In 1989, Shepard Fairey (b. 1970) began to paste stickers all over town with a face and the mysterious message “Andre the Giant Has a Posse” or “Obey Giant” . Since then, his palette, geographic range and activities have increased enormously, and when he offered to support Barack Obama’s campaign with some posters in January 2008, he readily got permission from Obama to do so. Within a day, he had finished a design, one with the text “PROGRESS”, and another with “HOPE”. A first print run of 350 was sold out within minutes for $ 45 a piece, and, much to Fairey’s annoyance, resold on ebay for a lot more. Wall Street Journal began to track the ebay prices, they quickly shot up to $ 3’000, and reached $ 10’000 in June. In July, a mixed media painting done by Fairey in the same style as his “Hope” poster, sold for $ 108’000. By July 31, about 200’000 sticker versions of the original Obama poster had been printed.

In 1989, Shepard Fairey (b. 1970) began to paste stickers all over town with a face and the mysterious message “Andre the Giant Has a Posse” or “Obey Giant” . Since then, his palette, geographic range and activities have increased enormously, and when he offered to support Barack Obama’s campaign with some posters in January 2008, he readily got permission from Obama to do so. Within a day, he had finished a design, one with the text “PROGRESS”, and another with “HOPE”.

A first print run of 350 was sold out within minutes for $ 45 a piece, and, much to Fairey’s annoyance, resold on ebay for a lot more. Wall Street Journal began to track the ebay prices, they quickly shot up to $ 3’000, and reached $ 10’000 in June. In July, a mixed media painting done by Fairey in the same style as his “Hope” poster, sold for $ 108’000. By July 31, about 200’000 sticker versions of the original Obama poster had been printed.

Tags: graphic design viral campaign

3 years ago | Permalink