution.

4.1. Culture jamming As Naomi Klein defines in her book ‘No Logo’, culture jamming is “the practice of Parodying advertisements and hijacking billboards in order to drastically alter their messages.”66 The term was invented in 1984, by the San Francisco Audio-collage band ‘Negativland’67 who thought that reworking a billboard would make viewers considerate the original corporate strategy behind the advertisement. Rejecting the idea that people were given no choice but to be exposed to thousands of corporate ads every day, as advertisements were taking up more and more public space, culture jamming activists thought it was time to seize back those spaces68. They believed that everyone should have the opportunity to give their opinion and to respond to advertisements, by fighting back against the big corporate advertisers using any means available. They mainly made changes to advertisements and billboards by using black markers or by subtly changing the original image thanks to computer programs in order to modify the messages. What culture jammers want to bring over are mostly messages about anti-corporation, anti-consumer, anti-materialism and last but not least anti-advertising69. As Klein states in her book it is quite impossible to define the roots of culture jamming, mainly because the practice itself is a mixture of graffiti, modern art, DIY punk philosophy and practical joking. Also the use of a billboard as a canvas isn’t something new70. There are a few things though we can be sure of, like the fact that many concepts behind culture jamming are greatly influenced by media theorists such as “Noam Chomsky, Edward Herman, Mark Crispin Miller, Robert McChesney and Ben Bagdikian”71, because these theorists have explored ideas about corporate control over information flows. Another certain thing is that, culture jammers have been influenced by several avant-garde art movements, such as Dada, Surrealism, Conceptualism and Situationism. The principles of these movements, which is fighting against the norm and using visual images to let your voice be heard, are similar to those of culture jamming72. A good example of an early culture Jamming activist is Jorge Rodriguez Gerada who ironically enough worked in the advertising industry by day in order to make money 73. His art career started when he became a founder of the New York City Culture Jamming movement with the artist group Artflux.

66 Klein, Naomi. 2000. No logo: 10th Anniversary Edition with a New Introduction by the Author. London: Fourth Estate. p.280 67+68 Klein, Naomi. 2000. No logo: 10th Anniversary Edition with a New Introduction by the Author. London: Fourth Estate. p.281 69 Wordpress. “Culture jamming” (visited on August 8, 2010) (http://jamming.wordpress.com/culture-jammingwhat-is-it/) 70+72 Klein, Naomi. 2000. No logo: 10th Anniversary Edition with a New Introduction by the Author. London: Fourth Estate. p.282 71+73 Klein, Naomi. 2000. No logo: 10th Anniversary Edition with a New Introduction by the Author. London: Fourth Estate. p.284

IV. My work in Illustration

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Realizing that the media was very interested in what they were doing, they decided to focus on advertisements of damaging products like alcohol and cigarettes that were advertised in poor areas. They illegally modified those advertisements with a new statement and image that focused on the negative effects of those products74. I couldn’t find many images of his culture jamming work but here are a few examples.

Culture jamming work by Jorge Rodriguez Gerada (http://www.artjammer.com/jamming3.html) 74 Artjammer. “jamming” (visited on August 12, 2010) (http://www.artjammer.com/jamming3.html)

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Another example of well-known culture jamming group is the Vancouver, Canada based Adbusters that is now a magazine concerned about our physical and cultural environments. They see themselves as “a global network of artists, activists, writers, pranksters, students, educators and entrepreneurs who want to advance the new social activist movement of the information age”. Their aim “is to topple existing power structures and forge a major shift in the way we will live in the 21st century”.75 Below are some examples of their culture jamming work made with computer programs.

Absolut impotence by Adbusters, 2009 (https://www.adbusters.org/gallery/spoofads/alcohol/absoluteimpotence

Brand Baby Poster by Adbusters, 2005 (http://www.satyamag.com/may05/lasn.html)

Anti-consumerism flag by adbusters (http://anonymouspond.com/ images/raising-the-flag-for-consumerism/) Joe Chemo by Adbusters, 1996 (http://www.notobacco.org/photos/)

75 Adbusters. “About” (visited on August 12, 2010) (https://www.adbusters.org/about/adbusters)

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But to illustrate further at what I am aiming at with my master project, it is important to look at street artists whose theories about a media crazed world resembles the Situationist theory and their concept of ‘détournement’ which will be explained later. Many street artists believe that “image-mediated capitalism generates a world-view in the consumer that mirrors Situationist theories of capitalism”76, as these theorists tried to describe “what they saw as the inauthenticity of life under image-mediated capitalism” in the 1950s and 1960s.77 Street artist Kof, of Project Rabbit, states that the media crazed world creates a mad mentality of consumerism, as people try to handle and live their lives the way advertising messages tell them to. Advertising shows consumers images of a dominant model of social life and indirectly shows them how they should live, brainwashing and imprisoning them78. It is my opinion that not only advertising shows people how they should live, the media, like magazines, is part of it too, as will be showed in the next part with the example of the Flair magazine. Through his work, which consists of rabbit posters shown below, Kof wants to distract people and set them free, if only just for a while79.

Example of Project Rabbit in the streets, by Kof (http://www.flickr.com/ photos/46818804@N00/51420565)

Project Rabbit by Kof (http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/ section?content=a918957239&fulltext=713240928#refere nces)

Another street artist that makes images of rabbits as seen on the next page, and who shares the same opinion as Kof, is the artist Branded. He claims that everything is about branding yourself, that everything we do or wear is branded. It always has a logo on it80. And he, like many other street artists, wants people to question this and their surroundings by presenting something that looks like an advertisement and yet is meaningless81.

76+77+78+79 Damien Droney, The business of “getting up”: street art and marketing in Los Angeles, p102 - (Droney, Damien, (2010) “The Business of ‘‘Getting Up’’: Street Art and Marketing in Los Angeles”. (visited on July 12, 2010) (http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/section?content=a 918957239&fulltext=713240928#references)) 80+81 Damien Droney, 2010, The business of “getting up”: street art and marketing in Los Angeles, p103


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Branded Bunny by street artist, branded (http://www.bomit.com/branded.htm)

It is this method of disputing the reality dominated by image used for commercial purpose, used by street artists and culture jamming activists that shows similarities with the Situationist concept of ‘détournement’. This concept consists of reusing existing visual elements in a new entity whereby these elements are devaluated as they lose their importance. In this case artists use the medium of advertising to make it useless82. It is this concept that has inspired me for my master project. Just like illustration and street art, culture jamming enjoyed a revival, benefiting from the technological and the Internet revolution at the beginning of this century, making the creation and the circulation of advertising parodies much easier83, but also because it was in demand as people enjoyed to see icons of corporate power being transformed and made fun of 84. But culture jamming has failed its mission in a way, as its strategies are being used by brands and in advertising, in order to attract the subculture that has been resisting to brands85. As we have seen in the previous chapter, even some subculture artists have sold themselves out, and changed their work into a brand like street artist Shepard Fairey. Whether or not it has failed, it still is a strong way to criticize our consumer based capitalistic society, and a good tactic to attract the attention of viewers with the purpose of questioning their surroundings.

4.2. My Master project As my former education was in the advertising field, I am well aware of the communication overload and the search in advertising for new tactics to get the attention of the people. The purpose of my work is to encourage people to open their eyes and stop following mainstream. The explanation above, about illustration, street art and culture jamming also pertains in part to my work. Through my master in illustration I would like to make a change, since I don’t really agree with the classical way of advertising and as such I don’t see myself working in an advertising agency. 82 Damien Droney, 2010, The business of “getting up”: street art and marketing in Los Angeles, p104 83 Klein, Naomi. 2000. No logo: 10th Anniversary Edition with a New Introduction by the Author. London: Fourth Estate. p.285 84 Klein, Naomi. 2000. No logo: 10th Anniversary Edition with a New Introduction by the Author. London: Fourth Estate. p.287 85 “The Failure of Culture Jamming: Resistance in a post-social world” a dissertation by Pamela Brown for Media Studies Ideas, p.1 (Brown, Pamela, (2009) “The Failure of Culture jamming”. (visited on July 12, 2010) (http://www.emission-control.net/.../the-failure-of-culture-jamming--pamela-brown.pdf))


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Further more, positioning myself on the other side of the fence is much more inspiring and challenging to me then coming up with original ideas required by the consumption society to promote yet another product. During my senior year in the advertising department, we had the assignment to make a brand book for Brussels. For this project I put different pictures together, a bit like in a scrapbook, and drew illustrative or commentary drawings next to it, in an attempt to emphasize the beauty of Brussels in all its ugliness. As shown in the images below I tried to give it a raw and dirty look to reflect the dirty city and streets of Brussels. I really enjoyed making this work and it inspired me to use the same technique for my master project.

Images of pages of my brandbook “Bruxelles ma belle”

My first approach was to use original visuals of advertisements, cut and paste them and make a new visual by adding commentary illustrations. This is something similar to the Situationists concept of ‘détournement’, as I take the existing visual elements from their original context and reuse them in a new entity. Hereby the used image loses its original purpose and importance. But by adding commentary illustration to it, I give it a whole new meaning as can be seen in the following images. I intended to make posters of those images and hang them in the streets as street art, so they would catch people’s attention and make them question the advertisements and their capitalistic environment. Something many street arts aim at, as mentioned previously.


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Images by Eva De Block

As this approach leaned too much towards posters and communication itself, which are the goals in the master advertising, I changed it in order to fit it more in the context of illustration. I then turned to the idea of making something more personal like a diary. It developed into the story of a naïve young girl who is a little too influenced by advertising, as every time she is confronted with a choice she thinks of a certain product. Just to illustrate how top products can pop up in the heads of people when being exposed to their advertising messages over and over again.


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Image by Eva De Block

The idea ended up not being strong enough and would have become a bit dreary in the end. So I decided to make my own sort of diary that I’d fill in during one month in order to limit it in time, due to the shortage of it until the master jury. This doesn’t mean I can’t continue this work in the future, and I will leave empty pages to refer to a diary that still needs to be filled. For the images and for the time reference I decided to use the Flair magazine, as it issues on a weekly basis. I thought it was more interesting to use a weekly magazine over a monthly one since every issue has another theme, which gives me a bit more options and variety for my work. But I specially chose the Flair because I find it a dull and shallow magazine and it portrays a lot of things I dread about the consumer society, which inspires me. Apart from trivial articles, a cheap appearance and a bad paper quality, it shows pictures of new trends, or topics as a way of


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advertising and communicating what is ‘in’, in order to make the readers, followers, and make them buy all the figured things. In a nutshell it is an advertising magazine, imprisoning readers to follow mainstream. My purpose is to take these images out of their context and give them a new meaning by pasting them in a new ensemble that I see fit, and by drawing my reactions to those visuals through an alter ego. This alter ego portrayed in an image below, for whom I haven’t decided a name yet, is a character that expresses what she thinks and feels, every time she is confronted with a certain element from that magazine or something related to it. Below are a few examples of my work, showing how a drawing evolves, although I am far from being finished. I’m thinking of adding a less charged page to every drawing in order to let the drawings breathe a little bit and change the rhythm of the pages.

Image of the original pages of the Flair magazine and the evolution of one of my drawings. Top right image of my character.


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I have always wondered what went on in people’s heads when they were looking at an advertisement or in a magazine, whether they were accepting everything blindly or looking at it with a critical eye. I want my work to open people’s eyes and make them question themselves and certain things in society. Culture jammers and street artists claim they use original visuals to devaluate them and hang up the reworked images, without meaning, in order to make people react and question their surroundings. Actually in doing so, they give it a new purpose and thus a new meaning, because they want people to react to their work. In my project, I do it by illustrating my reactions to those images, through my character, with somewhat the same purpose as culture jammers and street artists. I want people to respond, to open their eyes, to question things, and not blindly swallow everything they see or hear. Unlike some other work of mine, I wouldn’t say this work really falls in the category of street art because it is a diary, although it could function as street art if I hang it up in the street. People would then question why it hangs there and what it is. Also my work doesn’t resemble that of the fore-mentioned artists in my thesis, but in wanting people to react and to question society, my goals are somewhat the same. Since my project is a personal diary, I intend to bind all my drawings in a booklet of an A5 format to resemble a real diary, leaving blank pages at the end, for it to be continued.

Image by Eva De Block


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I also thought of making some posters of the pages and hang them up in the streets in order to see if my work can also function outside the diary and as street art. I then hope it will catch the attention of people passing by and provoke reactions. If I would have to sell this work, it wouldn’t be in a regular bookstore or in regular media, but rather in a store for young underground artists or publish it in underground magazines like ‘De Fish’86 for example, a street magazine where young artists can publish their art and illustrations. As an artist I see myself somewhere in between all the disciplines I have mentioned in this thesis, and especially in today’s world of illustration, but I still need to evolve like many other artists and so does my work.

Image of ‘De Fish’ magazine, 2008 (http://www.hixtril.com/index.php?/projects/de-fish-magazine/)

86 De Fish (visited on August 14, 2010) (http://www.defish.be/)

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V. Conclusion V. Conclusion

We have seen that illustration has evolved and undergone a revival over the past decade, being able to compete with other practices on a global scale by constantly crossing boundaries and disciplines. This allowed it to be omnipresent. Major factors that made this possible, where the technological and Internet revolution, allowing illustrators to each have a computer at home and, to experiment with digital formats, giving them the freedom to reinvent the discipline, and to be connected, while spreading and promoting their work, on a global scale, through websites and communities. This also allowed illustration to expand towards other media, fading the gap between illustration and graphic design. Another major factor that allowed illustration to evolve was the new generation of artists, who grew up with a computer and who weren’t afraid of experimenting new things, in order to introduce the discipline the way they saw it. Also these young artists were a more independent generation, who didn’t passively wait around for a job or market to materialize, instead they made their work and tried to sell it. Next to these factors and a rush towards digital illustration, a recent trend showed that illustrators tend to go back to more traditional and handmade techniques, in order to show a more personal side of the artist and to reflect the hard work. This doesn’t mean there is a total rejection of the computer, as it facilitates the work process of every artist. As the technological revolution allowed illustration to spread out to many other branches, allowing illustration to be applied to many different formats, illustrators were able to expand their work options. We have made a distinction between two main types of media: the traditional media that still are preferred by the older generation of illustrators, and untraditional media, which is the new generation’s choice. Although traditional media are still popular and not likely to disappear, it is important for illustrators to take in account future evolutions, to adapt themselves, and to search for new and alternative ways to make illustration more accessible to a broad public. While illustration was rising in popularity it was only obvious that advertising companies took a newly found interest in it and wanted a part of it for their campaigns, in order to differentiate themselves in a market where there is a communication overload, which makes it harder for advertising creatives to reach consumers. We saw that illustrators were given more freedom and liberty in their work for campaigns, unlike the situation before where they were squeezed into a corner and treated with little respect. This first chapter has shown us that Illustration didn’t die but that it adapted itself in order to survive. In the second chapter we have covered my interests in street art and the underground culture, and why I chose to talk about this topic. Subsequently we got a definition of street art, which is an urban art developed in the streets, and that covers many different media, genres and formats. We saw that street art is different than from traditional graffiti and that it has expanded just like illustration. We looked into the work of two popular street artists, namely Banksy and Shepard Fairey, how their work was being marketed and how they felt about it. Just like illustration, street art became popular and was being marketed by the artists themselves, and used in advertising, to the dislikes of many other artists who call them sell-outs, because they contribute to the system they originally criticise. This chapter has shown us that the similarities between street art and illustration make the separation between these two disciplines arbitrary, like the gap between illustration and graphic design, as a result of technological evolutions and globalization. In the final chapter we described culture jamming and how it was connected to street art, because they both try to disrupt mainstream and make people question their surroundings, which in the end is a goal I try to achieve with my master project, only in a much more subtle way. We saw the importance of the Situationist’s concept of ‘détournement’, consisting of reusing existing visual elements in a new entity in order to make these elements lose their importance and purpose, and its relation to street art. As we have seen, I also try to use this concept in my project, in order to give my critical thoughts about the encountered visuals. Sure there is a difference between disciplines and styles, but recent evolutions have led to a blurring of borders bringing all those elements closer together and making it harder to put a stamp on them. This

V. Conclusion

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shouldn’t be seen as something negative. On the contrary it gives artists more options and freedom to take something from one discipline and apply it in another, mixing disciplines and styles. It would be a pity to just stick to one form of illustration, because the world of illustration today is so diverse. The same goes for sticking to one particular discipline. Instead, mixing styles and disciplines can only broaden an artist’s options. I might be a beginning illustrator as I didn’t have any former illustration education, and my master project might only be a start, but I have been drawing for many years and I already have developed my own drawing style. I just need to evolve and find my place in this large and diverse world. This thesis has broaden my knowledge in this field, has given a background for my project and has shown me that there are many options to explore, and that I shouldn’t limit myself to one particular aspect of today’s illustration.

Bibliography

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Books Primary Bibliography Bou, Louis. 2009. Street Art. Barcelona: Maomao Publications. Heller, Steven & Arisman, Marshall. 2008. Marketing illustration: new venues, new styles, new methods. New York: Allworth Press. Klein, Naomi. 2000. No logo: 10th Anniversary Edition with a New Introduction by the Author. London: Fourth Estate.

Secondary bibliography Klanten, Robert. 2009. Illusive 3: contemporary illustration part 3. Berlin, Germany: Die Gestalten Verlag. Klanten, Robert. 2007. Illusive 2: contemporary illustration and its context. Berlin, Germany: Die Gestalten Verlag. Klanten, Robert. 2005. Illusive: contemporary illustration and its context. Berlin, Germany: Die Gestalten Verlag. Wiedemann, Julius. 2009. Illustration now! 3. Cologne, Germany: Taschen. Wiedemann, Julius. 2007. Illustration now! Volume 2. Cologne, Germany: Taschen. Wiedemann, Julius. 2005. Illustration now! Cologne, Germany: Taschen.

Internet 123 techinfo. “What is editorial illustration?” (visited on August 2, 2010) http://123techinfo.com/index.php/2010/05/what-is-editorial-illustration/ Academic dictionaries and encyclopedias. “Culture jamming” (visited on August 8, 2010) http://en.academic.ru/dic.nsf/enwiki/110712 Adbusters. “About” (visited on August 12, 2010) https://www.adbusters.org/about/adbusters Aiga. “illustration” (visited on July 5, 2010) http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/illustration Aiga. “use of illustration” (visited on July 5, 2010) http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/use-of-illustration

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Amazon. “Illustration books” (visited on August 16, 2010) http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=illustration&x =0&y=0&ih=1_0_1_0_0_0_0_0_0_1.136_119&fsc=-1 Answers. “Byron Glaser” (visited on August 3, 2010) http://www.answers.com/topic/byron-glaser Artjammer. “jamming” (visited on August 12, 2010) http://www.artjammer.com/jamming3.html Banksy (visited on August 9, 2010) http://www.banksy.co.uk/ Blek le rat (visited on August 9, 2010) http://bleklerat.free.fr/stencil%20graffiti.html De Fish (visited on August 14, 2010) http://www.defish.be/ Guardian. “Banksy” (visited on August 9, 2010) http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2003/jul/17/art.artsfeatures Center for Communication and Civic Education. “Culture jamming” (visited on August 8, 2010) http://depts.washington.edu/ccce/polcommcampaigns/CultureJamming.htm Concept T-shirts. “Guerilla art” (visited on August 10, 2010) http://www.concepttshirts.co.uk/guerilla-art.php Gestalten (visited on July 8, 2010) http://www.gestalten.com/ Graffiti Jeugddienst. “Graffiti jam” (visited on August 5, 2010) http://www.graffiti-jeugddienst.be/default.asp?nid=134 Kask. “Cum*” (visited on August 3, 2010) http://www.kask.be/index.php?/kasklezingen/artikel/cum/ Kingston. “Lawrence Zeegen” (visited on August 14, 2010) http://www.kingston.ac.uk/pressoffice/findanexpert/profile/82/Lawrence-Zeegen/ Le Gun (visited on August 12, 2010) http://www.legun.co.uk/ Marketingvox. “Nissan, electric Moyo campaing” (visited on August 10, 2010) http://www.marketingvox.com/nissan_attempts_street_cred_with_electric_moyo_campaign-013258/ Metro Jacksonville. “Street art” (visited on July 27, 2010) http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2009-jun-what-is-street-art-why-is-it-around-jax-street-art Noob. “Antwerp Central Station Flash mob dance” (visited on August 9, 2010) http://www.noob.us/entertainment/antwerp-central-station-flash-mob-dance/comment-page-1/ Obey. “about” (visited on August 8, 2010) http://obeygiant.com/about

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Obey. “clothing” (visited on August 8, 2010) http://shop.obeyclothing.com/c-137-new-arrivals.aspx Pictoplasma (visited on July 8, 2010) www.pictoplasma.com/ Swindle Magazine. “Banksy” (visited on August 9, 2010) http://swindlemagazine.com/issue08/banksy/ Take part. “Shepard Fairey” (visited on August 10, 2010) http://www.takepart.com/news/2009/09/11/question-everything-shepard-fairey-on-his-influences-hislegal-battle-with-ap-and-being-a-sellout/ Time out. “Bansky” (visited on August 9, 2010) http://www.timeout.com/london/art/article/863/banksy Time out Sydney. “Banksy interview” (visited on August 9, 2010) http://www.timeoutsydney.com.au/arts/banksy--interview.aspx Times online. “Banksy” (visited on August 9, 2010) http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/article7041167.ece The Free dictionary. “Stencil” (visited on August 10, 2010) http://www.thefreedictionary.com/stencil Urban dictionary. “Culture jamming” (visited on August 8, 2010) http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=culture+jam Wikipedia. “Street art” (visited on July 28, 2010), “Banksy” (visited on August 9, 2010), “Shepard Fairey” (visited on August 10, 2010), “Kidrobot” (visited on August 4, 2010), “Subvertising” (visited on August 13, 2010), “Flash mob” (visited on August 9, 2010) http://en.wikipedia.org/ Word IQ. “Culture jamming” (visited on August 8, 2010) http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Culture_jamming Wordpress. “Culture jamming” (visited on August 8, 2010) http://jamming.wordpress.com/culture-jammingwhat-is-it/

Articles downloaded from the Internet Brown, Pamela, (2009) “The Failure of Culture jamming”. (visited on July 12, 2010) http://www.emission-control.net/.../the-failure-of-culture-jamming---pamela-brown.pdf Cherrier, Hélène, (2009) “Anti-consumption discourses and consumer-resistant identities”. (visited on July 12, 2010) http://www.business.auckland.ac.nz/Portals/4/Research/General/5CherrierDiscourses and consumer resistant identities.pdf Darts, David, (2004) “Visual Culture Jam: Art, Pedagogy, and Creative Resistance”. (visited on July 12, 2010) http://thedepartmentofaesthetics.org/VisCultJAM.pdf

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Dery, Marc, (1993) “Culture jamming: Hacking, Slashing and Sniping in the Empire of Signs”. (visited on July 12, 2010) http://www.rebelart.net/source/dery.pdf Droney, Damien, (2010) “The Business of ‘‘Getting Up’’: Street Art and Marketing in Los Angeles”. (visited on July 12, 2010) http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/section?content=a918957239&fulltext=713240928#references Hofland, Gideon, (2003) “Street art/ Een boodschap op een sticker”. (visited on July 27, 2010) http://aciddome.com/images/Street-Art.pdf Lasn, Kalle, (1999) “Culture Jamming”. (visited on July 20, 2010) http://morethanone.pbworks.com/f/Culture_Jamming_.pdf

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Appendix

1- Brown, Pamela. 2009. The Failure of Culture jamming. 2- Cherrier, Hélène. 2009. Anti-consumption discourses and consumer-resistant identities. 3- Darts, David. 2004. Visual Culture Jam: Art, Pedagogy, and Creative Resistance. 4- Dery, Marc. 1993. Culture jamming: Hacking, Slashing and Sniping in the Empire of Signs. 5- Droney, Damien. 2010. The Business of ‘‘Getting Up’’: Street Art and Marketing in Los Angeles. 6- Hofland, Gideon. 2003. Street art/ Een boodschap op een sticker. 7- Lasn, Kalle. 1999. Culture Jamming.

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