Margo And Rita Mexican Street Food Van

One side of the Citroen H Van that Graff Workshop painted for Margo and Rita Mexican Street food. I will be making a video of the job soon so will upload that. Cant wait to see the van when it has been laquered and all the tape taken off.

Me and Josh went up North for 2 days, did 5 hours on day one and 4 on day 2. 3rd 5am start in 3 days. Another 5am start tomorrow to go to Surrey for a team building workshop starting at 9am and going till 11am with around 30 people on 1 A1 poster to commemorate their 50th anniversary in business.

Margo & Rita Graffiti Citroen H Van

We have just finished our first day painting a very old Citroen H Van for Margo & Rita. They bought the van in the form of a pick up and have had it transformed in to a Mexican Street Food outlet by Wilkinson Mobile Catering ...up north.

So we skipped school and set off at 6am for the North of England. Armed with the full range of purples from Montana Gold, skinny caps, respirators and platforms we set to work with the sides. Josh on character duty and Tom on background, we get our first 5 hours done.

Shop shuts at 4:30pm so we're chillin with a beer and a burrito courtesy of  the Margo & Rita founders. Back tomorrow at 6am for the last few hours work.

Here are some fisheyeflikers

 

SEN Graffiti Workshop

I wouldn't usually write a post about a workshop but today was such a good day I think it is worthy of comment. I did a workshop for Mencap in outer London, with a group of ten young people aged 18-24, working on canvases, using stencils and pens. First of all, a bit about Mencap from their website:

"We work in partnership with people with a learning disability, and all our services support people to live life as they choose. Mencap is the leading voice of learning disability. Everything we do is about valuing and supporting people with a learning disability, and their families and carers."

The workshop was good for a number of reasons. First of all it was a great group of young people, all of whom were really excited to do the workshop and did great work during the session. 

Secondly, we had a 4 hour time period to do the workshop, and only planned on going for three hours, but in the end used the full 4 hours as the group took their time getting their stencils done, and were all eager to enhance their designs at the end using markers. So there was no rush to finish early and no hanging around either, so an ideal workshop.

And lastly there was no traffic and I got fed ;)  

Feedback:

At the end of the workshop, one of the mums came up to me and commented on how good her sons canvas was (which it was, it was one of the best, I will add a photo at the bottom of this post), and more suprisingly, that he doesn't like art, and dislikes it when he does it at school. 

One of the ladies from Mencap also commented at the end of the session, that the group usually struggles to stay engaged for long periods of time and that she was really impressed that they were fully concentrated for the full 4 hours.

The second piece of feedback is something I hear quite a lot when working with SEN groups as well as young offenders. I have always known Graffiti Workshops are great for group engagement for any group of young people, and hearing this feedback again and again really backs this up. 

 SEN Graffiti Workshops are something I am very passionate about, and I am sure I will write more on them soon. Till then...

 

The Urban Fitness Co

We painted this graffiti mural for the Urban Fitness Co in London. Took a lot longer than planned due to it not being from the ground up, and having to run up and down a ladder all day, but a good result I think. Went to McDonalds for lunch but kept that quiet from the owner.

http://www.graffworkshop.co.uk

Graffiti Bedroom - A Home Decor Revolution

This is for SEO for the website so I wouldn't bother reading it, its probably very boring, the photo is mine though
Graffiti has been for a long time and has constantly been receiving praises as well as rejections to as whether it would be considered as an art and not just trash that pollute the streets all over the world. But even with all the judgement this art has received, it continuously tried to evolve into something that is very popular today. Why these designs are so famous today in the art world as well as the design world?

• Attractive – Let’s face it, when you first look at Graffiti art your very first impression would be “what is that?” or something that would clearly explain the fact that you do not understand what you are seeing. But once you get to know and see the patterns that are associated with the designing process of such art-works then you will start to appreciate them.
• New – Graffiti is new to the design and art world which makes it very interesting to the eyes of the audience. It keeps that intrigue and the interest factor alive when it comes to appreciating the art of Graffiti.
• Aspiring – When talking about Graffiti art you are talking about a very aspiring piece of art that clearly gives you the idea of what the artist is trying to say to you through their fingertips and spray can bottle. Definitely something that you want to spend the time learning on how to appreciate the art as a whole.

The best designs that would go well with different personalities

1. Rebel – This is the most common factor that clearly emphasizes the character behind Graffiti bedrooms designs. It is a clear manifestation of rebellion in which paintings are taken to the next level and being brought together as one junction of art creating this wonderful random-like piece.

2. Spontaneous – Another perfect word that can explain the art work of Graffiti would be spontaneous. The fact that you just paint anything that you want and come up with very great art-work calls for some really serious spontaneous painting skills. This is the reason why Graffiti painting is one of the most spontaneous things you can do in your life.

3. Style – Some people call it grunge some people call it street. There are different names that best consider the style behind good graffiti. This can be easily compared to the style allocated in creating these incredible designs.

When choosing the right design for your room you need to make sure that you incorporate your designs with your personality as well. This will not only make your room look “you”, it will also make a perfect representation on which you really are inside. So if you want to make your room not only stand out you need to make sure that you choose what’s best for you. Take time to browse the web for designs that would best suit your taste and style. With hundreds of designs on the internet today you can easily look for the best one for you.

HMV goes in to administration

The Gramophone Company, based in the United Kingdom, was one of the early recording companies, and was the parent organization for the famous "His Master's Voice" (HMV) label. Although the company was merged with another in 1931 to form Electric and Musical Industries Limited (EMI), the company title as "The Gramophone Company Limited" continued in use in the UK into the 1970s

Going in to HMV today was a sad experience. Even though I contributed to their downfall by not buying physical copies of music any more, being lazy and using itunes, they refused to evolve and paid the price. They were playing old school classics and walking around the store knowing it was about to die sucked. 

Gonna miss not being able to walk around HMV looking for something specific and not being able to find it. Either way i got 12 DVDs for £17 so can't complain

Evolve or Die

http://www.graffworkshop.co.uk

 

Graff Workshop - Citroen H Van 2013

Two Graff Workshop artists will be painting one of these bad boy Citroen H Vans next week. The van has just been converted from a pick up, in to a Mexican food van. We're going to be painting it all in purples as requested from the client, so I am sure its going to look awesome. 

So we have a 5am start to get up north, for a full days painting at the conversion shop, probably going to be a two day job and we have been offered a floor (whole floor..as in a whole floor of a house) as well as dinner and beer so great result there :D

Pictures and videos soon...

http://www.graffworkshop.co.uk

http://www.graffitipros.co.uk

Dublin 2012

9-10th October 2012.
http://www.graffworkshop.co.uk
This was a little while ago but was a Graff Workshop first, so worthy of comment. Three of us were paid to go to Dublin for a night to paint live on stage...in front of 1000 people for the food chain Iceland. For their annual manager party.

Wake up at 2am and pick up Josh from Bristol. Then drive to the Midlands to pick up Chris. Then off to Holyhead North Wales (middle of nowhere and hours away) to get the ferry across to Dublin. One speeding ticket and one wrong turn and we arrive early, at about 7:30am.

Get a few winks on the ferry, in between exploring and doing a few designs for the event that evening. We get to Dublin, find the conference centre, show our faces and get told we need to stay there till the evening. So we see what we need to do and sneak off to the hostel to get a bit more sleep and some dinner before the evening. We would usually stay in a hotel but someone managed to book us in to a hotel in Belfast instead of Dublin. Couldn't get a refund on the hotel so had to go cheap.

So after a stroll round Dublin we drive back to the conference centre through the horrible Belfast one way system. We paint the dancers costumes and the ladders we are using and get backstage. At around 21:00 we're told we have an hour till we go on stage so me and Chris have a wonder round. At 21:20 we are told to go on stage early so we all wait behind our stages. We each have a large stage to paint using UV spray paint, and all the stages surround a huge venue with 1000 people having dinner.

Anyway we get our designs done and it all looks great. We get off stage and celebrate with a Guiness or two, back to the hostel and up at 7am the next morning to catch the ferry back to England.

All in a days work

Graffiti Bedrooms

http://www.graffworkshop.co.uk
http://www.graffitibedrooms.com
http://www.graffitibedroom.co.uk
Graff Workshop recently decided to revamp our Graphic Graffiti Bedrooms. Something better than our competition. And luckily we were given two walls at a clients house with a brief consisting of: 'whatever colours you like' :D which is always nice. Here they are from todays job

Facebook

So I have been using Facebook for the last year to show off and try and get people to 'like' Graff Workshop. It has cost a lot of money in Facebook ads and to be honest there wasn't really much point to it, apart from getting more 'likes' on the photos I post, its good for ego inflation but not a lot else.

So anyway I will be cutting back on the Facebook use and trying to move over here, to write down stuff and hope people will find it interesting..unlikely. Its sole purpose will probably be for me to look back on in five years and remember what was going on.

Graff Workshop has just finished year two and it was a great year. Expanding from workshops at schools and councils, into workshops at young offenders establishments, learning difficulty groups, and also entering the graffiti bedrooms marker which is a lot of fun.

We recently found an excellent workshop artist who gets really good feedback every time. She has been a huge asset to the company and gets first dibs on workshops nowadays.

We have also acquired loads of websites this year, and set up www.graffitipros.co.uk to serve the high end commission market.