SHEPARD FAIREY

(1970 - Present)
Frank Shepard Fairey was born on February 15, 1970, in Charleston, South Carolina. He attended Porter Gaud, a private college preparatory school in Charleston before transferring to Wando High School in Mt. Pleasant, SC in 1985. After two years Fairey transferred to Idyllwild School of Music and the Arts in IIdyllwild, CA, where he graduated in 1988. It was in 1990 that Fairey started his famous OBEY campaign, featuring images of Andre the Giant. Fairey attended the Rhode Island School of Design until he graduated in 1992 with a Bachelors of Arts in Illustration. Just before graduating in Rhode Island, Fairey started his own business, Alternate Graphics. This provided an outlet to publicize his designs and silkscreen printing by creating stickers, t-shirts, skateboards, and posters. His designs were available via catalogs that he distributed, while also taking on some commercial printing for select clients to cover expenses. Helen Stickler created a documentary, which focused on the rise in popularity of Faireys designs, entitled Andre the Giant Has a Posse in 1994. In 1995, Alternate Graphics had about three full-time employees and Fairey started a small skateboard brand, Subliminal Projects. He released several skateboard and poster designs under the brand and created a skateboard video, ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder), along with skateboarders which were sponsored by Alternate Graphics. Fairey left Providence and moved to San Diego, CA in 1996. With Dave Kinsey, Phillip De Wolff, and Andy Howell, Fairey formed a design firm, First Bureau of Imagery (FBI). The firm was known for branding and marketing in sports. FBI was dissolved in 1999 but Fairey, Kinsey, and De Wolff established BLK/MRKT as a replacement and soon after, Fairey and Kinsey bought De Wolffs share of the company. The office was moved to Los Angeles, where it includes a small art gallery, in the historic Wiltern Building in Koreatown. However, Fairey and Kinsey split the firm in 2003; Fairey kept the location under the name Studio Number One, with the gallery renamed as Subliminal Projects. Kinsey took the name BLK/MRKT to Culver City, CA, where it exists today. Swindle, a magazine released quarterly to document pop culture, fashion, and music, was created by Fairey and Roger Gastman in 2004. Fairy published Supply and Demand, a book with documents Faireys career as a designer, in 2006. The book was designed at Studio Number One and is currently in its third edition. In 2008, Faireys reputation grew to new heights with his poster endorsing President Barack Obama entitled, Hope. In the summer of 2009 Fairey held an exhibition in Boston called, Supply and Demand, at the Institute of Contemporary Art and featured over 250 works. Today Shepard and his wife, Amanda Ayala, live in Charleston, SC along with their two daughters Vivienne and Madeline.