Virtual Typography

father of modern graffiti, began his career in graffiti by

writing ‘Cornbread loves Cynthia’ all over his school.

He then expanded by ‘bombing’ the city with his tag:

‘Cornbread’, written with a distinctive crown drawn

over the B.

In the early 1970s, graffiti moved to New York and

writers such as TAKI 183 began to add their street

number to their nickname and cover subway trains

with their work. Tags began to take on a calligraphic

appearance in order to stand out. They also began to

grow in size and include thick outlines. Bubble lettering

was popular initially before ‘wildstyle’ – a complicated

creation of interlocking letters using lots of arrows and

connections – came to define the art of graffiti.

The use of graffiti as a portrayal of rebellious urban style

led it into the mainstream. In 2001, Stephen Sprouse,

in collaboration with Marc Jacobs, designed a limited-

edition line of Louis Vuitton bags that featured graffiti

scrawled over the company’s monogram pattern.

In 2008, Dell announced that in collaboration with

Brooklyn-based artist Mike Ming, it would produce

laptops with cover artwork described as ‘a fluid,

graffiti-inspired tattoo effect that lets style pioneers add

another level of individuality to everyday life’.

Despite its rise to a recognised talent, graffiti is illegal

when it is applied to property. In most countries,

defacing property without permission is considered

vandalism, which is punishable by law. If caught, graffiti

writers can face strict penalties, including large fines

and imprisonment. As vandalism, some argue that

graffiti leads to increased crime and urban decay. It

has also been accused of decreasing property value

and contributing to business decline in some areas.

Governments are spending vast sums of public money

to remove graffiti. A 1995 study by the National Graffiti

Information Network estimated that the cost of graffiti

clean-up in the US was approximately US$8 billion

annually.

If it is illegal, is it also always

unethical to graffi ti on

someone else’s property?

Are companies exploiting

graffi ti if they use it to sell

commercial goods?

Would you be prepared to be

imprisoned to communicate

a message?

182—183

PMS 456

Job:01212 Title: Basics typography (AVA)

2nd Proof Page:183

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