Im adding this because it fits right into a series of other posts ive been working on regarding various aspects of style writing. This is an elongated version of a post on Flickr regarding a conversation on style, invention and re-invention.

On style and Progression in Style Writing

Image creation is a mix of pure subjectivity (i’m just feeling it)  and objective metrics (line, shape, volume, color, proportion, etc…), Graff adds on to these.

Im am personally amazed that kids 14-18 (give or take) could do shit that is continuing to inspire hundreds, if not thousands 25 years later, and whats more many of us, much older are still not as successful (i’ll speak for myself here).
And so it was and is… easier at the early stages of a movement to set the Canons of the form; the tag, the throw-up, the simple and straight letter, the wild style, the arrow, the bubble, the star, the 3d, the drop shadow…etc
So if you consider yourself to be an Active Style Writer, you’re working with these canons, in some way shape or form. Its up to you to use them how you want. Get 5 Writers in a room and ask them what there goals are you’re gonna get 13 answers.

To me the only way to look at pieces is as if were any other piece of art, so you can judge it on, form, balance, use of space, color, depth volume, narrative, and so on…
however if your looking at Style Writing then along with that you can throw in some of the graff-handi caps that ether soften your level of criticism, heighten your level of awe, or contribute to your feeling of over all ambivalence. Handi-caps being, location, legality, and the effort put in based on the prior, for example… Some so-so stuff can be a flop artistically but can be real solid based on say being done in some super high profile or otherwise dangerous place, and at the same time some shit that might be a breeze to do on a take your time legal wall, done on a highway, only makes that shit that much HARDER, no homo.

So if you’re paying attention to style writing and you check for writers, you can see who uses their own voices, who are developing their own voices and those that will be ventriloquists till they die.
That said you cant discount that power of the zeitgeist (not that dumb ass conspiracy theory youtube crap). The Idea that there can be a spirit of the times that inspires people in disparate places into creating very similar ideas. Were in a media blitz, its hard to be only person to see something or the only person to be inspired by like ideas;
What is important to remember is this, our first generation wasn’t inspired by Style Writing, they were responding to what they were exposed to, signage, movies, cartoons comics, and ideas they developed become canons as they bounced around enough to stick and become acceptably generic. Generic in the sense that, arrows are a form, and people used them for various reasons, ‘look at me’ arrows pointing ar your shit, ‘im taking over and spreading’ ‘watch me now’ arrows coming out of your letters.  Clearly if they werent checking for it but could canonize it, it makes no sense to think that solely being inspired by your form isn’t gonna create some incestuous and ill begotten forms; OUtside your form is the key to life…But that too depends on where you are and what you want to do. Some people are cool with the power of repetition, some people like the endless versioning and morphing. A cookie cutter type you can see the same thing at any point in there career, there is a consistency to the cokie cutter. It is a there Brand, there ford logo not ever to be confused, haile rains snaow or dark of night, name recognition is key. A versioner goes up and down as they work though ideas and try and add to success or fix failures. Looking and anyone random flick from a versioner might not leave you with an accurate impression of what they are about, The versioner builds a body of work and when view as a body their strengths and experiments take on a power of their own. There are those that don’t give a fuck and just go do what ever they feel like doing. And there are some hard core traditionalists that want to keep what the see as an important style or thing alive, so they do it still. To me keeping shit interesting is what is about, and that for me can comes from anything and everything, there is nothing that cant be extrapolated from, its the Mix youre dropping; As a dj i have all the records you do, how you rock with them separates the real from the memorex.

as of 5:52 this is how i feel… ***feelings are subject to change with out notification, ask instead of Assuming