Swindle Magazine

I’ve been a fan of Swindle Magazine since I picked up a copy in Miami 2 years ago. I love the features, includig fashion, Music, Arts and Artist profiles. Since my Photography school business instructor wanted us to create a blog, I chose to do more research on Swindle Magazine.

Swindle is a definitive pop culture and lifestyle publication, printed in both hard and soft copies as a coffeetable book. Swindle is a beautifully designed magazine reporting culture, design, fashion, artist profiles and social and political views around the world. Swindle was founded in 2004 by Shepard Fairey, whom is a leader in the field of art, design, publishing and marketing. Shepard is a 1989 graduate of R.I. School of Design. Shepard made his mark while working at a skateboard shop in Providence, R.I. where he began making Tshirts and stickers, famously known as “OBEY”. Shepard grabbed media attention when he designed a sticker of Andre the giant (Andre the Giant has a Posse), and began posting them with the help of friends, all over the world. These stickers have been seen in Boston, NY, LA, Tokyo and Hong Kong. Shepard designed the sticker as a means of gaining attention, and slapping them up as a kind of mass psychology test, “What does the average person make of a public sign”, that is essentially meaningless. The sticker bears the image of the late WWF Wrestler, Andre the Giant.

Shepard has been interviewed by well-known publications such as Time, GQ, Pelican, Details, Bizarre, Boston’s Weekly Dig, Boston Globe, International Tattoo Magazine…just to name a few. Shepard has also designed some figures for PBC Toy Company. Shepard is also a graffiti artist, who believes in creating clean space, art that attracts people, networking and providing jobs to creative individuals. Shepard now has 40 individuals employed by him, within his many business ventures. Shepard, being FOR illegal graffiti, believes unused space is motivation to create something beautiful. Shepard believes the idea that you will always make an impact on someone, no matter what you do.

Being in love with Swindle Magazine and the research I’ve done, has driven me more so to keep on top with the latest happenings, and plan to possibly submit work to them in the future. I was talking with a friend yesterday, who also has an interest in photography. She had posted a few new images to her portfolio, one of which caught my eye. She has an image of a car she shot down the street from my house last week when she was visting, that happened to have Andre the Giant stickers all over them, with the name “Shepard” written accross the side. I’ll take it as a sign:

You can find Swindle Magazine online at:

http://swindlemagazine.com/