Art, Messages, and Signs for our Times: Shepard’s Obama Poster Campaign

Our good friends Shepard and Amanda Fairey and their posse told us about their commitment to the Obama campaign this time last year when we visited them in their hometown in Los Feliz, California. Back then, Fairey’s iconic poster was just gaining attention from the underground swell of Obama supporters as it made its way to the mainstream. The “hope” message resonated and Shepard was chosen to create the official inaugural art. It’s no wonder — Shepard nailed the poster — a beautiful blend of reds, and blues, and grey shades offsetting the original photo, a message with a medium, thematically aligned with Shepard’s longtime approach to image modification in the name of art.

Shepard produced thousands of these posters and licensed the rights to Time and Esquire magazines. It’s a bit troubling to see the crude ripoff versions that CNN cameras continue to capture parading around the big lawn. Hello Intellectual Property! Oh well, that’s a sincere form of flattery — and in a recession, every hustler has an approach to creative capitalism.

Here’s a look back at the trajectory of a movement that’s grown over the past year: Coolhunting.
One of three original works created for the now-iconic poster that Shepard Fairey created in support of Obama is a mixed media stencil collage on a 4 x 6 foot cotton rag paper. Fairey donated this piece to Russell Simmons’s Art for Life Auction, with proceeds going toward a different good cause, the Rush Philanthropic Art Foundation. The foundation is dedicated to creating programs for children in arts education, sponsorship and mentorship.

The posters and the original are good propaganda for a good cause, all in the name of hope.

And Shepard’s explanation of the poster and subsequent inaugural art Colbert Report via Hypebeast:

(Source: Coolhunting)

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Tagged as: Barack Obama, Barack Obama presidential campaign 2008, Colbert Report, Esquire, Shepard Fairey