Even though the two seem as if they are ideologically at odds, design and marketing trends have produced significant inspiration and ideas from graffiti aesthetics. In some ways the relationship between the two should be seamless, especially when considering that graffiti lettering shares most of its technique with 20th century sign painting. There is a clear fluidity and inherent connection here, almost as if they are involuntarily tethered. Both share an intense passion for layout, composition, and letterform design, and both operate in the same physical spaces and eyelines of the masses. How can designers interpret this overlap between two wildly different approaches of communication through signmaking? 

It’s worth noting that this marriage is not without its conflict. The two forms of expression often battle for the same walls, one pays for a billboard or street-facing ad space and the other paints over it. Each claim ownership of a wall while claiming no one asked to see what their competition has to offer. Ironically, many graffiti writers find themselves working design gigs as they get older in order to pay the bills. Those who aren’t concerned about bills could argue that it is inauthentic when a writer uses their skills crafted from raw sport and expression for the sake of marketing. In other words, it’s good for an individual writer, but may threaten the subculture. Traversing this intersection is tricky. Being well versed in both, a designer must consider a balance; the therapeutic act of sign making for self versus the essential act of sign making for another. As a result, the two options are to either cope with this dichotomy or to treat the relationship as symbiotic. 

In SELLOUT, I aim to understand this crossroad for myself. I am more than happy to work for and get paid by clients; however, using a skillset rooted in graffiti for commercial purposes puts a writer in bed with the enemy (for the sake of money nonetheless). Although, I’m reminded of one of the most important lessons I’ve gleaned from the subculture is to not take graffiti too seriously. While the two are connected, the tension between them is more manufactured than it is a given. What is far less manufactured is the comfort I’ve found in pursuing design.