Shepard Fairey

He married Amanda Ayala in December 2001. The couple has two daughters: Vivienne and Madeline.

He was born as Frank Shepard Fairey on February 15, 1970, in Charleston, South Carolina, to Strait Fairey, a doctor, and his wife, Charlotte, a realtor.

He was blessed with a creative mind and started experimenting with art as a young teen by placing his artworks on skateboards and T-shirts. As a youngster he was also known to adorn public places by sticking his posters to walls using a paste of wheat flour and water.

He went to the prestigious Idyllwild School of Music and the Arts in Idyllwild, California, from where he graduated in 1988.

He was easily accepted into the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) following his graduation. While he was a student at the RISD he took up a part time job in a Providence skateboarding shop.

Once in 1989 his friend asked him how to create a stencil. Shepard Fairey took a newspaper ad for a professional wrestling match featuring Andre the Giant, and created his own poster featuring the wrestler with the text ‘ANDRE THE GIANT HAS A POSSE 7'. He then altered the image and wrote “OBEY” in a stylized font beneath it. The OBEY image, though created with little planning, went on to become a sensation, and soon the young artist became quite popular.

He started his first business venture, Alternate Graphics, in 1992 while he was still studying at RISD. Following his graduation he continued managing his business which was proving to be quite successful.

His company specialized in T-shirt and sticker silkscreens, and also created skateboards and posters. Along with his business he also took up small commercial printing jobs for clients. The income he earned through these ventures allowed him to pursue his own artwork alongside.

He met the American filmmaker Helen Stickler in 1994. Later on Stickler completed a short documentary film about Shepard and his work, titled ‘Andre the Giant has a Posse’ which premiered in the 1995 New York Underground Film Festival.

Shepard Fairey, along with Dave Kinsey and Phillip DeWolff founded the design studio BLK/MRKT Inc. in 1997. The studio specialized in guerrilla marketing, and "the development of high-impact marketing campaigns", and worked with several prestigious clients such as Pepsi, Hasbro, and Netscape. The partners split in 2003.

In 2003, he founded the Studio Number One design agency in collaboration with his wife Amanda Fairey. The agency designed the cover work for The Black Eyed Peas' album ‘Monkey Business’ and the poster for the film ‘Walk the Line’.

Shepard Fairey is best known as the creator of the "HOPE" portrait which he made supporting Barack Obama's 2008 candidacy for President of the United States. A stylized stencil portrait of Obama in solid red, beige and blue, with the word “HOPE” below it, the poster became an icon of the 2008 presidential election.