How Graffiti Influenced My Understanding of Typography: Part 2
Click here to read Part 1.
This Style of Typographic Folk Art Should Get More Respect
The Power of Stories
Storytelling exists in every culture, whether oral or written. But typically, myth making rested in the hands of a few who had the power to spread their messages, shape culture and influence minds. However, gifted orators, activists and writers have, at times throughout history, challenged the powerful with their stories. As technology has advanced and countries have become more democratic, ordinary citizens now have the power to amplify their own stories. Social media is a testament to this…but so is graffiti art. A consumer culture like the U.S. has allowed the perfect storm of images and messaging to combine and create powerful myths. Stories like Star Wars and advertising from Apple tap into our desires.
For example, the idea of American Exceptionalism was rooted in the founding of this country, the exploitation of other ethnic/cultural groups (which is routinely ignored) and the wealth that flowed as a result. One can hear it in the National Anthem, the stories we tell about our colonial America heroes, our valiance in two World Wars and the culture of innovation and entrepreneurship that has given the U.S. global hegemony. In the midst of this, Christianity was used as the primary moral anchor of these myths. But today as the U.S. secularizes, these powerful narratives are increasingly being questioned. Today, there seems to be no real consensus on a new American consciousness. This has left a vacuum that Madison Ave (advertising) is filling amplifying stories for influential brands.
Big brands have poured a great deal of money into audience and market research to help create a consumer culture in the U.S. This research divides people along demographic lines. Psychographic archetypes are created that represent each group. Unfortunately, how this research is used is very important because stereotypes have been birthed from it. For example, seeing graffiti in a neighborhood is considered a sign of decline. Real estate professionals may develop a marketing message that says this community has declined but is poised to bounce back. This encourages the middle class, especially white professionals, to put down roots in exchange for cheap housing. However, a cafe is marketed as a sign of neighborhood improvement. I am not going to make a moral case for all of graffiti. Some of it, especially tagging, can make a community less attractive and impact property values. However, I have seen graffiti used as a public good in the U.S. and abroad. But the truth is, the creative capital in these communities targeted for gentrification is summarily ignored.
When she was a graduate student, architect Lindsay Bates wrote in her masters thesis that critics ignored the cultural context of graffiti art. She argues that graf artists engage in creative placemaking which focuses on beautifying the public space within a community. But since people of color have less social, economic and political capital to amplify their stories, it is difficult to push back against negative portrayals and rapid changes in their communities. Therefore, their culture is often intentionally misinterpreted, not interpreted properly, appropriated or dismissed.
For graf artists, exposure of their work and message is the desired outcome. Viewing graf pieces in the same place everyday impacts long term memory…just like a billboard.
Unfortunately, Philly and New York City have been successful in marginalizing graffiti subculture. Philly started a program in the 1980s called the Anti-Graffiti Network designed to help graffiti artists become legitimate artists. But over 30 years, it simply became a clean-up crew. The Mural Arts Program, a haven for established visual artists, is responsible for the beautiful murals around Philly. I have mixed feelings about this because the culture and context of graffiti art has been diminished. Although graffiti art has received some attention form the ‘high art’ establishments because of Basquiat and Haring, I prized it as art from the streets. When the art world tires of it, I will still be here looking for it.
(Newly Added!) Toward a Black Aesthetic
The function of art in society and culture has changed over time. We also need to be honest and admit that how we understand art can change depending on who we are. For example, The Grammy’s finally created a rap category even though as a genre, it has been around since the mid 1970s. Will Smith “The Fresh Prince’ won a Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance in 1989. It did not help that the song, ‘Parents Just Don’t Understand’ was goofy and cartoonish. In spite of this, Will Smith along with other rap artists boycotted the Grammys because the award presentation was not televised. What mainstream America did not know is that Hip Hop culture birthed two strands of wordplay, rap and hiphop. Will Smith’s song would be called rap and was considered a sanitized version of hiphop. HipHop wordplay was more culturally specific and complex. What many also did not know is that 1985-1992 was considered the Golden Age of HipHop.
What is my point?
Even though there were burgeoning hiphop acts (Salt N Pepa, Public Enemy, LL Cool J, Slick Rick, Rakim, KRS One, etc.) bringing diverse styles to the radio and shows, mainstream America did not know that they existed. I feel fortunate since I grew up in Philly which was in close proximity to where most rap artists came from at that time: New York City.
The term ‘Black Aesthetic’ is generally associated with the 1960’s Black Protest Movements that spawned various artistic coalitions and collectives. One signature ethos that many of them espoused was to give dignity to Black people through visual art, tell our stories and expose the hypocrisy of American democracy. The Black Lives Matter Movement has picked up on this by infusing creative visual arts and performing arts expressions into their culture of protest. This has taken different forms around the country from college students branding themselves with protest slogans on tees to line dancing at protest events.
My thoughts on a Black Aesthetic comes from my experience growing up in a poor and working class Black community in Philadelphia. It has also been influenced by my time traveling through Ethiopia, Uganda and Kenya. Living art is very important to people of African descent. Specifically for me, I attribute this to African American culture in Philadelphia where emphasis was placed more on recognizing lived experiences through art, song and dance.
In the newly published book, The Black Experience in Design, reading one of the interviews provides more context to my idea. Kelly Walters is an assistant professor of communication design at Parsons School of Design. She is founder of Bright Polka Dot, an interdisciplinary design practice. Her research investigates how socio-political frameworks and shifting technology influence the sounds, symbols and styles of black cultural vernacular in mainstream media. She interviewed Nontsikelelo Mutiti, A Zimbabwean visual artist and educator. She is invested in elevating the work and practices of Black peoples past, present, and future through a conceptual approach to design, publishing, archiving practices, and institution building. Mutiti holds a diploma in multimedia from the Zimbabwe Institute of Vigital Arts (ZIVA) and an MFA from the Yale School of Art, with a concentration in graphic design.
In the interview, Kelly asked Ms. Mutiti this question on page 461: In your practice as you navigate between worlds (art and design), how do you navigate between where your work might be living, given the audience and given the type of object that it might be?
Ms. Mutiti gives a thoughtful multifaceted response but this here is what stood out to me: I want my work to be accessible in terms of cost, you know? I want it to be accessible to my cousin, my niece, my friend that I’d met in the bar the night before. I want the work to be able to transfer and translate through all slices of society. I don’t want the work to feel too precious, but it must feel special because the content is important. It has so much to do with our lives.
What I hear in Ms. Mutiti’s statement is she wants her work to be accessible and become part of everyday life. This is what I call living art. The hard truth about globalization is that what we see as ‘living’ around us daily is usually someone’s else idea of who we are coming in the form of advertising. I consider myself an artist in how I think but I consider myself a designer in terms of how I move in society. It’s a weird and paradoxical space to occupy. So, I attempt to pull these two disparate sides of me together. I do this by WHERE I choose to live and WHO I choose to work with as a designer. I choose to live in a diverse working class community where religiosity and culture are abundant and people band together out of security. I CHOOSE to work with mostly nonprofit and social enterprise clients who care about the social fabric of society and how it affects poor and working class people of color. So, I helped brand the Philadelphia Accelerator Fund, a nonprofit loan fund created in 2019 to invest in affordable housing and equitable neighborhoods for Philadelphia and increase access to capital to Black and Brown developers. I also designed a brand identity for a summer camp targeting youth of color to expose them to the building trades, architecture and design.
Is my work living?
What I do know is that I am assisting with helping poor people of color get opportunities and access using art and design. This aspect of directly affecting people is praised in the art world but generally looked down upon in the branding/design world because of one word: capitalism. However, if we are honest, making money exists in both worlds. It just exists more on the front end in one world (branding/design). and on the back end in the other world (art). Either way, money is being spent and I can attest that because I chose to hover in the nonprofit and social enterprise world, I don’t see a lot of it.
In the end, my contribution is making sure that necessary products and services are marketed correctly to people who look like me. This was always a virtue in the community I grew up in. We always helped each other out and looked out for each other. It is these virtues that often hold poor and working class communities together. What is a shame is that our hyper individualized focus on the self in academia, corporate and entertainment worlds does not highlight it as much. It is this process oriented mentality that I see in my Black Aesthetic birthed from the past and present communities that nurtured my creativity. This goes beyond capitalism….and is slowly disappearing from American culture.
In conclusion, this is a reminder to designers of color to grow in our understanding of what we bring to the table. Specifically, African Americans have developed a culture that has its own standards of creativity and artistic expression. Whether as a student or professional, don’t be afraid to study your culture because guess what? Others are doing it without you. But don’t fall into the trap of elevating your culture into a static unchanging expression, either. Cultures are always in flux for a variety of reasons. Some of the best work comes from this kind of open inquiry and adaptability. I still see graffiti art’s influence in my sketches, tshirt ideas, type experiments, graphic explorations and cartoon drawings (below). This has made me a better educator, designer, researcher and visual culture observer. I am in a better position to know how to communicate to various audiences, especially urban and multicultural, and my design work reflects this sensibility. Whether the graphic design industry respects graffiti art or not, it influenced my understanding of typography and I am proud of that.
What do you think?