123 KLAN

Profile: 123klan

“You can’t stop it – graffiti is bigger than politics and even bigger than the United Nations.” 

Step aside – 123klan 

has 

arrived…

Society still has an ambivalent attitude to graffiti. Multinational corporations pay graffiti artists to perform live writing events in building foyers, while their freelance counterparts are getting their collars felt for tagging the outsides of the same buildings. It’s a question of ownership.

The French duo known only as Scien and Klor has come in from the cold. Together, they founded 123klan in 1992, christening their graffiti writing outfit with a name that is now as much a design practice as it is a street culture totem. Their client list includes the likes of Sony, Carhartt and Stussy.

Nowadays 123klan still does live graffiti exhibits around the world, but also produces books, customises toys and generally makes the world a better place to be. “We used to be wanted by the police,” says Scien. “Now we’re wanted by clients

Making the move to screen
123klan’s unconventional roots meant that while its members may have been certain about design, design itself still needed convincing. Luckily, Scien’s timing was spoton. “We took our first steps in 1994 and 95,” he says. “Graphic design at that time wasn’t that big, like it is today.” There was more virgin territory to be explored.

Those first steps were taken on an old Apple Macintosh Performa runningIllustrator 5. “We had to learn everything by ourselves. For exercises, we started to do what we usually do: graffiti writing.”

This relatively seamless assimilation of digital technology is what makes 123klan special. They’ve become polished professionals without ever losing touch with their roots. The most valuable thing they brought with them from the world of graffiti is an obsession with originality. “From the beginning,” says Scien, “we always tried to work out our own style, just to be different and original. Even when you do something fun, you have to be professional. You have to work hard to make it look like it was really simple to do, when in reality it’s not. Step by step, you come up with something original and professional.”

Graffiti has never been a convenient shortcut to originality. It’s a school of thought with a certain creative heritage, but it’s no longer about being born with a spray can in your hand, somewhere in the Bronx. Graffiti has grown up, says Scien. “There is no one place to be from any more because of the internet. Even if you come from a small unknown town, if you’ve got skill, you will get noticed.”

The great thing about working as a designer is the freedom to be creative. Clients come to 123klan solely because they want its artists to do what they do best: freestyle. “Our job has no routine,” says Scien. “We are happy for a while, and we start over again and again. You always have to evolve, crash everything done in the past and make it look better.”

website www.123klan.com

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=uQvFdbBo_GU