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Ekorb Interview

How did you first get into graffiti?

When I used to live near Birmingham city centre, just goin to school, when my mum would drive me an that, I just used to see tags, tags everywhere, I used to try and read em, and from lookin at them near enough every day of my life I become more and more interested in starting to write.

So you were inspired by all ready practising graffiti artists?

Mostly yeh, aswell when I used to catch the train into the city with family I would see all the graffiti around the factories and in spaghetti junction. I didn’t think anything of the tags I was just interested. I didn’t realise it would lead to me being a writer but knowing these things did eventually made me want to start.

When you first started graffiti were you alone or did you do it with friends?

No not really but after a bit I did introduce my mate and we just used to practise sketching different words and stuff like that. I was never really into tagging, Just the more complex style of graffiti, Pieces etc.

Would you say living in Birmingham helped you develop

your style?

I think so yeh, I used to see one artist about a lot, But what I saw was very simple compared to the way I first imagined graffiti. But after seeing his style I became more and more aware of that style around by more than just him.

I used to create visuals in my head of words that I would relate to for my style. When getting home I tried putting them to paper and actu-ally coming up with the piece in that style, Adding bits here and there to make it more of unique to me.

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So after creating these pieces on paper in the ‘Birmingham style’ did you just go onto the streets?

At first no I was always nervous about leaving my house just incase my mum and dad found out, But after a bit I built up the courage to start goin out taggin with my pal. My mum and dad used to ask me why I was coming in late and I used to just tell them I was chilling. Answering your question yeh, after a while I used to take sketches with me so I would know what I was paintin because I still hadn’t developed a style I could do off the top of my head.

Have you always stuck to painting walls or did you take your passion for graffiti any further?

At first it was only walls but going past one of the train yards and seeing a couple of pieces on the steel , I thought that I would be pretty cool to paint on a train as well.

Did you ever actually paint a train then?

I don’t really want to say any details but for the sake of the interview, one night , yeh. This is a bit of a funny story. Me and my pal managed to finally get to the train yard and faced with a massive fence. I managed to climb over then told my pal to throw the bag of paint over so he could climb. He managed to get to the top but got the bottom of his trousers caught and slipped off losing his shoe and ripping his

trousers basically off.

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Birmingham Graffiti

“Birmingham has a diverse and interesting graffiti scene, every corner you turn has something different to offer.”...

Gesa 2011

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ADVERT

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TitleRae alitio. Et landele cullitatquas eos

que pedissi mintum ra nis est, que ommo

officia ipsam quae pre ma inument

iumquid elestemposam nobitat pre de-

seque voloris min rerum es ea sequam

facium quiae volorat et mod et quiscias

moleceprae excero cor solum venditaq-

uam asped ellat.

Nam quia dolum et demquo tores qui ut

lameturit quos dolenimodis re modisti of-

fic to quae voluten imenis mossimint, et

hit, ea eum voluptus, officia di dolectem

dit est volorrum quianis sunt que et

apidem quae et vendis nempos que

nimenduci nonse sequam, soluptate

rere molupti ut aut apis aliatur, totaqua

erferundit que porat.

Orrum re, odit voluptis quo explignis eum

rem quatet dis que officient ut recturis

que volores postiorro cuptatur re cus-

dam volorume doles eturi ditat.

Git la sectemquae non endandit mag-

nissit etur rati odis sit fugit eos qua-

menesti quid et ut et reperit volut ad

quiasperat aut magnam quae pelibus.

Necaepudi dendae sitaectur sitae.

Minimus, sim qui re cume cuscitatiur re

velitisciist ute miliquunt delique corem

ipiendus aut officidem hiliam quatiur

maximusdae. Nempori busciet esendam

quia doluptae culpa expero officipsa qui

dolecatem. As apis aceaquid evel ipis

doloreperia descid quaesequis solo-

rectiae nobitemporem ea vendipid que

earcimo et autas eos dolecae dolupta

tintotat.

Lores nis que consequiae porit aut

peligeniam endae natendi blacessime

nosae. Nam ent alis aped eatum quas-

sit quuntium faccumeturis at autempor

maximpo rectus dessinvel is volorem

poreria temped magnis aut enihict

atenis ipidunt am, es ut iuriscipit illo dit

ernam susam fuga. Nequibe ratatendi

dolores dolum ius inctet vel enihil illabor

iorehen iendis utet ditatem aut ligen-

emqui inia acea corianis sequuntur ma

nim doloribus.

Ovid ea cumquame volum

quatus audit, voluptatiis

vitibea tiist, quosand

igenet volupta tiuntur

ati antin res qui repro

ex eos adio bernam

doluptas dolenem am

Xeribus aperor

sincidit hitis eniminci

quiscita net es

esequi acest

od quiandem

pori que se

quatus nob

itiones

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Ectem volupiet eiciis vel inte posam,

nonse moluptas earionsecea quo mo

tem am consedit fugiaep erorro ender-

rum ipsa voluptat mo moluptasit lam,

odipsae ctiatio repelit emossi odictur

modigen ditaquis audit, ommod esto

voluptium ea nonsequas de nam re

pressin vendent.

Ducid qui utecae molutat urepero eaturit

doluptiis natem susam nos idebitation

explabo rehenihil ium a volorerum ac-

catem oluptatur?

Cidis dus ipsus postempedis estiatem

autet aliquistorio deriatis cusam andae

autatus, corenisi ut fuga. Itatus ab in

reprovitae si totatio. Ut rem vendam

aut eatibusam ipsam qui a nobitiamus

voluptatur, ommodionem inis maximint

exceperspis venditibus.

Sentiis eat autemol orroreped mi, quis

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Trying to get inspired, to be able to create some drawings for this project, I realized that a good

Way to get inspired is to take a look at samples of other artists work and borrow some ideas from

Them The subject of my project which we had decided together with my group was the

Comparing Of old and new elements of Birmingham. For example comparing the art and the

Architecture of old and new Birmingham. Or comparing the lifestyle of past and current residents

Of Birmingham. I decided to sketch some old and some new buildings of Birmingham and then after

a process on Photoshop, create a composition. Observing a local illustrators work named James Griffin,

was very helpful for me, and also pushed me to create a composition similar to his. What Attracted my interest

about his work was that he takes some elements from real life (photos) and He creates amazing

compositions. Lets take for example this book cover that he has painted Back In 2001.

In this composition the main theme is the tow figures sitting next to each other in a Restaurant.

Those tow figures are taken from A photo , and the background is all digital Painted. The yellow color he uses for

the interior of the restaurant and the purple match Great together , and they give a great taste o the whole

composition .So based on that I tried to create a composition with imilar Aesthetic.

James Griffin

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Another composition I did was again based on a book cover of the same artist. The book cover

Is a digital painting and it was created back in 2002. It shows a photo of a man with his arm

Stretched . The man is wearing a headset and modern clothes witch contrast the background

Witch shows the country side and some old buildings. The composition has a blue

background color witch in my opinion brings

the idea of the new and the old closer.

So I used the blue color for the

background of another composition I did.

After some searching in the city I found

some classic old buildings and some

interesting new ones , I sketched them ,

and after some processing on

photoshop I combine them together.

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The whole composition is behind the bull witch is a

trademark of Birmingham. As I mentioned before I used

he blue color for the pedestrian street ,because I think it

brings the tow eras closer. The artist I took my idea from let

the photo in the composition untouched, and he just

Changed the background . What I did was , I Changed the

photo Just because I thought it would match better With

the whole Image.

But I think the main idea for both compositions is the same.

James Griffin aesthetics though is more careful and more

fresh. That’s why it is really important for new artist, to check

out their worknd compare their work with them

Designed By

Darren Holden

Savvas Papadopoulos

Lucy Watson