Shepard Fairey Biography

Frank Shepard Fairey was born on February 15, 1970, in Charleston, South Carolina. While still a student at RISD, Fairey launched his first firm, Alternate Graphics, in 1992 to display his burgeoning design and silkscreen printing abilities. He designed stickers, t-shirts, skateboards, and posters, which he sold through black and white mail order catalogs. He also conducted modest commercial printing projects for clients to supplement his income. Helen Stickler made the documentary film Andre the Giant Has a Posse about Fairey and the burgeoning craze of his subversive stickers and posters in 1994. By 1995, Fairey had two or three full-time workers, two of whom were long-time Charleston friends he had met through skating. During this period, he also co-founded the little sister business Subliminal Projects with Blaize Blouin, under which he launched various skateboard and poster designs. Fairey made a skateboard video called ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) that featured a small group of skateboarders he supported through Alternate Graphics. Fairey relocated from Providence, RI to San Diego, CA in 1996 to join forces with Andy Howell at Giant Distribution. Fairey soon joined up with Dave Kinsey, Phillip De Wolff, and Howell to develop First Bureau of Imagery FBI, a branding, marketing, and design business aimed at the expanding action sports sector. In 1999, the FBI was disbanded, and Fairey Kinsey and De Wolff established BLK/MRKT, a branding, marketing, and design business. Fairey met his future wife Amanda Ayala around this period, and she began working with him. The BLK/MRKT headquarters were relocated from San Diego to Los Angeles in 2001, and they were extended to incorporate a small art gallery. Fairey and Kinsey acquired De Wolff's partnership and became the sole owners of the enterprise, which is currently based in the historic Wiltern building in Koreatown. Fairey and Kinsey decided to split professionally in 2003; Fairey maintained the location and most of the workers called his agency Studio Number One and the art gallery Subliminal Projects. Kinsey renamed the gallery BLK/MRKT and transferred it to Culver City, California, where it is currently in business. In 2004, Fairey collaborated with long-time friend Roger Gastman to launch the quarterly newspaper Swindle. The magazine covers pop culture, fashion, and music, and each issue is available in both soft and hard cover formats. Fairey published Supply and Demand, a comprehensive hardcover volume that details much of his personal and professional design work, in 2006. The book was developed entirely in-house at Studio Number One and is published by Ginko Press. It is now in its third edition.

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