Brief 3- Crit

I took my ideas to the crit today and it was useful, the two ideas that I put across was the chalkboard idea and the idea about the traditional sign writing website as they don't have much of a web presents. The group I had a crit with was as unsure as me as to which idea I should go with, but what I do think I need tot do is further research into both aspects and the designs that are already out there. In the crit I got suggested some artists that I should look at and I have found them useful.

The first artist someone told me look at was a man called Steve Powers a sign writer from New York, he goes under the name of ESPO "Exterior Surface Painting Outreach".

He was most well known during the late 1990s for his conceptual pieces as well as his role as the editor and publisher of On the Go Magazine. ESPO's work often blurred the lines between illegal and legal. For example, pieces like "Greetings from ESPOLand" utilized the style of the Asbury Park Billboards and appeared to be a legitimate billboard. On January 4, 1997 ESPO began his most ambitious non-commissioned art. He painted on storefront grates in Fort Greene, Bedford-Stuyvesant, TriBeCa and the South Bronx, covering the entire grate with white or silver paint and then using black to make each grate into a letter in his name. Powers painted in daylight, wearing street clothes; he told the New York Times in 1999 that when passersby asked what he was doing he would tell them, "I'm with Exterior Surface Painting Outreach, and I'm cleaning up this gate"; the official-sounding name, and clever acronym was enough to ward most people off. Powers targeted shops that appeared to be out of business and grates that were already heavily vandalized. He described his graffiti as a public service, and by 1999 said that he had painted around 70 grates.

I loooove this work! I am so happy someone told me about him, I love his use of bright colours and bold block type. 

The second artist that I got told about was Keith Haring and his chalkboards. 

Here are a couple of photos of him doing chalkboard art in the New York subway system, he got arrested a couple of times for doing this in the early 80's, making things so controversial is what got him noticed. 

He has done the artwork for the 'change for life' campaign, his drawings have a bright colourful pop art feel to them.

some eye catching street art he has also done

I am happy with the result of todays crit, I have been given some useful artists too look into, now I am just going to research further into chalkboard and sign writing web sties to see which one I can gather the most information on and which I think I can make the best website on.