Case Study-Marc Ecko.

Marc Ecko, world wide urban clothing designer is without a doubt truly inspired by graffiti art. He stated out as a graffiti artist himself whilst at college, but then went on to design and creates hand made t-shirts. At his time, culture icon such as the likes of Chuck D. and Spike Lee started wearing his designs. He designs clothing for skate/extreme sport &hip hop, watches, bags, underwear and many more. He is now world renowned in his fashion and accessories.

Ecko has recently started a magazine called “Complex”, a new cosmetics line, and childrenswear. On his website, graffiti art is incorporated into all section of the site and his range. On the site, you can watch a video that shows artist creating graffiti, break dancing, snowboarding, skateboarding and BMX stunts. It also shows that a lot of extreme sports are actually endorsed by Marc Ecko. The music that plays on his website is that of hip hop nature. Marc Ecko said, “Graffiti is without question the most powerful art movement in recent history and has been a driving inspiration throughout my career.”

In April 2006, Marc Ecko hired a Boeing 747 plane, and painted half of it to look like Air Force One. He called in ad director Randy Krallman, and shot a video of himself breaking into what looked like the real airfield where Air Force One was kept. Ecko then released this video all across the World Wide Web, of himself applying graffiti to the left wing engine of ‘Air Force One’.

The video was a pure hoax, and was created in Marc Ecko’s words, "to induce you, the viewer of the video, to think critically about freedom of expression and speech and the government’s responses to the same.”

In the same year, Ecko supported seven young college students who filed a lawsuit against New York City, over its anti-graffiti law. This law banned anyone under the age of twenty-one from possessing any spray paint or broad-tipped markers. Obviously if you are under the age of twenty-one and you are studying art, this proves very difficult to carry out your work. In May 2006, District Judge George B. Daniels put a temporary injunction in place preventing City from enforcing that law. Judge Daniels said the legislation is “Like telling me I can eat an apple, but I can’t buy an apple, no one can sell me an apple and I can’t bring it to work for lunch.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/)

Here’s the video recap of jeff Staple 1-2-1 live at Imprint Culture Lab 2009 in NYC this past September.