Graffiti4hire speak with Layerform Design Magazine

Graffiti time baby!

Layerform.com recently had chance to catch up with Graffiti4hire, a British Born company devoted to providing their clients with the highest quality Graffiti Artwork, whether its a feature wall in the bedroom of a young boy, or whether its a full scale commission for the likes of Facebook, Google, Sony and many more! Quoted from their website, they are “arguably the worlds first graffiti company”. Going from strength to strength, they have opened offices across the world, so being a fully creative company at heart, we thought we would ask them a few questions! So lets get started!

1 Can you give us a brief overview of what G4H does and how it all started?

Graffiti4Hire is a creative agency based around graffiti aesthetics and quite arguably the world’s first graffiti company, with subsidiaries in Spain and Hong Kong. Trading since 2009 we started as just three friends and tried to set a trend and the example to many companies on what graffiti could offer, turning the art form into a genuine service.

What makes G4H different is having a separated design team, sales team and full time graffiti artists to ensure customer satisfaction. We all had our roles and really pushed the idea of a brand from the off set to seperate us from individual artists. We have continued to grow each year and perform work across the globe. Works range from large scale murals to cruise liners to children’s bedrooms; we offer a diverse portfolio to suit all types of client that can be seen at graffiti4hire.co.uk Based at the custard factory, the creative hub of Birmingham for the past 4 years we champion the second city as much as we can when working with some of the top brands and hope to continue to in the next chapter.

2What does the average day look like for a G4H artist?

Well as i said before design and artists are seperated with a few guys that overlap, this means that they concentrate soley on painting and are out on the road most days Monday – Friday 9.30am till 6pm like any regular job. We cover the whole of the uk with certain artists covering certain areas which means travel time can vary a lot with stop overs in some citys depending on the work for that day.

They need to collect the designs from the studio or from email as well as materials, check their calendar and off they go. Every day can be different as some of the larger jobs can take a few days to complete and locations can vary, but we do a lot of childrens bedrooms meaning an average day is probably hand painting 3 bedrooms.

3What are some of the best & biggest clients you have worked with?

Sometimes we have to stop and really take a look at our client list because since we started really, we have been working with some of the biggest brands and names out there, Facebook, Google, lynx , yahoo and sony to name drop a few. But we treat every client the same so for us it just becomes part of the norm and on to the next. We dont want to rely on the clients we have but the work we produce and our work really changes from client to client so some of our best pieces of art have been for families and not just the bigger names.

4How far (in your own opinion) has Graffiti come as an artform?

This is a difficult one for me to answer because i am not a graffiti artist, I studied Graphic Design at Uni and i just always appriciated it from a far as i think a lot of creatives do when then they start to look at differenet artforms when studying.

Graffiti has always had a certain type of following which was a little underground untill the art world decided to take street art and graffiti seserious which I think was a shift in culture more so, but of course the likes of Banksy which is a name that we hear a lot when dealing with clients and briefs did open up a whole new platform for graffiti. With out that change in trend i dont think we could have the business we have today on the scale we have it, i think you will always find people who appricate it but there was much more of a stigma attached. There is still a stigma attached to graffiti especially in the UK over Europe but people are more open to the idea and working with graffiti artists on a daily basis and seeing what can be achieved with a spray can and the talent behind it i have even more appriciation for it and i think people are still yet to really see that side of the artform. But i love that because it really allows us to wow our clients on a daily basis.

5Graffiti can often have a stigma attached to it via the media, what are your thoughts on this?

As above i think its just a bit unfair really, but then it is down to personal tastes. Not everyone is ging to like graffiti and when it is primarily something that is found in the streets and without permission its going to divide opionions. What we do is simply take the artform and use it in a commercial way. People generally come to us because they like graffiti and give us permission so it doesnt really effect us in that sense but it can be a bit disheartening when people constantly refer to it in a negative way and have a predetermined view of who we are and what we do. Most of the time we win them over though.

6Who are the biggest inspirations in the world of Graffiti?

I passed this around the office with a few suggestions thrown in:

peeta, brusk, bezt, sainer, vesod, ziner, smash 137, Revok,

7Is Graffiti a hard art form to learn and develop?

I think it’s no different to any form of art, if you’re interested, creative and put the time in then its the same. Theres a lot of different styles and ways to be creative its whatever works for you?

8What does the future hold in store for G4H?

Hopefully more of the same, we really couldnt be happier with the way that things have grown while still sticking to the same core values and goals we always had. We have a sisiter company in Spain and really want to Push our Hong Kong website this year so i guess more notariety world wide. The end game is to still be doing what we love in 10years time.

9How can people find you and the work you offer?

We have all the relevant social media outlets, as many as possible (links below) and Website www.graffiti4hire.co.uk.