OBEY

Shepard Fairey the creator and brains behind these amazing pieces of art and has to be by far one of my favourite designers/graffiti artists. His brand OBEY has spread from just basic prints, to t-shirt designs and even onto tattoo designs. His street art is known worldwide with his recognisable star logo and minimal block colour designs, above is an example of how simple but effective his style is showing it isn't all about vibrant colours and heavily edited images.

More now than ever before there has been a lot of political messages presented in Fairey's work, this ideology can sometimes be considered offensive but isn't it the controversial pieces of design that attract the most attention? The image above isn't one of his political pieces but a more intricate filigree design. In the centre is the recognisable star logo with the eyes in the centre staring right out at the viewer, drawing your eyes into the middle of the image. His use of thin and thick lines I feel is a big contributor to this design, as the thicker the line the more noticeable it is, therefore drawing the eye to the heart of the image and then working its way out. 

Make Art Not War-
I think out of all Shepard Fairey's designs this has to be a personal favourite above. 'Make Art Not War' originated from John Lennon's 'Make Love, Not War' and is pretty self expressive meaning spread love through something that makes you happy, in my personal case art. Instead of devastation through war which in this day and age is constantly going on. 
I loved this design and it's meaning so much that I decided to get it as a tattoo back in Christmas 2012 on my upper left thigh. It isn't an exact representation with the addition of text but the most striking aspect for me was the Hawaiian girl, as she is looking directly out at you drawing you into the image. The basis of using just three colours also made this piece so successful in my opinion, a saying by Abram Games is really relevant in this instance, "maximum meaning, minimum means" essentially stating the simpler the design the more you will gain from it.