Blek Le Rat

It's been over three decades since Blek Le Rat started stenciling around Paris. Without a shadow of a doubt, he's the pioneer and, looking at his back history it's interesting to see where the medium developed from. It's a shame so few people even know of him, in comparison to the other B word anyway.

He's got an exhibition on at White Walls Gallery in San Francisco which is on now and finishes on 5th June 2010.

I'd also recommend getting his book, "Blek Le Rat - Getting Through The Walls" which is out through Thames & Hudson. I got my copy signed by Blek Le Rat when he was promoting the book at London Graphic Centre and, amazingly, there was virtually nobody there.

The Toasters

Found this in a drawer the other day, it was given to me by one of the Toasters collective back in something like 2000 (or 2001 maybe?) when we helped out on a graphic design student thingemy up north. Was tough to have a conversation with at points, as was generally looking for places to stick these. Walking through the streets you'd just hear the occasional twang of a bestickered hand slapping a lamp post.