Giant-Orange

The Giant-Orange print was made in 1996 toward the end of my time living in Providence R.I. where I had attended art college at R.I.S.D. I ran my own print studio called Alternate Graphics where I printed T-shirts, stickers, and posters for contract clients and for my own art and clothing. In 96 I started to print a lot more of my Obey Giant art prints, most of which were stylistically inspired by Russian Constructivism and Barbara Kruger. I created a lot of the work with Rubylith cuts and hand-set Xeroxed type. I did not know how to use the computer so if I needed a type style that I could not find in a type specimen book or I needed to be very precise, I’d ask my R.I.S.D. friend Ryan Lesser to help me. Ryan assisted with the digital type-setting of this Giant-Orange print and I cut the rest of the elements out of Rubylith. Ryan also helped me with the digital editing of a skateboard video I made in 1995 called "Attention Deficiency Disorder”. I was still experimenting with my style and color-palette, so when I found this matte, muted orange paper that I really liked, at a local supplier, I bought 100 sheets and designed the Giant-Orange print to fit that paper size. I used silver, muted blue-green, and black because I liked how they worked with the orange paper. This print is an important bridge between my more pop art oriented earlier prints and the red, black, and white prints that would dominate my work from mid 96 through the early 2000’s. - Shepard Fairey