Paying Artists for Advertisement Design: Is It Art or Is It Business?
In New York City we are surrounded by all different varieties of art. We cross paths with street performers (wearing varying amounts of clothing) outside of Times Square and Grand Central. Every time we commute to and from the Subway station we likely pass by graffiti paintings sprayed onto the sides of skyscrapers. This constant exposure to art is one of the defining characteristics of the city, and few New Yorkers would advocate decreasing investment in the arts.
But we are also constantly bombarded with advertisements at such a high concentration that it is difficult not to become overwhelmed. I would challenge anyone to find a ten-foot radius in the city without a single advertisement. So what happens when these two defining characteristics of New York City are merged into one?
Many companies have begun to hire artists to design their advertising campaigns: experts in the fields of media design, graphics, sculpture and painting. In New York City especially, great efforts have been made towards the ‘beautification’ of advertising. Stores are doing much more than plastering posters on the side of a subway car; they are recruiting painters and sculptures to create ads that double as art. But can these advertising campaigns really be considered works of art? If artists are given so many parameters: what canvas to paint on, which logos to use, and which slogans to incorporate, can they simultaneously maintain a sense of artistic integrity?
In general this relationship has been positive. Artists who may otherwise be unemployed are able to earn a salary and we as consumers have something more interesting to look at than a generic billboard. In fact, over the past decade this concept of using art as advertising has gained significant traction throughout the city. Four years ago Hugo Boss set up what they termed an ‘outdoor gallery’ of murals around Lower Manhattan. The company paid artists to paint wall designs that were eye-catching and that also included the logo and brand name ‘Hugo Boss.’ But, aside from these details, the murals were created at the discretion of the artists. An article in The L Magazine that featured this outdoor gallery stated that these murals ‘confounded’ the distinction between art and advertising.
Today there is a company based in SoHo that is devoted entirely to bridging the gap between these two sectors. In 2004 Colossal Media was created with the express intention of bringing new life both to the marketing industry and to the steel and whitewashed exterior of New York City. In their mission statement, the founders of Colossal Media make it clear that they consider their advertisements art. They compare their employees to the “the wall dogs who graced New York City’s facades during the 1920’s -1940’s, the peak years of hand painted outdoor advertising.” The company even offers an apprenticeship program to cultivate artists with the skillset necessary for the unique demands of outdoor artwork.
Over the past nine years Colossal Media has substantially expanded in size, taking on new and larger clients who clearly want to capitalize on the augmented public appreciation of artistic advertisements. They have created ad campaigns for Heineken, Marc Jacobs, Vans, Halo, Pepsi, Disney and dozens of others: the list is impressive. But even though the company has grown in terms of capital and notoriety, its founders have still maintained their dedication to artistic integrity.
The Colossal Media website features an entire section devoted to the artistic process of creating these advertisements. There are dozens of videos available that chronologically show the path from a white wall to a work of art. The company interviews their artists and encourages them to give feedback about working on each advertising project. In fact one of the films, entitled Sky High, which followed the construction of a Stella Artois hand-painted ad, has become an award-winning documentary. One of the artists in the film states that his work is comparable to that of Michelangelo on The Sistine Chapel. Not in terms of skill perhaps, that would be an ambitious claim, but with regard to the means of construction. The Stella Artois ad was painted on the side of a skyscraper. The painters had to create an image with attention to light, shading, texture and brushstrokes all while suspended hundreds of feet in the air by thin metal cables. I dare anyone to say that that is not art.
This brand of advertising, whether you consider is an innovation or a throw-back to 1920’s hand-painted work, has received rave reviews. The media seems to be uniting behind the fact that these are not only advertisements but also works of art. The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal both published articles recognizing Colossal Media’s success. The New York Times article, entitled ‘For a Faded Tradition, a Fresh New Coat’ credits Colossal Media for nearly single-handedly reviving the technique of large scale, hand-painted advertisements. As the article points out, this technique is more expensive and is not as precise compared to a vinyl billboard, but is does take much more artistic skill. The Wall Street Journal article, entitled ‘Resurgence of a Dying Art, shares this sentiment:
“Most of New York’s commercial billboards are what Colossal’s artists—a cadre of painters who range from old-time sign painters to reformed graffiti artists—refer to derisively as “vinyl.” These ads get printed and then hung on billboards with little more ceremony than wallpaper. Colossal’s work—for clients such as Stella Artois, Bushmills Whiskey, H&M, Virgin Airlines, and, yes, even MOMA—is painstakingly painted by hand.”
These murals and hand-painted billboards are advertisements, but they are also art. If the work of Colossal Media and the artists responsible for the Hugo Boss gallery have taught us anything, it is that these two terms are not mutually exclusive. At any given time there are several dozen of these hand-painted advertisements put up around Manhattan. And I for one will consider all of the effort that went into them next time I walk by.
Works Cited
“About Us | Colossal Media.” Colossal Media. Colossal Media Group, 2013. Web. 20 Nov. 2013.
Gardner, Ralph, Jr. “Resurgence of a Dying Art.” Wall Street Journal. N.p., 20 May 2010. Web. 17 Nov. 2013.
Kurutz, Steven. “NEW YORK UP CLOSE; For a Faded Tradition, a Fresh New Coat.”The New York Times. The New York Times, 22 Oct. 2006. Web. 17 Nov. 2013.
Sutton, Benjamin. “The L Magazine.” The L Magazine. N.p., 14 Oct. 2009. Web. 17 Nov. 2013.
