Rosalind - Toscani

Olivero Toscani and United Colours of Benetton’s campaign used societies concerns whether environmental, ethical or racial in a confronting and sensationalistic manner. With memorable images Toscani managed to appeal to society, particularly the white-collar work force as they could afford the high street fashion.

Benetton was not just an ordinary knitwear company it had developed a pulse it was alive with ideals, ethics and standards, which appealed to the public. When you wore a Benetton item you where then making a statement and identifying with these ethics and ideals.

These ads were at times extremely controversial and could cause public outrage, which would always compel everyone to take notice of what the giant knitwear company was up to now.

It has been said that some of Toscani’s campaigns have a religious zeal and art- historical references. The dying aids victim resembling a classic lamentation, the father a mourning disciple and the two women as Mother Mary and Mary Magdalen.

Life and death, beginning and end, this is not just advertising it is symbolism of topical images, exploring moral problems in everyday existence.

Toscani was very clever, it was never just about fashion and what we wore, it was about the world and being aware of its problems whether good or bad. Although at times he may have gone a little to far - Olivero Toscani “I am not here to sell pullovers, but to promote an image.”

Bibliography

http://photographic-rhetoric.blogspot.com/2007_10_01_archive.html
http://dir.salon.com/story/people/feature/2002/01/09/colors/
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/susie_orbach/2007/09/size_matters_1.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2002/may/27/mondaymediasection4
http://www.creativereview.co.uk/crblog/?s=professed
http://mailman1.u.washington.edu/pipermail/amp-l/2000-October/005408.html

JADE:benetton

Benetton is present in 120 countries around the world with a strong italian character.
The Group has a total yearly production of about 160 million garments and a distribution network of more than 5,500 contemporary stores, mainly managed by independent partners, generating a total turnover of over 2 billion euro.

The advertising philosophy of United Colors of Benetton is based on Luciano Benetton's belief that 'communication should not be commissioned from outside the company, but conceived from within its heart.'

As a fashion label for the young, Benetton has understood that putting resources into the building and promotion of its brand name was a sound strategic investment. The “united” colors of its sweaters soon became a metaphor for the united skin tones of the youth from many different countries for whom the sweaters were designed. The United Colors concept spread from encompassing the different races to the ideas of tolerance, peace and respect for diversity.

Benetton made its most incisive technical move in the early 60s, when it developed a procedure for the dyeing of finished garments rather than unwoven fibers. With this technique the company could react much more quickly to fashion trends, in a market where responsiveness is the key. The manipulation of colors therefore became one of the hallmarks of Benetton’s identity and industrial culture.

The Benetton Group has been involved in a series of cultural, social, artistic and sporting activities. Some of these, such as the Benetton Foundation, which focuses on issues relating to the preservation and promotion of the local culture and landscape heritage, reflect the strong links, which the Group has traditionally maintained with its territorial roots.

Benetton Group has never used RFID technology nor have microchips (smart labels) ever been present in the 140 million-plus garments produced and sold throughout the world under its brand names, including Sisley.

http://www.benetton.com/html/index.shtml
http://press.benettongroup.com/ben_en/about/campaigns/history
http://www.berk-edu.com/RESEARCH/oliveriToscani/index.html

ART or VANDALISM?

Jamie Graffiti: ART or VANDALISM?

Graffiti began to emerge in the late 196’s to 70’s

, beginning to be thrown up on the walls around New York City. Each artwork displays a message to the greater community, whether it is about influences of the time or a form of artistic expression. Many laws have been introduced to prevent the art form being displayed in our streets. In recent times, in Australia, new tougher laws have been introduced, these being fines up to $26 000 dollars in fines and up to 2 years in prison also up to $550 dollar spot fines for carrying a spray can.

Graffiti has many different styles, those being tags, stenciling, and wall art, each of these styles having their own attributes. Tags are seen as a bold

 statement to display ones name as an almost signature fashion, stenciling is very popular when it comes to quickly displaying a fine piece of art to convey a message, while very fine wall art displays the skills of the artist. A prominent artist, who has made a name for himself through his graffiti and fine art, this being Mike Giant. He has become a very prominent artist in all of his art styles, though his graffiti really shows his talents. 

The idea of graffiti being either being art or vandalism comes to the individual. Some love it while others try to ban it. It seems that it has been this way since its beginning in the experimental time of the lat 60’s. see it as art or not, there is always those out their to push the boundaries of what art is, whether legal or not.

Bibliography:

http://www.aic.gov.au/conferences/2003-graffiti/

http://www.mikegiant.com/bio.php

http://www.mikegiant.com/graffiti.php

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

http://www.graffiti.org/

Abby - Graffiti

Graffiti – Scratch it and it spreads

Graffiti is the art or it can be words that are painted, stencilled glued or sprayed in public places. It is usually colourful. It is often on outside walls or shopfronts. It can also be put on trucks and trains. It is often done in a hurry as it is against the law and police might come.
Graffiti is often art. The drawings are a type of art. Some graffiti looks messy and takes a lot of effort to clean off public places so a few special areas should be allowed for graffiti artists to promote their work (below shows a laneway in Melbourne which is famous for graffiti as art). They could also have their own billboards.

Gang crime member, Mario Condello, had his face as graffiti in Hosier Lane as social comment.

Graffiti also comments on social situations such as making anti-war statements. Below a billboard showing the then Prime Minister is being defaced as political comment.

Below are the tags of KAB101. Tags show the artist’s name. KAB101’s tags usually have strong colours and are bright signifying that it is an important word. (Some are in black showing a gothic influence). The fonts Kab uses are varied showing the ability to write in different styles. The tags are spray painted.
The bottom tag contains more drawings with the death skeleton dominating the graphic in the foreground perhaps watching the people passing. The bright coloured font contrasts with the dark scary death and bats.


I think graffiti is used for art and artistic purposes. It comments on social issues and is usually found in the streets.

Bibliography:

www.melbournegraffiti.com/

http://www.graffiti.org/kab101/index.html

http://www.theage.com.au/news/tv-reviews/rash/2006/04/21/1145344264233.html

http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/the-gangster-the-politician-and-the-drug-deal/
2006/02/11/1139542445582.html

http://studenttravel.about.com/od/melbournephotos/ig/Melbourne-Street-Photos/
Melbourne-Street-Art-Graffiti-.htm

ROGAN : GRAFFITI HANDSTYLES

Graffiti burst onto the streets of New York in the late sixties and early seventies not long before it was taken to the subway system.  It began with kids writing their nicknames and the neighbourhoods they were from across the city, everywhere they could ‘get up’.  Taki 183 was the first known graffiti writer in NYC, his ‘tags’ or ‘handstyles’ as writers refer to them became widely known throughout the city and have been recognized for introducing graffiti the world.

Graffiti evolved from these tags to throwups with more dimensions and colors and from there graffiti pieces were created on the streets and subway cars.  These pieces carried with them characters and imagery and the letters were manipulated to give them a certain flow.  However, without handstyles none of the elaborate graffiti you see today would exist.

Handstyles are the building blocks of graffiti, without a good handstyle a writer will never be considered a good writer or ‘burner’ by his or her peers. Tag styles have evolved all over world with certain regions being renowned for their specific styles.  The ‘Cholo’ style that originated in California, was introduced by Mexican gangs and is still replicated to this day.  Below are many examples of the ‘Cholo’ tag style as demonstrated by world-renowned artist ‘Mike Giant’ whose graffiti and tattooing skills have translated across into hugely popular fine art.

Tags are bold and very effective when done properly, a good handstyle is just as effective and holds as much artistic merit to me as an elaborate piece with 50 colors.  Tags are simple you only get one chance to get it right, they are done under pressure and must be placed well and done with a degree of respect.

Like with any art there is the good, the bad and the ugly.  A bad handstyle is not easy on the eye and generally is looked poorly upon by the general pubic.  The same goes for a poorly placed tag, it is not appropriate to tag certain things and often young or people who have no knowledge of writing graffiti or have just found a spray can defile private property and  this does not portray graffiti in a respectable light.  That being said the public is still unbelievably ignorant to the art of handstyles to which graffiti art on a whole owes everything.

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

http://www.12ozprophet.com/forum/showthread.php?t=98953&page=69

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TAKI_183

http://www.at149st.com/taki.html

http://www.zephyrgraffiti.com/otherwrt/taki183.html

http://www.artcrimes.com

http://4hiphopelements.tripod.com/graffiti.html

http://www.graffiticreator.com

http://www.thecityslums.com/zhandstyles.html

http://handstyles.wordpress.com/

http://yaknowuwantit.freeservers.com/photo3.html

LEE: Graffiti, good or bad? the eternal struggle for artistic street justice.

Graffiti, while officially considered illegal, can be put into two different categories. Some people think of it as an expressive form of art, it art and others think of it as vandalism.

Both of these sides have differing views on graffiti. For example the section of people that believe that graffiti is a form of vandalism often only look at the downside of graffiti, which is mainly the cost of removing the graffiti and use this for a focal point of why graffiti is bad, which when you think about it, is kind of contradictory as if it was not removed, no money would be spent removing it, thus making it ok in the eyes of a lot of nay-sayers who dislike it entirely because of the large chuck of cash it takes out of our pockets to remove it.

With the huge bad rep graffiti gets on TV in the news etc, there are still a lot of people out there who think graffiti is another art form, places like Melbourne and Brisbane are ripe with street art subculture.

There are several types of graffiti, these are Stencils, paste-ups, tagging, throw-ups and pieces. It is mostly tagging and throw-ups that get graffiti such a bad name because it is most associated with gangs and violent behaviour, where as paste-ups and stencils have slowly become accepted more as an expressive art form rather that vandalism but is of course still illegal.

Graffiti artists are accused of wanting “fame and power, or graffiting just to be rebellious.

This is partly true but in reality the artist wants fame for their graffiti name, not themselves, they don’t want the attention to come back to their normal lives. Rather show off their artistic expertise to other street art enthusiasts through their alias under which they sign their works.

The ‘war” between wether graffiti is good or bad will continue for a long time yet before any outcome is reached, if one ever is. But it is more likely that graffiti will continue to be looked down upon by the general public for a long time to come.

Sources:

http://www.graffitihurts.org/learn_more/facts.cfm

www.graffiti.org

Google image search "paste ups" and "stencils"

Mostly from my own brain.

 

Kurt - Graffiti-

I Lived in Europe from 2001 to 2007 and in that time have been fortunate to travel to many great and beautiful countries like Ireland,England,Sweden,Denmark,Germany,Austria,Switzerland,Croatia,Greece,Italy,France,Spain,Portugal,Czech republic and several others. One of the most amazing and graphic memories that i have from all of these places would have to be the street art and graffiti.
As i am a big fan of Hip Hop music and culture I was regularly at Concerts and Hip Hop Jams, where not only music and dance was involved but also Graffiti and Art.
In countries like Germany and Austria these jams are so frequent and popular they attract thousands of people of all ages at a time, and the best part of it all was the area set up for the artists. I also found that in most of these countries there were so many legal walls and places for graffiti artists to paint that there really was not that much illegal tagging and spraying going on, of course around the city centers and train stations there where heaps of paste ups and stickers but most of it was really intelligent graphic work that was pleasing to the eye, so it really seamed like society was accepting this culture and all that it stands for a great deal more.
There are a number of graffiti artist in the world for example Loomit from Germany or Fafi from France who do graffiti for a living they get payed for it and are successful artists, this itself says it all.








Links
http://www.loomit.de/
http://www.graffiti.org/index.html
http://www.stare.at/graffiti/
http://www.fafi.net/accueil.html
http://www.bombingscience.com/