Shepard Fairey Designs Occupy Wall Street Times Square Invitation

Shepard Fairey, the graphic designer behind Barack Obama's iconic "Hope" posters, is showing his support for Occupy Wall Street protestors with an invitation to join demonstrations as they move uptown to Times Square on Saturday.

The invitation strikes up a 1960's, Black Power movement theme with an image of an African American woman wearing an Afro hairstyle. Underneath the woman, Fairey calls to "the Awake and Inspired" to join protestors:

...with music, performance and a message that the people of this country - not the banks, not the corporations - hold the true power.participate in a stunning moment expressing hope and a new vision for the future - and showing our solidarity with the people who have already been occupying Wall Street for weeks.

Editor of art blog Hyperallergic Hrag Vartanian underscores the significance of Fairey's design to WNYC by noting, "I think it’s really great that it’s an upward looking positive image, as well as it tries to tie together a little bit of the radicalism of the 60’s with today."

Back in 2008, Fairey vaulted onto pop culture phenomenon territory with his symbolic "Hope" image supporting then presidential candidate Barack Obama. Fairey discussed how the poster went viral and became the symbolic answer for many Americans who wanted to show their support:

I think what then happened was that there were a lot of people who were digging Obama but they didn't have any way to symbolically show their support. Once there was an image that represented their support for Obama then that became their Facebook image or their email signature or something they use on their MySpace page.

From the beginning, Occupy Wall Street protestors have creatively used posters to convey their frustrations and demands. Fairey's Times Square invitation could have the potential to be the new face uniting all protestors' messages.

Take a look at the powerful signs we've seen below:

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Comments

[Jaime Rojo & Steven Harrington]

05:48 PM on 10/22/2011

Fairey designed this image a number of years ago. It was not designed for Occupy Wall Street.

[the good word]

05:32 AM on 10/21/2011

The photo he used is a woman from an old Newport cigarettes ad. Not Angela Davis.

google "obey giant panther power" and look in image results

http://www.google.com/imgres?q=obey+giant+panther+power&um=1&hl=en&client=safari&rls=en&biw=1495&bih=844&tbm=isch&tbnid=lkueIf11XASoGM:&imgrefurl=http://forum.thegiant.org/viewtopic.php%3Ff%3D6%26t%3D18999%26start%3D0&docid=O6VqFNAYDK-MBM&itg=1&imgurl=http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/2993/66600317.jpg&w=787&h=1024&ei=eTmhTtWDIYigtwf57NmeBQ&zoom=1

[Basil Fawlty]

06:46 PM on 10/19/2011

Kind of ironic considering how few blacks have gotten involved with OWS.

[drymounted]

02:55 PM on 10/19/2011

This is far from a new image. This was created in 2007, and it is called "Panther Party".
See here: http://obeygiant.com/prints/panther-power

[cityprole]

01:10 PM on 10/18/2011

This reminds me of Angela Davis, who was my personal inspiration back in the 60's...
Great image and invitation, although, of course, the jealous non-creators will jump all over Fairey, as usual...glad to see he carries on despite all the horse pucky....

[the good word]

09:56 PM on 10/20/2011

The image rather reminds me of Kathleen Cleaver (wife of Eldridge Cleaver) with the rounded jaw, the shape of her nose and upturned lip line. Plus, Cleaver wore turtlenecks with jackets in a lot of photos.

Fairey doesn't credit his sources, though, which is irksome because it leaves out the historical context of the images.

[medialv2]

01:58 AM on 10/18/2011

The dude takes old photos and uses a photoshop filter on them.

Graphic design deserves a better representative. Wack.

[iglooink]

10:03 AM on 10/20/2011

give me a day or two i will see what i can do..... :)

[GirlInNYC]

11:23 PM on 10/17/2011

Fonkay. I have the late actress who played Cleopatra Jones as my HP image, so I love it. But I'd rather that image be reserved for a real black-oriented movement, which needs to take place as well. I see the OWS protests as predominantly Caucasian, so a black power soul sista image doesn't connect the dots for me. Hmmm. Love it though, artistically. I'd like to see a crowd image with various races repping OWS.

[Always Conservative]

09:26 PM on 10/17/2011

Nice bit of plagiarism....

[CrawfishFestival]

05:48 PM on 10/17/2011

Since Al Sharpton called for blacks to protest at the Occupy Wall Street events, now the protests are finally integrated.

[CrawfishFestival]

04:28 PM on 10/17/2011

Angela Davis-style image.........

[Poppa D]

07:39 PM on 10/16/2011

Shepard Fairey rose to fame by visually plagiarising an AP photo with one standard photoshop filter now has tried to symbolize the Occupy Wall Street movement with an old Black Power poster from the late sixties. Much more original thought that captures the spirit of Occupy Wall Street movement can be seen on ArtandResponse.com, particularly the American Pie Painting.

[CrawfishFestival]

04:30 PM on 10/17/2011

@ Poppa D:

Thanks for the information.

....and probably he received GRANT money through the NEA.....

[SueEll]

10:37 PM on 10/17/2011

Shepard Fairey made political poster art hot again. He made Americans want more, and not just from him. Graphic designers should be pleased. (I am.)

[project cooper]

04:53 PM on 10/16/2011

Man how original, can't wait for them to bring back "Amos & Andy".

[Paul Gnu]

09:47 PM on 10/17/2011

There is nothing original if he stole the image and changed it up.He is as original as vanilla ice!

[Flying Sparkz1]

04:16 PM on 10/16/2011

I like it. Wallstock Nation! The artist creates the art.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SboRijhWFDU&NR=1

[evenbogee]

03:12 PM on 10/16/2011

Looks likes a Radical muslim. Here we go again, race is the defining theme, typical Liberals.

[aforbes808]

04:24 PM on 10/16/2011

How do you figure? She looks like one of my best friends who, funny enough, works for Merrill Lynch in Battery Park. Also, you can keep your liberal label. Although most protesters are probably liberal, the message they are conveying is not liberal or conservative, it is right vs. wrong. BTW- Not a big fan of the poster. If there is a face of the occupy wall street movement, it is the face of everyone. Look in the mirror.

Seeing the world beyond my front door.
Pragmatic American = Self-interest rightly understood.

[Anym]

10:24 PM on 10/16/2011

How is that picture representative of Radical Islam?

[norepublicanleftbehind]

01:49 PM on 10/16/2011

Nice try but it's not the Black Panther party. I'd like to see something multi racial and inclusive that really reflects the 99%. It's not about race, it's about class.
-

[Giverny]

05:05 PM on 10/17/2011

Much like the labor mural that was torn from the walls of the labor department in Maine. The federal Government paid for the mural so they want their money back now that they took it down. It depicted the labor class.

http://wonkette.com/442268/u-s-labor-department-wants-money-it-gave-maine-for-mural-thing

[GirlInNYC]

11:25 PM on 10/17/2011

True.