OBEY ARCHIVES: Giant Van

I created the Giant Van in 1997 as a tribute to a series of graphics made by type foundry House Industries. I had mostly transitioned to the Constructivist aesthetic for my art and prints, but I still enjoyed a bit of hijacking pop art and pop culture imagery now and then. House did a catalog design for French Paper Co’s custom papers featuring 70’s style type, vans, and muscle cars. I had begun using some French Speckletone paper, and when I got the catalog, I was very inspired by what House created with a nostalgic and humorous vibe similar to some of the things the Beastie Boys were doing with their graphics and videos in the 90s. I still did not know how to use the computer at that point, so the art was made with rubylith cut illustrations and text that was cut and pasted from type books or text I found on the computer but did not yet know how to manipulate or drop into layouts. The irony is that House Industries made typefaces designed to make headline and display type easier to create on the computer, but I didn’t know how to do any of that yet! The House “collaboration” they did not participate in was luckily well-received by them as an homage, and we became friends and collaborators on many projects. –Shepard