Calligraffiti

Ahah.. yes, I’m known by some, but a total unknown to many others. I was born in 1967 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. My father was a film maker and my mother a law teacher (later: unemployed and judge). Growing up in Amsterdam in the 80’s was really great. Freedom ruled and culturally there was the unlikely combination of British anarchy and American consumerism. Since then I have applied my visual talent in various ways (graphic design, advertising, web design, calligraphy) Recently I felt I learned enough over the years to call myself an artist and named my art-form Calligraffiti.

In the last weeks, you published your book Calligraffiti, which shows a mixture of graphic designs and tags you did under that label. How and when did you start writing your tags on walls? Are you still active on the streets?

Graffiti was the first way that I expressed myself. Well, after Play-Doh and Lego. The streets were my first medium. But it was something many kids at school were doing. Later, when we realized that they were doing it on trains in New York it really became a ‘world’. In the following years I became part of other ‘worlds’ like graphic design and later, advertising. Now I’m focussing on the art world, even though I don’t really belong to any of those scenes. Whenever I start focussing on another ‘world’ I try not to look back too much. So for me there is really no point in starting again with bombing the streets and getting up. I can never get to the level I reached at the height of my graffiti days in the eighties, so there’s really no point. Sure, I go out tagging sometimes, but it’s usually when I’m drunk or high.

From your book I’ve learned that Calligraffiti, a combination of calligraphy and graffiti, is a real new art form. Please tell me about its characteristics and the ideas behind it. Could you explain the difference to ‘normal’ tags? Are there any famous examples of artists, except from you, who create calligraffities?

The term Calligraffiti isn’t new. If you google it you’ll find some interesting results besides my art. And yes, there are of course many other artists that are influenced by calligraphy and graffiti. Eric Haze, Jose Parla, Retna, The Boghe, to name a few. Even before I made a name for myself as a graffiti writer I was interested in all forms of typography and calligraphy. Maybe this quote from the book Spraycan Art by long-time friend Bando explains it well: “The first day someone invented a letter. And the first day someone made an effort to make a letter look good. That’s when it started. I mean, that’s what it’s all about.”

For me it’s hard to comprehend how you develop new handwriting styles. Where do you take your ideas from and do you have any calligraphy idols?

I have a few handwriting styles. And variations on them. And then there are the letters that are drawn, not written. They are usually based on handwriting styles but are designed as outlines. All in all there are so many styles that I use, but if you mean the one that I use mostly in my art since 2007, I can tell you that it is in constant flux. Whenever I see an old postcard, an Arabic book, some 17th century tile decoration or the Book of Kells, it can influence me in a way that I try a new variation in my handwriting. It’s constantly evolving. Like an organism, really.

In the past you created pieces (please correct or complement me) outside by the use of paint rollers, ink tanks, and spray-cans, or painted beautiful handwritings by brush for inside. What’s the ultimate tool for a calligraffiti artist? Are their any plans for the near future – New projects, new shows, new books? What’s about some action on the streets of Berlin?

Just as I don’t like to limit myself to just New York graffiti letters, I also like to try different techniques. They are usually driven by the scale of the work. If I use a pen in a sketch book, the movements and shapes come from my hand. If I use a brush on a big piece of paper, it’s all in the wrist. And using a spray can on a wall or canvas is mostly done by my arm. Lately I’ve been experimenting with brooms. They are basically big brushes and, just like a roller on a stick, I have to use my whole body. It’s my hand/wrist/arm/body theory. Together with a befriended film maker (who also directed the ink-tank video) we’re talking about an experiment using one of those cleaning cars with the big rotating brushes. So maybe after ‘body’ we can add ‘car’. Ahah! Soon on www.calligraffiti.nl.

INTERVIEW WITH STREETWEAR TODAY, MARCH 2010

Let’s have a look at a time called back in the days. You already tagged walls in the late the Seventies. At that time I’ve seen that punk graffiti thing going on in Amsterdam. What have been your influences?

Yes, the first Shoe tags are from 1979. We’d steal those small spray cans of fluorescent car paint and tag the old center of our city. Especially in 1980 with the squatting riots and the crowning of queen Beatrix, old Amsterdam was in complete anarchy. A wonderful environment for a kid growing up and doing graffiti. Before I had seen any subway graffiti from New York my biggest influence was Dr. Rat. After my first visit to New York in 1982 and noticing graffiti in galleries and museums my biggest influence was Dondi. He really was a kind of a mentor when I first started to do New York styles.. Sadly they are both dead.

Did you ever got busted or were your “shoes” always faster?

Oh man, I got caught so many times. I used to be proud of the fact that I had seen almost all (20+) Amsterdam’s police stations on the inside. Back then, they would make you spend a night in jail and sometimes you’d get a fine. My ’shoes’ were actually pretty fast (I used to play baseball) but I was just taking these ridiculous risks. When I look at some old pieces I sometimes wonder how I could have done those super dangerous spots.

Did you recognized the German scene in that times, for example Chintz?

Well, to be honest when we (Crime Time Kings) made some trips to Germany and other European countries we were mostly interested in each other. The interaction between, say, Bando, Angel, Joker, Cat22, Mode2, Colt, Delta, Gasp and me was the focus at that time. And I can’t forget those CTK bombers like Sign, Lino and Tabu. But I remember Chintz and Loomit for sure.

So what about the Crime Time Kings – how come that you have been involved in this first international crew?

Basically it was like this in the early eighties: In Amsterdam you had us, the United Street Artists. In London The Chrome Angelz and in Paris the Bomb Squad 2. Bando united us all in Crime Time.

How did you start turning it into biz? And tell us for sure first about “Happy Family”.

In the eighties Amsterdam walls were pretty badly bombed (Ego, Dr.Air, Mano, Trip, etc) but our crew appeared a lot in the media because we were doing it differently, bigger and more colorful. It was a real ‘happy’ story for newspapers, magazines and tv. All the doom and ‘no future’ made way to a more optimistic (read: opportunistic) state of mind. I was determined to become a designer and my cremate Joker was a real businessman about it. He always said he wanted to be a millionaire with a swimming pool before 25. Ahah! Anyway, we had this mob-type scheme where we would tell shop-owners and housing projects that we could paint their walls for money or we fuck everything up with tags. Plus if the USA painted the wall, nobody would fuck with it. Also around that time we did some paintings for the infamous chain of coffee shops called the Happy Family (and the Bulldog). The owners were some of the toughest criminals around, moving huge amounts of dope all over the world. We would go for a drive with one guy in his BMW. Then he would point at spots, saying: ‘There? Can we have one there?’ And we would say ‘Sure. 500 guilders’. That night on that spot it would say ‘Happy Family’. The dolphins costed extra. Ahah!

Tell us more about your professional works. You worked e.g. for BBDO and MTV Europe. What is your experience in these fields?

In a nutshell it went like this: The graffiti turned into a business but that ended when I was 20 because I had to join the military service. After 14 months of sabotaging the Dutch army I got a job as assistant to Anthon Beeke, who taught me the graphic design trade. After 3 years of working very closely with this diverse autodidact from Amsterdam (like me) I started my second business: Caulfield & Tensing. We had many employees and pioneered in design, websites and advertising. We sold the place, including ourselves to BBDO in 1999. There I worked as an art director for 2,5 years, creating campaigns for huge accounts. My third company, Unruly, tried to do marketing, but on my terms. That worked for a while but when my business partner decided to become a cop (really) I felt I was ready to become what I never dared to call myself: an artist.

Nowadays your work can be seen in Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art? From street fame to museums, what is your basic attitude on this?

Actually the work in those museums is more graphic design related. Dutch Design, you know. My Calligraffiti still needs to grow before it can really be picked up by the art world.

You did commercial calligraphy work for e.g. Bols Genever. Did you learned it in a professional way? When did you named the term Calligraffiti. Did you planed it than as a concept?

When I moved away from the commercial world I went to New York for a while. Together with Eric Haze I started experimenting with inks and brushes. The idea of Japanese calligraphy really appealed to me. One word on a piece of paper. Very direct. An ode to (letter) forms. Meanwhile I also kept doing words (logo’s) for reproduction. To me those two are within the same realm. And for that realm to exist it needed a name. I really like naming things.

I’m a huge fan of that 1979 live action video of Dr. Rat. Did he invented this Calligraffiti style, or where would you say are the related roots?

I think I had seen that great video in the eighties -I think it’s by Rogier van der Ploeg-, and I have a feeling that it stuck with me unconsciously. My first Shoe that wasn’t a tag, had these gothic letters. That was in 1982

What about Unruly – why silk scarves? By the way I love the “Scarfface” pictures we had in our mag, issues ago – is this your work too?

The Unruly scarves are a side project. I’m not a fashion designer but like fashion, so silk scarves seemed like a nice product to create. I art directed all the Unruly photo shoots. They are done by befriended photographers that I met during my advertising years.

When I opened your new book yesterday the first thing I noticed was the missing space type on page 11. Haha. Dear reader: Forget that. It’s really a fucking good book. Okay, I know a lot of your works, but often it was setting a question mark to me. Now the books gives me the answers and the last pages were the most interesting for me. What’s your relationship to Adam Eeuwens, who wrote the introduction for the book?

Ahah!. That missing space was one of the first things that I noticed too. Damn! Anyway, I’m glad that the book succeeded in giving some background to the work. In my head everything has a natural place but that isn’t always clear to the viewer. The one-liners and quotes on the spreads can sort of point you in a direction and the index in the back shows a bit more of what the hell I’m talking about. Adam Eeuwens and I spend two weeks creating a rough outline. He than went back to Los Angeles to write the essay and I started designing the book and writing the index. I know Adam has been a good friend since the nineties when he was still living in Amsterdam. We’ve done numerous publication projects together.

Your last words in the book are “save the planet – kill yourself”. Now you get the chance to give us some more positive last words and some on your future plans?

Well, what I’m saying there is ‘Stop making me feel guilty for living!’ But it was meant to be funny too, I am really a very optimistic person. A few weeks ago I stumbled onto this text: Everything is amazing and nobody’s happy. That line has the same kind of power. It’s deep and light at the same time. In the future I will try to keep uniting more opposites with more Calligraffiti.

European street art pioneer Shoe blends ancient calligraphy with worldwide graffiti style

In the 1970s and 1980s, Amsterdam had its own graffiti movement before the New York variety had fully arrived. Anarchists, squatters, punk rock, Ska and names like Dr. Rat, Ego, Dr. Crack, Weed-Freak and Survivor were all over town. The 12-year-old Neils Meulman loved it, took on the pseudonym ‘Shoe,’ and began to write graffiti in a Gothic font, just like Dr. Rat, one of the pioneers of the Amsterdam graffiti scene.

To a Californian, Gothic lettering in graffiti is a gang thing, but as Shoe explains, “that term ‘Gothic’ doesn’t really mean anything. You can also associate it with newspaper logos or even your ‘We the People’ declaration. I think the Cholo association has to do with tattoo lettering.” He did his first ‘big’ Shoe piece in 1982, and hip-hop graffiti arrived in Europe barely before his paint had dried. Shoe would become one of the continent’s early pioneers, painting in the wildly influential ‘Crime Time Kings’ crew with contemporaries Bando, Delta, and Mode 2.

Formal calligraphy entered the mix, and at age 18, Shoe started a lettering company. “Then, at 20, I learned the graphic design trade from the master, Anthon Beeke. Then I started a design agency, sold it and became senior art director at BBDO and later creative director for MTV. Now, that was all very nice but in 2006 it was time for me to use all that experience and go back to the source; my real passion.” In early 2007, Shoe went to New York for a month, hanging out with his old friend Eric Haze, whom he had met in the early 1980s on a graffiti-infused New York vacation.

“I made the first Calligraffiti works in Haze’s basement in Williamsburg,” Shoe recalls. Calligraffiti is his combination of traditional calligraphy (“Japanese ancient brush characters, Arabic pictorial scripts, illuminated mediaeval books or swirly quill writing”) and the worldwide graffiti style perfected in New York City. “The fairly new art of graffiti has very old roots,” he explains, “and I wanted to look further back into the history of writing. Thus resulting in Calligraffiti: traditional handstyles with a metropolitan attitude.”

INTERVIEW WITH RICH MAGAZINE, AUGUST 2008

From bold, quick throw ups and tags to the slow and delicate proces of creating the Rich emblem. Has Shoe finally softened?

Emblem, I like that. It’s too complex to be a logo, isn’t it? Anyway. Yes, I have become more soft. Let me share my theory about softness: All are born soft. When you grow up, you become curious and start asking questions. The more questions you ask, the tougher you become. Youth is for practice, experiment, input. Creating as much chaos as you can handle. This I did and the softness got going. Now, having seen the seasons change fourty times, I feel it is time for output, time to consolidate. I even find myself using the word ‘harmony’ now and then. But it’s all good, the wide vision of the angry (careless) young man has transformed into a smooth sailing (still careless) artist with a zen-like focus… No, haha. Just kidding! But my point is, that although the creative process will always be a struggle, I now grasp the idea that it isn’t only me and my silly brain that’s doing the creating. There are many unnamable things that influence the process. Some call this intuition, or worse, oneness. I know what you’re thinking… He’s not gone soft, he’s gone completely bonkers! Well, check this out (off the record): When I work on a calligraphic piece -like the Rich graphic- there’s this continuous question: how do I so swiftly decide which curves are good and which need tweaking? This then triggers the notion that my goal is to uncover the secret of life. But I guess that is what every artist aims to do, right? No? It’s just me? Whatever. Soft is good. Hey, I haven’t been in jail for over ten years. But that’s not counting DUI arrests… A shoe will never be a sandal… Understand?!

What do you enjoy most: assignments or autonomous work? Why?

Good question. Again. They are practically the same. The only difference is that one type of job has a client called ‘them’ where the other type of job’s client is ‘me’. There is no essential difference between a window-down whole-tram by L’Oréal and one by Shoe. Multinationals think and operate in the exact same, primitive way that a fifteen year old angry (careless) young man does. An organization of 100.00 people has the same structure as a person. You know; board of directors on the top floor telling the others what to do, etc. But I don’t see any CEO that realizes he really doesn’t decide shit and subsequently transforms into a smooth sailing (still careless) artist with a zen-like focus… Whatever, I created a situation for myself where my work either fits a campaign for ‘them’ or ‘me’.

How important is recognition for you?

Recognize me, respect me, love me, never forget me and say my name. Especially after I’m dead.

What do you think of graphic design in Dutch advertising?

Read the weekly columns in Adformatie by Dolf Hell. Those should be published in deluxe format. Otherwise I’m just happy that the Futura Extra Bold Condensed is back.

What?s the main reason for you to get up every day and do the things you do?

Now, that is a terrible question.

What if Rich asked you to join them as an art director?

Do you think that before the word ‘carpenter’ was invented, the guy’s profession was called ‘arranger/attacher of dried tree pieces’? Maybe. My point is that I haven’t been able to find a word to describe what I do. And that sucks. The best I can do is: ‘typographic design / creative direction’. Maybe it’s time to choose art over power and the ‘creative direction’ has to go. Exemplary is my time at MTV Networks as Creative Director. All aspects of the diverse job went really well but after a few weeks I had commissioned myself and Paul (Machine) to spray-paint the building’s interior with extravagant looking words like ‘campaignability’ and ‘the logo isn’t big enough’. Pretty much the same thing happened in my time at FHV; all my campaigns were based on graphic word play. I coped with the numerous meetings, presentations and office crap, only because the execution would be so promising. If I join Rich as an art director can I have ‘artdirector’ on my business card? Spelled as one word.

What can we expect from you next?

Unexpect the expected.

RAMMELLZEE

Rammellzee is an universal artist, expressing his theory of Gothic Futurism (which is shifting into a new phase which he calls Ikonoklast Panzerism) through many artforms such as aerosol, music and sculpting. From his appearance in Wildstyle, to painting trains alongside Jean-Michel Basquiat, on down to his works shown in New York’s Museum of Modern Arts, he is one of the originators who has, and still influences many worldwide. We got in touch with Rammellzee for some brief questions about Shoe.

When and where did you cross paths with the artist known as Shoe?

Yaki Kornblit Gallery… Late 1983 with Baz, who’s father I used to play chess with.

What set his graffiti style apart from so many other talented artists?

Absolutely none… He was a bomber artist. These styles started in NYC. He was told that…. At a lecture I held in Amsterdam. He didn’t like me telling that to an audience and most likely… He won’t like what I’m saying now!

Are you familiar with his current calligraphy-style work?

Yes I am, but don’t change the subject. Shoe is good at what he does and that’s why I speak to him… Shoe knows it. In my eyes… Shoe is no “Toy”.

Any personal comments or amusing anecdotes about Shoe? (Like the time you got busted for bombing the Stedelijk Museum haha)?

It was great to hit the wall with him… Specially cause it was a Museum. You should ask this same question to Shoe about Dondi. I don’t crack jokes on Shoe… He’s too solid of a man!

BANDO

Bando discovered Hip Hop and graffiti culture early in New York, got inspired by legends like Futura 2000 and brought these fresh artforms back to France. In turn, he influenced a whole generation of writers and crews in Europe and worldwide with his indisputable talent and style. He was also the instigator of many world renowned crews, among them the Bomb Squad 2, Crime Time Kings and The Chrome Angels, operating alongside other notorious pioneers like Mode2 and Delta. After dropping the cans he kept making noise by producing and releasing dirty raw funk records, many of them highly collectible today. We managed to track down this man of few words via email to do the Q&A about Shoe.

When and where did you cross paths with the artist known as Shoe?

The first time I met Shoe it was in Paris in ‘85, ‘86, I think…

What set his graffiti style apart from so many other talented artists?

Letter style, no bullshit decoration like so many others, but simple to the point style, like Seen & Dondi for example.

Are you familiar with his current calligraphy-style work?

Yes, somewhat.

Any personal comments or amusing anecdotes about Shoe?

I have to think about that one.

ADAM EEUWENS

Adam Eeuwens is a close friend of Shoe and co-author of the excellent Dutch design book ‘False Flat’ which documents illustrations, product design, old and new painting, graphic design and advertising from The Netherlands. Furthermore, Adam is a partner in Rebeca Mendez Design, responsible for design strategy, account handling, research and development, copywriting and creating concepts that lead to artistic solutions and pragmatic results. Adam possesses almost 20 years of media industry experience, half in the United States, half of them in Europe, with experience as journalist, editor, publisher, event developer, planner, copy writer and author.

When and where did you cross paths with the artist known as Shoe?

The first time I crossed paths with Shoe must have been around 1984. I was in a crowded Saturday afternoon tram in Amsterdam, and this group of kids my age jumped on and began bombing the tram floor to ceiling with fat black markers. One of them stood out by finding the craziest spots to apply some mad skill. He was also the most infuriating and soon several aboard were shouting and threatening violence. This kid just stared them down and got out the last possible moment through the closing doors before being lynched. (something I have seen him repeat many times since, with lesser degree of success). ‘That was Shoe,’ a friend next to me remarked, and I knew there and then that I would know this guy.

Quite some years later in 1991 we met in person, somewhere in a subway underpass in De Bijlmer. I was writing a story on graffiti, following Cat22, and that afternoon met Gasp, Angel and Shoe for the first time. I wrote the story in my own magazine Flux. Though I never touched a spray can in my life, after Niels and PJ read the story they bestowed on me the honorary title of writer, with the tag Flux. To date, this is still one of the greatest honors I have received (along with my friend Jorge from Tijuana calling me an honorary mujado, or wetback, after I got deported from the US once).

What set his graffiti style apart from so many other talented artists?

His deep love of the letter, maybe? The enormous skill that makes the letters flow that one beat more natural? His capacity to continuously produce and amaze? His iron logic? The fact that when he puts pen to paper, brush to canvas, spray can to wall, he is happiest? Because there a very few like him?

Are you familiar with his current calligraphy-style work?

Yes. I think I was even in the same room when he started calling what he has always done ‘calligraffiti.’

Any personal comments or amusing anecdotes about Shoe?

As I turn 40 a few weeks after Shoe I trust I will be forgiven for being slightly sentimental and melodramatic here. Working with Niels has been one of the great pleasures and privileges of my life. It was never work, it was play, with no qualm that it was often way past midnight. And I always felt that combining my talents and skills with his resulted in an equation where 1 plus 1 makes 3. We made beautiful things with a sense of mission, convinced we were making an important contribution to the wellbeing of our generation and society; never did we demand less of ourselves and each other. Some of the work we did together is certainly for me some of the best I ever did and best fun I ever had, and formed the person I am today. There is now an ocean and a continent between us but throughout the years we have managed to stay in touch, even deepen our friendship in meaningful exchanges. The man is a treasure, not only to me, but to mankind. Seriously.

MODE 2

Talk about graffiti and you’re bound to come across the name Mode 2. From worldwide walls to the pages in Spraycan Art, Mode 2 done made his mark in the aerosol artform… and far beyond. Soaking up influences from his travels and various surroundings he developed his very own unique style of lettering and characters, which he is probably most well known for. And not only does his work look good: Mode 2 analyzes and utilizes his artistic expression to comment on society, communicates through culture and inspires people. We caught up with this Chrome Angel for some words about Shoe.

When and where did you cross paths with the artist known as Shoe?

We met at the end of July ‘85, on the river banks of Paris, where he had done some pieces with Jan and Jaz, and with Bando, Pride, Scribla, Zaki, and Eskimo. We were wondering who were these new dudes in town… I think they were just on vacation… He showed us some photos from Amsterdam, pretty impressive stuff with regards to the standards of then, so we clicked quite well from the get-go…

Bando had created a new crew called Crime Time Kings earlier that summer, a fusion of Bomb Squad 2 from Paris and The Chrome Angelz from London. Shoe became Amsterdam “president” and ran the “chapter” from that city.

What set his graffiti style apart from so many other talented artists?

I think the fact that he was mentored by Dondi gave him as good a starting point as any would wish or die for, and Shoe himself had really sound instinctive knowledge of how to make letters look good; hence the perfect balance of letters in his short and unforgettable name, for instance… This grasp of what impacts best graphically made him stand out from the rest, but I also think that the rich and diverse graffiti culture of Amsterdam, as well as a very good rapport between Bando and himself, also played its part in inspiring him, and helping him evolve…

Are you familiar with his current calligraphy-style work?

I’ve only been on and off acquainted up to date with what Shoe’s been doing on the calligraphy tip. I remember what he was doing with Sunday Violence back in the nineties, but my trips to Amsterdam were few and far between then. It’s only by doing things more frequently with Delta that I started to run into Shoe again, as he had been a bit more away from the scene. Recently I saw his work with scarves, which is probably just the tip of the iceberg, as to what he’s been doing in that direction…

Any personal comments or amusing anecdotes about Shoe?

At the after-party of the Backjumps Live Issue2, he must have told us he was leaving about four times, but after each and every departure, he would come bouncing through the crowds fifteen to twenty minutes later, as if he was just getting into the party; a bit kind of Groundhog Day!

REBECA MENDEZ

Rebeca Méndez is an artist living in Los Angeles working with various media to explore the forces of nature modulated through technology. Méndez travels to the edges of the world, from Patagonia, to Iceland and the Sahara desert, in pursuit of images of an ideal and sublime nature and her works continue to explore issues of media representation. Her photography studies the everyday, stillness and emptiness, as well as the isolation of the temporal in phenomena. Her video installations are intense immersive environments of ‘impossible landscapes’ that envelop the viewer in image and sound. In 2004 she invited Shoe for a series of lectures and workshops at UCLA. We got in touch with her for some words on Shoe.

When and where did you cross paths with the artist known as Shoe?

I fell in love with Adam Eeuwens in November 1995 in Amsterdam. Adam came to visit me in Los Angeles (my home), and he arrived with Shoe. That was the first time I met Shoe. Late that night, we all strolled down muscle beach, in Venice, California. But it was Shoe and I who, like ten-year-olds, were playing (and showing off to each other) all the ‘muscle’ tricks we could do on the rings and monkey bars. The next days, we talked design (and showed off to each other) the design and typographic work that we so passionately make. I was (and still am) most impressed.

What set his graffiti style apart from so many other talented artists?

Niels is a perfectionist who understands that mastery is achieved through observation, experimentation, dedication and play, and as such, his graffiti style emanates a formal rigour and elegance, an almost violent vitality through the complexity of its value, contrast and colour, and a graceful flow that makes the work seem to appear easy—an effortless beauty. But what makes his work so unique is his brilliant play of word and image—something he truly masters.

Are you familiar with his current calligraphy-style work?

Very much so, and love it. It is this relationship between word and image that has for long captivated Niels ‘Shoe’ Meulman, but specifically the calligram, which is the compression of image, text and information. In his work, Niels points to the gaps, ambiguities, and possibilities of language as well as challenges the hierarchy and relationship between reading and perception—the visual versus the verbal.

Any personal comments or amusing anecdotes about Shoe?

In spring 2004, I invited Shoe to give a lecture and workshop to our students at UCLA, Design | Media Arts. His workshops focus was on the “Calligram.” Towards the end of the three-day workshop, we assigned a wall for the students’ ‘graffiti.’ Amongst 30 students and professors, without anyone noticing, suddenly there was Shoe’s tag all over the mural. He came like a ghost, acted so quickly and gracefully, and stunned an already impressed group of students and professors. He became a myth in our department, and you still hear students talk about him.

Méndez was born and raised in México City and received her BFA (1984) in Communication Design and her MFA (1996) in Media Art and Design from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California.

HAZE

Born and raised in New York City, Eric Haze has been making his impact felt in the worlds of art, product and graphic design for over 30 years. After spending the 70’s and early 80’s on the front lines of the graffiti movement, Haze opened his design studio in 1986, becoming one of the first visual artists to define the look and graphic language of Hip Hop during its golden years. Some of his most classic works include designs for Public Enemy, EPMD, LL Cool J, and the Beastie Boys. Haze founded his own clothing line in 1993, which remains recognized worldwide as one of the original brands that helped create the blueprint for streetwear as we know it today. Over the last 10 years, Haze has also produced a diverse range of client work and collaborations with industry leaders such as Nike, Casio, Honda, and Apple. Recently relocated to back to NY after over a decade based in LA, Haze now directs his company out of their new Brooklyn headquarters. Haze will also be present at the Calligraffiti exhibition showcasing some of his latest works, which are also the graphic basis for parts of his upcoming fall ‘07 collection and serve as an organic preview of how these styles have been developed. Read on!

When and where did you cross paths with the artist known as Shoe?

I first met Niels in about 1987, when Revolt and I came to Holland to suprise Quik by showing up at an exhibition he was having in Haarlem… I started coming to Amsterdam a lot in the 90’s, both for work and personal reasons, and we grew to become family and the best of friends over the years…

What set his graffiti style apart from so many other talented artists?

Even though we are from different backgrounds and somewhat different generations, one of the things Shoe and I always shared was a sort of parallel experience of being graffiti artists who branched out into graphic arts as both designers and art directors of our own companies… Like myself, while Niels’s work and aesthetic is rooted in his graff styles and original letterforms, he also rings a greater versatility to it with different techniques and applications from his other commercial experiences. Niels also has a very conceptual mind, where he often uses wordplay and subtle copy writing as part of his style, which gives the work another dimension beyond just shape and form. Ultimately, in a design world increasingly dominated by the computer and technology, it’s the artists like Shoe who can flex both organic handstyles AND compliment it with other techniques who can really take things to the next level…

Are you familiar with his current calligraphy-style work?

Very much… It’s always been part of what he does, and I think we recently rediscovered some of this new flow together while he was staying with me in NY last season… I had just set up a extra part of my studio to get a lot more wild and sloppy in and we went out and bought a lot of different brushes, inks, paper, paint and materials to experiment with together… since we only had a few days left, I let Niels use most of the time to get is groove on… (while I shot pics of him working for a piece I wrote about it on my blog). I believe these sessions sparked the new wave of drawings and freestyle typographic artwork for both of us, and this show reflects some of the different directions we have taken with the momentum we gained from it at the time…

Any personal comments or amusing anecdotes about Shoe?

Many really… Besides Holland, New York and Los Angeles, we have travelled together to places like Copenhagen and Tokyo, where we have definitely wilded out more than a few times… One of the funniest memories I have is when we came back to our hotel in Tokyo mad drunk one night (after painting a G-Shock mural for Casio) and the door was open to another empty room on our floor… So we snuck in, raided the mini bar, trashed the hell out of the room, and made a bunch of international phone calls back home to our peeps on someone else’s bill… Definitely classic.