Shepard Fairey and "Andre the Giant Has a Posse"

                Frank Shepard Fairey, a well known graphic designer, created the OBEY campaign.  The main image of this campaign is a simplified image of Andre the Giant’s face. This basic graphic appeared from Fairey’s initial design “Andre the Giant Has a Posse”, which has more text, is more detailed, and originated in 1989. During this time, Shepard Fairey was attending the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in Providence, RI.  That summer, Fairey offered to help a friend with stenciling. After finding an advertisement for wrestling with Andre the Giant, Fairey suggested to his fellow student that he should stencil the large man. When the friend rejected Fairey’s idea, Fairey decided to attempt it himself. What resulted was an “experiment in phenomenology”, according to Fairey. He, along with friends Ryan Lesser, Blaize Blouin, Alfred Hawkins, and Mike Mongo, had put the image on vinyl or paper stickers and posted them around town. The stickers that poked fun at the word posse (inspired by the group who created the image) and hip hop subculture was almost instantly a success. But in 1994, Fairey was threatened with a law suit by Titan Sports, Inc. for using the title “Andre the Giant”, which was trademarked by them.  Because of this law suit, Fairey changed the image somewhat, removing all text and then added the slogan “OBEY” which came from a film entitled “They Live”.  The OBEY campaign was ironically against authority and the sheep-like following of consumers, and has been a highly regarded example of clever, conceptual graphic design.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shepard_Fairey

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A9_the_Giant_Has_a_Posse

Helvetica

Helvetica is a sans-serif font that is extremely well known and widely used in today’s society. It gives off a non-threatening feel, and many major corporations use Helvetica for this reason.  Helvetica was created in Münchenstein, Switzerland. In 1957, Max Miedinger along with Eduard Hoffmann of Haas'sche Schriftgiesserei set out to design a new version of font for Switzerland that could contend with Akzidenz-Grotesk, a recognizable Swiss font. Helvetica was called Neue Haas Grotesk but renamed when Linotype took ownership of the font. Helvetica was produced to be clear, simple, and used in many different ways for numerous things.  Helvetica is used for American Airlines, BMW, Jeep, JCPenny, Microsoft, Target, Toyota, Motorola, Panasonic, Verizon Wireless and Apple has used it for the iPod. Even the government uses it, for example NASA has used Helvetica. Canada’s federal government uses Helvetica as its official font and encourages its use in national websites and such. There are also numerous types of font that have come from Helvetica, including Helvetica Light, Helvetica Compressed, Helvetica Textbook, Helvetica Inserat, Helvetica Rounded, Helvetica Narrow, Neue Helvetica (created in 1983), Neue Helvetica WIG (created in 2009), and Helvetica World. Some comparable fonts that derived from Helvetica are Monotype Imaging, Paratype, Bitstream, and URW. Helvetica has been changed to fit many languages, such as Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Japanese, Korean, Hindi, and Vietnamese. Everywhere you go Helvetica can be seen, whether on billboards or street signs. Helvetica has an incredible range of uses, and therefore is used around the world.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helvetica

Merchants of Cool

After viewing Merchants of Cool, I realized how much teenagers affect the culture, economy, and society of today’s world. One of the more important factors of the consumption of teenagers today is their apparel. Why do they wear certain styles or brands? How does having or not having the trendy, clothing help or hinder a teenager’s self-confidence? It is commonly known, in all age categories, that clothing can be a status symbol. However, teens can be almost obsessive about this. From the need to be accepted comes the inevitable question, for with the answer is always changing: what kind of clothing do teenagers need to “fit in”? Due to teenagers’ uncertainty, they collect tangible possessions to fill voids.  And because of the same uncertainty, teens are always searching for new fads and trends, which adapt and change constantly. Teens see clothing as symbolic. These cotton representations say, “This is me. This is how I want you to see me”.  Seeking the right style can be difficult for them, because they are always changing their minds on what they like while still trying to conform to their peers’ views. Companies are continuously attempting to create bring out the “new thing”, the focus being on the teens. Since teens are the majority group of spenders, these same companies know they can appeal to the teens and affect the way they view cool.  Therefore, teenagers have a huge impact on what is produced in today’s society whilst affecting the economy by how much they spend, because clothes are important to them.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/cb.138/pdf