OBEY

so now my thieving hands take me to Mr Shepard fairey and his creation, the OBEY poster. In its origins it came about through what Fairey calls a "Happy Accident" in 1989. The original image called "Andre has a posse" (see below) and was circulated around Eastern America by the hip hop and skateboarder subculture.

These 2 stickers have been heavily parodied and stolen themselves since their creations, with different zeitgeists and figures. What I love about these is the meaninglessness about them. Much like my previous posts about Warhol, Its a tried and tested method that you can take pretty much any image and steal it for yourself by reproducing it to the point where it ceases to be what it already was and becomes something so much more.

But what can I do to steal this image and make it mine?

Mr.Steve Jobs and Apple. Now, I own apple products and its pretty much safe to say I enjoy owning them, but that sure as hell does not mean I trust them. In my previous post about the keep calm posters when I talked about juxtaposing 2 stolen images into one, I wanted to develop this further. To me, this personifies my interpretation on Apple and their sheer dominance they have in our lives now which has just gone strength to strength. I wanted to create a little unease, almost like a 1984 thing. We will all soon be slaves to a mr.jobs cyborg ruler so until the beachball of death appears im guna sit this one out and show you the rest of what ive done.

Just developed it further, started to look more sinister. 

also did multiples of the design to see how they look

after I was satisfied with my obey I had a go at stealing my own version of the posse posters. 

Thought this would make him badass

Now this one was a personal protest against apple really and to show ruthless they can be.

In the end, people with apple products become whores to pimp steve, I know I am.

So at the end of all this I feel now I have stolen this image enough to call it my own. In execution, I would go out and sticker these up and try and reproduce them in abundance. To any other person it may seem obscure, some may not even notice them yet they mean something to me. Ive stolen this image for my own personal gain, much like fairey did with Andre the Giant. So what would you steal in this situation? what would you want to say?

KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON

Next up is this poster that resurfaced a couple years ago.  The poster itself was commissioned by the British ministry of information during WWII, in the event of a German invasion and to stop people freaking out. As there was no invasion these crisis posters never saw the light of day until they resurfaced in a book shop in 2000. As crown copyright runs out after 50 years, they are public domain and free to steal. 

Chances are you will have probably seen this or if not a re-appropriation of it in some chic fashion but I see this poster as a great opportunity to express what your thinking. In terms of poster design it is brilliantly simple and functional, I would feel safer if the Jerry's came and these were posted up. Anyways im babbling, here are 10 that i have made for my MPP.

As you may or may not know theres a royal wedding. The expected hysteria is well in force and I see this as my own personal opportunity to ward off the invasion of keeping up appearances which mean nothing to me...except of course the free day on friday

Taking a page or two out of Adbusters and other culture jamming posters, this is my attempt at merging 2 stolen images into one poster, on the one hand you have the store front approach all nice and helpful, yet their bigger agenda is making sure they make money. These are my interpretations of a totalitarian rule by big business overlords.... evil doers!

This approach is just me having fun and making the poster appropriate. It brings back alot of memories as to when I was growing up, Just hope I dont get sued for this one

Now from the logo, to running over budget and worry about builds being on time the London olympics next year has had some stick. If the original poster was to encapsulate the British stiff upper lip, this poster I hope encapulates how much we love a good moan. Will it be as good as China? I dont know, but have some faith! 

Now I hope for my sake I never get caught up in a 'Kettle' they sound barbaric. In this poster I wanted to try and sum up the Met's general attitude to the use of kettling.

Just a simple message done in a simple way. That is all.

Now this was purely for my own amusement. As well as this and a few other faces for comparison websites I personally see these as harbingers of the apocalypse. They want us to kick and scream our TV's when the adverts are on, dont let the meerkats win!

Just from these 10 posters I have tried to show a range of different uses. By stealing this image I have made it personal to me and how I feel and think at this moment in time, much like stickers in street art. The more obscure the image the bigger the aura  and the quest to find its meaning, much like Warhols soup cans 

WARHOLS CANS

the next image I wanted to steal was Andy Warhols Campbell's soup cans.

To me, they dont mean much; its an everyday album reproduced to the point where we stop recognising it as just a soup can. In my research for my dissertation, I had found an anecdote from Warhol stating one of the reasons he did the cans was because he really liked soup. Fair does. I myself dont like the tinned soup, so what can I use to steal the idea?

I love beans.

an everyday commodity that becomes art simply by reproducing it to a point where we begin to question what it means. You may have different interpretations of the soup cans than I do but I really think Warhols notion of just doing it because "he likes soup" is a lovely way of keeping art simple.

Warhols 200 cans of soup 1962

Dodsons 200 cans of beanz, 2011

I HEART NY

so the deal with this blog is basically to steal some of the most iconic images that we are aware of and to create something new out of what already exists. As part of my MPP in uni, my aim is to re appropriate these images and give them a personal edge.

so lets begin!

The first image I have pinched is the I <3 NY logo created by Milton Glaser. Firstly, I think the logo is a testament to clean and functional design and has become as much part of New yorks DNA then say yellow taxis. But can I make it more personal to me?

So heres what its about. Hip Hop has been so influential to my upbringing, and so many of my favourite artists have come from New York, the birthplace of hip hop. I love New York because of hip hop and this is what I wanted to show with a series of these new logos.

there are 20 in all from the dmc's to slick ricks to rakim and krs, this is my reason for loving New York.

click to see a run through of the 20 artists