I’ve been interesting myself in photography lately and was checking out some other photographer’s site. photoserge.com has some great stuff the recent series on the Eiffel Tower are pretty amazing. I selected the black and white one to put in my blog.

Eiffel Tower black and white, amazing

I love the eye trail on this one. Go check out http://www.photoserge.com for more great shots.

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On my way home the other day I spotted a pretty large graffiti collection on a single wall. It’s a great mix of stencil pieces by Jeff Aerosol a White Man (paint) by Jerome Mesnager, a stencil by Pimax and a poster grafitti by Speedy Graphito.

It’s been there for quite a while so it is probably comissioned by the locals or somehow protected. It is located in the famed Latin Quarter of Paris and let me tell you that the City of Paris would have taken this down within hours if it wasn’t somehow protected.

It’s a pity that someone painted over the head of the White Man by Mesnager.

Otherwise it’s a great collection of some of Paris’ biggest and most original guys.

You can find the piece on Google street view below (with the head on the White Man) its on Rue des Feuillantines.

Canal saint martin has a great bunch on graffiti stuff most of it is of the nicer styles just like this masterpiece of “homme blanc” or white man by Jerome Mesnager.
I noticed it by chance when driving by the other day. I just had to get off my scooter and shoot it.
I blogged him earlier in a post called “Nemo stencil graffiti in Paris”.
Enjoy and as a note. This post was done entirely from my iPhone hope it looks normal. [:-]

I recently went for a short trip to Hamburg and was pleasantly surprised by the city. A friend of mine showed me around the city and brought me to Sternschanze for a classic Curry Wurst (which I greatly enjoyed) and while there I had snapped some shots of some awesome graffiti pieces I noticed and really original stuff to. 

Here are some shots I took and I could have probably spent a whole day there just finding great stencils, tiles and poster art. Not to mention the other graffiti pieces. 

The graffiti covered building was pretty cool. The whole area is pretty graffiti covered though totally hip area and actually quite safe. Lots of great cafes, bars and shops. 

Otherwise there was time neat Tile Stencils that I haven’t seen before. They are well made since there is all the time in the world to paint them properly and in some cases I wasn’t even sure if they were graffiti or not. One of from the Piratos series that I discovered in World of Stencils (thanks Maya).

The majority of the Stencils are from ALIAS who per Maya is a Berlin artist but did quite some work in Hamburg too. 

She has a bunch of great stencils from Hamburg area (and elsewhere in the world) – I advise you check out her site too.

Sorry for some of the crap photo quality.

Enjoy.

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This stencil was used by a theater company in Paris to promote their show. The theatre piece is called “Les vipères se parfument au jasmin” I have no idea what it is about and any quality. 

However the stencil piece they used is great and could have been from Banksy or Dolk. In fact maybe it is but I haven’t been able to find out. 

The perfume grenade stencil (pochoir) poster from the Paris subway.

If someone knows who did the original art please leave a comment. 

On another note, I started a thread called “Who has been blogging graffiti” on www.blogcatalog.com, see the link here: http://www.blogcatalog.com/discuss/entry/who-has-blogged-graffiti and there are some really interesting graffiti styles out there. Such as the one from Bayarts about moss graffiti. Will definitely blog that one shortly.

Nemo stencil in Paris - notice the white man climbing the wall

I spotted this stencil in Paris recently and found it quite nice. It is by an artist called Nemo, and has done quite some stencil work in Paris.

Nemo is known for selecting spaces that look bad and doing his piece there. Such as a destroyed wall etc, while not the same witty style as Bansky and Dolk he is rather artistic and almost poetic in his way. There is a lot happening in his piece. It isn’t sure if Nemo and Jerome Mesnager are the same person but the pieces are often linked. 

Jerome also did the art for an entire hotel in Paris called Hotel des Academies et des Arts, check out their site – it is a great idea for an artist to do.

Voila – am looking out for more.

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We are celebrating the 60 years of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights this year. Which is great, actually that document means more to humanity than most people realize. Probably because the general understanding of what Human Rights are is just not understood well enough. 

Well I guess you live in a place where the majority of these rights are still somewhat respected, but scratch just a bit below the surface and you’ll probably notice one violation after the next.

Now I wont get on a roll about that, rather I wanted to show a few videos that I saw on Human Rights which I think apply the concept of practical design. You may wonder how that applies to graphic design – well the design is usefull if it is aesthetic enough to be admired while delivering the message. 

For example a well designed chair isn’t just comfortable (of course it is that too) but it is pleasing to the eye and does it’s purpose. Well a book cover should not just be pleasing to the eye (it must be that) but it should also communicate to the viewer enough so he picks it up and wants to get it, because it tells him enough about the story to make him want to read it. OK I dont’ want to bore you with these details. Let’s get to the point. 

I saw this video on Human Rights by www.humanrightsactioncenter.org and I really think it is just great. The design attracted me, the way the text merges into the message, into the illustrations, into the animations etc. is just great. And the essential point is that the communication comes across. (Btw, sign their petition to include the declaration of Human Rights into all passports) 

The only problem with the video is that it needs to be redone for every language, and it only works to those that can read. 

The Youth for Human Rights group (www.youthforhumanrights.org) have an amazing series of videos which overcome that (you can download the videos from their site or watch them on YouTube they are in short series and communicate well, the design in this case is the script which is great as it is short and to the point with a minimum amount of words. 

This one is on the Right to Play – the music is particularly good. It sounds like Beck but am not sure and can’t find any reference stating it is or isn’t him. In any case – I love it. 

So in summary, DESIGN TO COMMUNICATE.

Cheers,

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On www.duncancumming.co.uk you can follow the story of how a graffiti artist in Scotland got caught and was about to spend 28 month in prison for vandalism. This brings up the eternal question, is graffiti an art or is it vandalism?

That graffiti is art is no question, the use of color, lettering and communication is exactly what art is all about. Look at some of the stencils and pieces by the biggest street artists, they actually deliver a message.

That graffiti is vandalism is an understandable point as well. I wouldn’t like to wake up one morning and find my newly renovated house covered in a graffiti piece. No matter how nice it is it may just not fit with the deco that I chose for the place.

So?

It needs to be done intelligently for everyone’s benefit. A graffiti piece can totally decorate an appropriate location. See this photo for example. It may or may not be authorized graffiti, but it fits the urban area. Try doing this on the Louvre and yes, that would be vandalism.

Graffiti wall paris (taken with mobile phone)

 The graffiti sort of “protects” the wall from being covered in all sorts of other crap. Additionally this fits the young people that hang out in the area and they don’t mind it.

If a street artist places his pieces intelligently it actually doesn’t harm but can help. Where it becomes stupid is when the Graffiti guys just do it for the adrenaline (yes I know it is part of the kick). There has to be a balance.

Graffiti Marketing for Radio Nostalgie

And if an artist did vandalise a wall, then pull him by the scruff of the neck and get him to spend his night cleaning it up and repainting it at his cost, he can take responsibility for what he did. Trying to jail someone for 28 month for graffiti is lame, that is the work of someone who is so lazy that he can’t even make him fix what he did wrong. 

I know that is the way because I went that way and the most efficient way to make a bad thing into a good thing is to take responsibility for what one has done and use the effort to become more competent and help others. I saw how many former street artists of my time became graphic designers, well that’s a great way to use the skill.

And here is a short video on how that can be done…

Feel free to comment, and vote.

[;-]

A few weeks ago I blogged about the photos from Serge of Paris and other areas. He recently redid his site and the result is quite nice, all done in WordPress (yes I did have a word to say in that).

His new site looks like this, the landing page is his blog which is great as it keeps the site alive and human.

I suggest you check it out here.

The new site of Serge on www.photoserge.com

One of the shots is an amazing black and white shot of the Musee d’Orsay in Paris. The sky is pretty nice and the museum too, but the most amazing in this shot is the sharpness and light effects on the rhinoceros. It is not just the contrast of the photo but the contrast of a rhino overlooking Paris.

www.photoserge.com - another amazing shot of Paris

click on the link on the site or here: http://www.photoserge.com sit back and enjoy.

[;-]

As I mentioned in my last post, in walking around in the 10th district in Paris and looking at some of the graffiti culture they have I saw this pasted graffiti. It’s not stencil, it’s not spray – it’s a poster.

It’s by a Paris based street artist called Ludo, and is part of a series called Nature’s Revenge – I had never heard of him before but noticed afterwards that he was done quite some work in Paris.

Check out this link http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/18/view/3573/natures-revenge-by-ludo.html

It’s pretty cool and a different way, pretty environmentally friendly.

What about bio-graffiti?

Enjoy…

PS: I was offered a room at a pretty neat hotel in the 10th called Taylor Hotel, it’s a sort of design hotel, the reception area is all decorated with images of posters from early 20th century. Almost stencils… [;-]