INTERNATIONAL PARIS CONFERENCE ON SOCIAL SCIENCES – III FULL TEXTS BOOK ISBN: 978 -605 -69877 -3-1 Paris – FRANCE November 15 -17 2019 www.iksadparis.org 371 pariskongresi@gmail.com BRAND OF STREET ART: KEITH HARING İrem BİLGİ Ankara Hacı Bayram Veli Üniversitesi, Güzel Sanatlar Fakültesi, Görsel İletişim Tasarımı Bölümü, Arş. Gör. ABSTRACT Street art is generally considered as the sub-cultural field. Graffiti and illustrations we see in the side- streets, wrecks and derelict buildings in our country and in the world have an impact that mostly feeds hip-hop culture and includes political manifestations or entertaining messages. The legitimation process of illegal street art took long. Even though many of the street artists hide their name or face due to illegal reasons, some artists succeeded in gaining acceptance and recognition all over the world with their real identity or pseudonym. One of these artists, Keith Haring’s iconic illustrations he drew on the walls of New York subway station in 80s today have become an inspiration to popular brands. Legitimateness among street artists has undoubtedly become the accomplishment of Keith Karing in this field. The cooperation of the artist with the world-renowned famous brands has significantly enriched the value of the street art. Keywords: Keith Haring, Street Art, Branding, Illustration, Visual art INTRODUCTION Mankind has been painting the walls since ancient times. Even though adventure of painting wall starting with cave paining has turned into pictograms or signboards for informative purposes, today’s modern street art starts in 1970s. “We can say that street art has increased, especially in subway station especially in 1970s. This movement started in Philadelphia, where political environment that emerged in 1960s was redefined; political activists made statements defining the borders of their neighborhood (Hunter, 2012, p.22). The street art, which spread especially in USA, has survived till today feeding on hip hop and skateboarding culture. Street artists assert that art is not only made up of galleries, and it should embrace every segment of society. According to Chalfant, street art is based upon the creativity of the alienated communities of America in the second half of twenty first century. It is giving inspiration to individuals in similar conditions in an increasingly urbanized world where the gap between the rich and the poor widens (Lewisohn, 2010, s:8). Chamberlin defined street art as “Street art is both a global movement and a reflection of the community. Style and content may vary from city to city, from country to country to some extent…It is the prominent and dynamic part of a city and its communities and it can be an energetic communication tool which is smart and inciting, full of symbolism, metaphoric and interactive. It is sometimes political, open to community awareness, it may provoke, challenge and take delight (Chamberlin, 2016). Although this entertaining language mostly feeds on graffiti, concepts of “graffiti” and “street art” should not be confused. Street art and graffiti are considered as separate fields. Street art should appeal to large masses. Generally illustration-illustration and typography or only typography is diversified with the combinations of handwriting called as hand lettering. As for graffiti, it is a graphical style composed of handwritten letters and which is mostly unreadable. Graffiti artists use a language that can be only comprehended by graffiti artists.