The reference photo for Shepard Fairey’s Obama poster has been identified and the Associated Press claims it wants to get paid. The photo was shot in 2006 by photographer Mannie Garcia. Shepard preemptively filed a lawsuit attempting to protect himself from copyright infringement claims. While we’re no legal experts and we’re sympathetic to the photographer’s work, we think Shepard’s got this one. A catalyst for the legal feud may have been the acquisition of a related work by the National Portrait Gallery in Washington. It was purchased for an undisclosed amount of money.
This is not Shepard Fairey’s first encounter with the legal system. He has been arrested many times (most recently last Friday in Boston). By our estimation, he’s been arrested about fifteen times.
Photographer Mannie Garcia was very gracious. “I don’t condone people taking things, just because they can, off the Internet,†Mr. Garcia said. “But in this case I think it’s a very unique situation. If you put all the legal stuff away, I’m so proud of the photograph and that Fairey did what he did artistically with it, and the effect it’s had.â€
When we think of design for politics we usually think of cheap hastily thrown together materials that lack any sort of real design aesthetic. But over the course of the last election we kept noticing that the Obama campaign had obviously enlisted the help of some top shelf design talent. We checked out this interview with Sol Sender who designed the iconic “O” logo for the Obama campaign (by none other than Steven Heller) and it is definitely worth a read.
Congratulations to Barack Obama on becoming the 44th president of the United States of America. Here’s a special remix by Z-Trip cutting together our next Commander-In-Cheif’s message with a wall pasting by Shepard Fairey outside of Fresh Pressed here in Los Angeles.
MoveOn.org is giving away FREE Obama buttons and all you’ve got to do is wear it. No cost, no nothing! Absolutely free! The buttons are high-quality, union-made in America, measuring to 1.25 inches in diameter. Get yours here.
It’s that time again, we have more free stuff to give away. Each month we ask our readers to tell us a little bit about themselves and in return for some freebies. This month we’ve got our hands on the “Hope” editions for Barack Obama by Shepard Fairey and The Mac. We have one of each print to give away. For a chance to win complete the survey by Clicking Here.
Check out this hot, new, Limited Edition print courtesy of the fabulous Scott Hansen. “I see Barack Obama as a leader who can inspire people to effect change and who himself can effect change. As an artist, it was only natural for me to want to create something that visually echoed these sentiments. I wanted to create an image that evoked the ideals I feel are central to our needs at this critical time in history: change, progress and hope. Because Barack Obama represents all three of these things to me, I felt compelled to express that through my work.” Hansen expressed. Hansen is the second artist to be asked to donate his talent to the Artists for Obama Gallery. The first was Shepard Fairey, you can check out that piece here.
You can purchase this print at the Official Site for Barack Obama for $70, and all proceeds go to the Barack Obama Campaign.
These Nike Air Force Ones were created after Obama’s landslide success on Super Tuesday. The imagery and color scheme are based on the campaign currently being promoted, and can be seen being used to a great extent here. I am not only impressed by the detail and clarity of the design, but also how it captures the essence of Obama’s campaign. The designer who’s named Van painted these out of support and you can clearly see the inspiration that the senator has had on him. I asked Van what made him paint these and this is what he said:
“To be honest man, I just woke up in the middle of the night around 2am and I had to paint what I saw in my dream. During that time I was going through a starving artist period, so things werent looking too good financially. But God made a way..”
These shoes probably won’t make people run to the polls, but you can clearly recognize the rising popularity of his campaign. Take a look at more of Van’s work here and look at our previous coverage of the ongoing campaign here.
Those of you out and about in Hollywood have probably seen graphic illustrated posters here and there promoting Barack Obama. Shepard Fairey has released the poster series through his company, Obey Giant. Proceeds from this print go to produce prints for a large statewide poster campaign.
The posters measure 24 inches X 36 inches, and were originally released in an edition of 350. At only $45 a poster from the Obey store, they sold out instantly. A similar short run seems to be in the works.
When we think of design for politics we usually think of cheap hastily thrown together materials that lack any sort of real design aesthetic. But over the course of the last election we kept noticing that the Obama campaign had obviously enlisted the help of some top shelf design talent. We checked out 
Those of you out and about in Hollywood have probably seen graphic illustrated posters here and there promoting Barack Obama. Shepard Fairey has released the poster series through his company, 
