STEPHANIE is the latest single from JetTricks (released as a digital download & limited pressing 7″ single in June) and the video is off the wall… literally! The tune features serious groove, a fat bassline, and the unmistakable & humorous lyrics from ‘the man with the tiger mask’ Shawn Lee.

The video is a visual collaboration between JetTricks, HutTwenty9 Video productions and one of Graffiti Life’s top artists.

Now go on, share the love and spread it on!

We’ve just wrapped up another massive live art performance at the first ever Great British Tattoo Show. We had a huge 14m white wall that we filled with super detailed marker pen artwork.

The show was held at Kensington Olympia and was the first tattoo convention to be held in this prestigious venue. Tattooers came from far and wide and the talent on display was world class, featuring British and international artists. It’s always inspiring for us to watch other artists and how they make their work as we can always learn something new to bring to our practices.

The crowds were also kept entertained by burlesque performances, fashion shows, some incredible break dancing displays and the skatepark area featuring some amazing BMXers. Then, of course, there was us and our pens! We worked away over the two days and our graffiti artists produced some bold imagery in front of the crowds. Each artist has a very different style ranging from old school graffiti to typography and graphics so the work was really varied. Lots of visitors were getting photos of our work and every now and then we would stop for a photo opportunity with one of the many alt models walking around. It’s a hard job, but somebody has to do it!

The team had seen some of our live art performances where we use marker pens to create artwork in a short space of time, and wanted to use this aspect of our work somehow. We had a brainstorm with the team and explained some of the cool things we could do with a video. Working with an animator we could bring our drawings to life and create something really inspiring. We decided to produce a public service announcement of sorts and got busy planning and storyboarding a piece to be broadcast on Welsh television in the lead up to the Olympic games.

With the piece planned we packed our bags and headed up to Cardiff to the Sports Wales Headquarters. It was a hectic day of drawing and filming as the ink began to flow and the story began to unfold. It was interesting experimenting with animation and the extra dimension it could bring to our work and meant thinking through each element of the story and what we could do to create a dynamic evolving artwork. Have a watch of the video, and if it inspires you to go out and have a kick about, don’t fight the feeling (even if you’re not Welsh)!

More than 60% of young people didn’t vote during the last election and our aim was to use graffiti to inspire young people to get out there and vote. We designed a scene with a character leaning against a London skyline. The idea was that London belongs to the young people that live here. We painted the words ‘Youth Vote London’ at the bottom of the piece, and chose a bright orange colour scheme to make the message stand out. The phrase #youthvotelondon had been used all over Twitter, virally spreading the message, which was further amplified once photos of our work began to circulate too.

We had a wicked time and met some really cool and inspiring people, who were all really drawn in by the live graffiti aspect of the event. Our street art skills were also noticed by UK rapper Sway, some members of the Eastenders Cast and Ken Livingstone who decided to get involved and started painting on the wall with us!

Every week Russell interviews someone who has been in the news and tries to work out what it is that they do. This week he had to guess the profession of expert breakdancer ‘Sunni’ who was in the news for taking second place at the World BBoy Championships. The producers of the show wanted an ‘urban’ backdrop to set the scene for the interview; this is where we came in. We arrived a few hours before the show was filmed and put together the structure, which was built of faux brick walls and a wall of ghettoblasters. We were given a very specific direction from the Good News team and quickly threw the paint around creating a traditional graffiti scene. Russell was walking around and at one point we had to hide, so as to not give him any clues about who his guest might be. In the often fake world of television we thought this was pretty cool, keeping Russell completely in the dark so that his reactions on camera were genuine.

One of Russell’s first guesses was that Sunni may be a graffiti artist, so we must have done a good job! We have a couple more set design jobs on the horizon, including a really exciting one for the Disney Channel – so watch this space.. Who knows where you might see our graffiti next!

Graffiti Life along side Bite the Ballot, Spirit Of London Awards, UpRise and London360 are giving you the opportunity to be part of the biggest voting Registration Rally for young people in the UK, in the run up to the London Mayoral Elections on May 3rd 2012 Many youth organisations as well as media partners will be present on the day. 

Its going to be a day of inspiration and ‘edutainment’ with special guest speakers, artists, dancers, comedians, a heap of celebrities and most importantly young Londoners! UK rapper Sway will be performing, check out this freestyle about YouthVoteLondon.

This event is free to attend so come down, watch us paint, learn something and get involved. Register here;http://www.bitetheballot.co.uk/youthvotelondon/

We recently got together with some of the SBTV crew at our paint space in North London. Georgia wanted to try her hand at painting so Adam took her through a beginners graffiti workshop. Our workshops are structured to give the foundation skills of graffiti in a short amount of time. Georgia was a quick learner and steadily improved on drawing straight lines, shapes and then filling areas in with a spraycan. We also threw up a quick SBTV piece. Check out the wicked work they are doing at www.sbtv.co.uk. And click here to find out more about Graffiti Workshops