Open Post: OBEY

After posting about Shepard Fairey's remix poster, I stumbled upon this short film that was just released about him called OBEY THE GIANT: The Shepard Fairey Story.  I'd suggest anyone that's heard of OBEY or Shepard Fairey to watch it, it's only about twenty minutes and it's very well made.  It tells the story of how the Andre the Giant image started out as a project in college while he was studying at Rhode Island School of Design.  He started plastering these stickers everywhere he could: stop signs, walls, roads, people's backpacks, etc.  He was trying anything to get this image out there.  He then took it a step farther, which gained him this attention he had been seeking.  Buddy Cianci, the mayor of Providence, Rhode Island who was running for re-election had a campaign billboard in town with his face on it.  For a project, Fairey decided to plaster Andre's face right over Cianci's.  This was covered by radio and many local newspapers, which began the OBEY phenomenon.
Before watching this, I knew that Fairey was a talented designer and was very interested in propaganda's effects on people, but I didn't know where he had gotten his start.  The way it was filmed made it both very informative and inspirational.  The video shows that sometimes you have to take risks to be taken serious.  He's now one of the most prolific street artists and designers in the game.