I am not sure what you all think about when you see "Old English" type, but I think of cholos (mexican/american gang members...remember?). It's common in my hometown to view cholo graffiti using "old english" font. It eventually, depending on the graffiti writer becomes stylized and exaggerated, but for the most part, the common "old english" letters are a default for cholo-gang graffiti.
In a way I see myself: old ENLGISH (my father's side) and cholo/mexican (my mother's side). Mix them together, and what do you get? ME!!
Also, the cholos using "old English" font makes me wonder about why it was originally used to represent their gang culture. Was it used for aesthetic reasons or as a means for subversion(détournement), or for other reasons?
Ooh, lovely. Made me think of this: http://www.graffiti.org/faq/stowers.html
ReplyDeleteThanks, Odette. I actually read it and have to disagree with him about "tags" as not being art/artistic. You know how many hours and pages upon pages of sketches are compiled for a tagger or writer to brand their "tag"? Sheez, Louise.
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