Future Tongue Interviews Shepard Fairey (Video)

Between murals, posters, t-shirts, shows, and getting arrested, Shepard finds time to chat with Future Tongue.

C reative platform Future Tongue recently visited Shepard Fairey's Echo Park studio, where Shep contains his art gallery, design studio, and headquarters for his multitude of other business. In a nondescript location – besides the two taco shops the building sits amidst – Shepard Fairey's workshop is an encapsulation of nostalgia. The gallery/studio/hq is a cogitation of his ingenuity and profieciency as it’s filled with brainstorms, doodles and pieces of art that he’s been collecting and trading over the years.

Read an except from Future Tongue's interview with Shepard Fairey, as well as a short clip, touring Shep's workspace.

THE BEGINNING

"I started drawing when I was a little kid, probably 3 or 4 years old. My passion for it grew over time. I don’t think I took it that seriously yet, but I won the First Grade Art Contest with a drawing of an aircraft carrier."

INITIAL INSPIRATION

"Album covers, skateboard graphics, and t-shirt graphics. I did traditional drawing in high school, but I also fell in love with making stencils that were my interpretations of punk and skateboard iconography."

DEFINING YOUR STYLE

"I look at my style as not one style, but many styles filtered through my set of principles. The more I work and experiment, the more I understand what is successful and what isn’t. I find inspiration in a lot of styles, but filtered through my sensibility, the result looks like me I think."