Pablo Picasso once said “Bad artists copy. Good artists steal..” I’ve had many arguments about what that exactly means. Especially in the context of street art and clothing design. As far as I can tell the consensus is that it’s ok to borrow from pop culture but not from other brands in our industry. When I started skateboarding in the early 90′s the industry was going through a plagiarism phase where companies would copy a well known brand not leaving out any detail. I can think of Jason Lee’s pro model boards for blind featuring the Grinch or DR. Seuss’ famous hat. It was rampant in the early days of the rebirth of skateboarding so much so that now it’s kind of a faux paux within skateboarding. In a lot of ways skateboarding grew up in the early 90′s and those companies that ripped logos off mainly for mockery now have hundreds of employees and thousands of investors. Acting as they did when they were printing shirts in their garage is not safe anymore.
But street art and street wear (I hate that term) still embrace this idea of copying mainstream design. I think that this might be because art should reflect pop culture for what it really is. Andy Warhal did this with such simplicity and fervor that his example is still the basis for what most street artists do today.
There is, however, a grey area where many people get criticized: Citing your influences. I don’t think it’s necessary to give examples of every artist you borrowed from to make a design. I borrowed the Michelin man for a shirt for the DR and cited it but I probably didn’t need to just because he is so recognizable. Shepard Fairey of Obey is constantly under scrutiny for borrowing photos or old propaganda posters for his work. There recently was a huge lawsuit because his famous Obama poster used a photo owned by the Associated Press. I would say these criticisms are unnecessary. What he is doing is taking our culture and running it though his brain then showing us what he thinks about it. You wouldn’t look at his Obama poster and say “that’s an AP photo!” You inherently know that it is an Obey piece. If a designer blatantly copies line for line a piece of work then offers it as his own that is wrong. If he is influenced by an artist, musician, country, religion and his art reflects that influence then there is nothing wrong with that. Picasso himself was influenced by his predicessors then he moved beyond his influences and sources to new territory. The same will happen to any artist that sticks to his work and begins to find his own voice.
Below are a few of my influences.Click on the photos to be taken to their websites.
