Hello all you would-be distributors of the word to the masses without money. This is your new bible on what to do, (and more importantly, in that, what NOT to do), when distributing your message. It is also important at this moment to mention that everything you see above and below is illegal, and that if you try graffiti, you’re going to get shot, or worse, arrested. The author of this article, me, Chris Burns, is verst only in the small-time wheatpasting technique and small-town spraypainting. Keep that in mind, but also know that these rules are basically universal when it comes to street-trasmissions of the arrestable kind.

First is last: one of the greatest fellows to ever do it goes by the name ESPO (“Exterior Surface Painting Outreach”) aka Stephen J. Powers. In a book that’s a grail for any writer or modern art enthusiast “The Art of Getting Over,” ESPO writes his rules of graffiti. These rules are copypasta’d below the gallery at the bottom of this post.

ABOVE: Photographed in Saint Cloud, Minnesota. Squirrel pasters.

ESPO’s rules work, they are important, but they’re directed only at the street art artist who’s planning on spraying their own name in giant, fantastic letters. The following rules apply to message pasters and backpack’n sticker stickers. That and first time or single-time spreaders, graphic designers, freelancers, artists, all that good stuff.

Let us begin! Do not start in the street. ESPO has a good idea for paint – start somewhere hidden, or equally alright, on a big wooden board at home. Above you’ll see a painting I did like a hundred years ago in a place that’s now demolished in STC, MN. It was in back of the world, basically inaccessible by anything other than foot. It was an abandoned warehouse that was so decrepit, only stone stood. A perfect place for paint.

If you’re not going the paint route, I recommend starting by placing rather than pasting, and with postcard or leaflet sized cards. These are a plenty-large surface for any message you should need to be spreading in this manner. They’re also easy to carry, and easy to carry in bulk. You can hold a handful of them at the same time as pulling one or two out for each little place you place them. And they can fit in the pocket of your jacket.

Dress the part. The best places for spreading a message to the people you want to spread to is the same places you go to on a daily basis – that is, unless they aren’t people like you. Find out where your audience goes on the regular, where their eyes wander to, and how they generally get their information in the offline world. Place your pieces there.

Of course, you can easily destroy your message doing this, provided you place it somewhere that makes people very mad. Generally these places are easy to scope. It’s the ideal locations you want to head to. After laying down fliers, pasting pasters, spraying paint for a while, these places will begin to show themselves to you. It’s just like typography or racing cars. Eventually the car tells you what it needs, eventually the letters show you how much space they’d like.

Places, People, Things NEVER to work with:
1 . Autos or Bikes – these are personal, everyone hates when their car is messed with.
2 . Windows – windows are for looking through, not at. Unless you’ve got permission.
3 . Clothing – unless it’s for comedy.
4 . Trees – when you staple a tree, you injure the tree. It will die faster because of you. Bad.
5 . Phones or computers – these are also personal, off limits.
6 . Merchandise – do not put your message on a bag of chips unless the message is about chips or made to look like a label for a bag of chips. This is where advertisers work, and on the whole, it’s on the way out – people’ve become numb.
7 . Furniture (indoor or outdoor) – If someone has to move your message to sit down and relax, they’ll be mad, and not only that, they might get so mad as to just sit on it, then fart.
8 . On the ground.
9 . Places where the medium (your paper or sticker paper or whatever else you’re using) will end up trash, polluting the world within a day. Obviously EVER should be your goal here, but if you put a piece of paper outside a building in Minnesota, it’s going to get soggy, it’s going to fall to the ground, a duck is going to eat it and die.
10 . Personal houses, homes, houses of worship.

Basically everywhere paper or paint should never go. Do not stick paper or stickers to places where the first reaction people will have is to rip it down.

Places where your message SHOULD go to be most effective:
0 . In the shadows of giants (see above: St. Peter’s Cathedral in the background.)
1 . In the front of newspaper stands.
2 . On desks.
3 . On tables.
4 . On countertops.
5 . In backpacks (of drunk people where available.)

6 . On posts and poles of all kinds (provided they aren’t still alive.) Above: A pole in view of the Eiffel Tower. Double whammy! Also you’ll see at least another qualifier soon (#16)
7 . Construction-site walls. This also covers basically anything around a construction site, something that won’t be around forever, something that is in-place for the time being – including places where a window has been broken out and is covered by a board.

8 . Hidden walls, or in the case above, outdoor hallways.
9 . Alleyways.
10 . Places of advertising (not buildings, I mean stacks of paper, billboards, signs, busstops), unless they’re really amazing. I know a sewing store up on the NE side of town that has their own hand-made 3D rocket as an OPEN sign. Do not fuck with that.
11 . Electrical boxes (big, green, gray, ugly, open, amazing).

12 . Down by the train tracks *but BE CAREFUL there’s crazies down there.
13 . Dirty bathroom stalls that already have lots of writing.
14 . Walls backstage at music venues.
15 . The backs of signs (STOP, YEILD, LEFT TURN)

16 . Places identified as workable by other like-minded individuals. Even the fronts of signs can become alright to stick a sticker on, provided enough other people have already rendered it unrecognizable.

17 . On the other hand, if you must paste somewhere where it wouldn’t normally be OK, paste it somewhere noone can see – for example, if you’re at the top of the Eiffel tower, put your sticker under the handrail. True story.

Take command of available resources. Find a printer you can use for free, then scavenge for paper. Paper is EVERYWHERE. If you can’t find blank paper, design a page that is mostly ink with the letters popped out – design for your medium, make it work, make it free. Unless you want to invest money into this adventure, in which case, in my opinion, you’re defeating the purpose of the deed and of doing the deed in the way you’re doing it.

I’ve done graffiti for these purposes, and they’re all just amazing:
1 . Because I wanted to express my feelings of elation to the world, and I didn’t have time to wait for legal means to give me that platform.
2 . Because I had to. That rush is unique.
3 . Because I had a message, a need, and no money.
4 . It’s quick. It’s easy. It’s fun.

The only reasons you SHOULDN’T be doing graffiti:
1 . It’s dangerous.
2 . You’re busy chilling out.
3 . You don’t feel the need to do the deed.

Do not fuck around. That one artist Banksy says that getting plastered on alcohol then going out to do graffiti is a good idea. It might be! But not when you’ve got a lot to loose. Don’t do graffiti needlessly. If you’ve got the need, do the deed. If you’re going out there to get respect, to represent for some sort of murder gang, drug dealers, shoe salesmen, then feck you, you get no respect.

But get up. There’s lots of space out there, and lots of ugliness. Everyone who can get involved and has the opportunity to get involved has the duty to get involved. I say so. But there is rules. Honor amongst thieves is nothing compared to how shunned you’ll get for ratting out a friend to the police in this business. That’s hate for life business. This is the business of a hear no evil, smell no evil at the same time as working in a world that will shut you down in the real world for REAL if they catch you.

So stay safe, don’t get caught, and don’t be stupid. And have fun AFTER you’re done.

This post is part of the World Famous Design Junkies street art category. BELOW You’ll first find the cover of the essential graffiti text “The Art of Getting Over” by ESPO. Then you’ll see a couple images of that man himself, in his work area, as photographed by The Selby. Next is that picture you also see above, an excellent example of some electrical box pasting. After that, for the most part, you’ll see examples of places of interest collected by me during my days of misadventures in the left and lower left side of Europe. For the most part Edinburgh Scottland, Paris France, Rome Italy, and London England. It was in these places I placed the squirrel sticker to make it feel like home, and it worked out great.

BEGIN ESPO TERRITORY

Espo’s Rules Of Graffiti

As published in The Art of Getting Over:

You suck until further notice

It’s gonna take a long time before we even acknowledge your existence, even longer before we can bear to look at that foul scribble you call your name. To speed the process of acceptance, you can A) Choose a clever name that defies the norm of simple-minded slang. An example of a good name is “ARGUE” (RIP). It looks good when written, sounds cool when spoken, and conveys a combattive attitude. On the other hand, “ENEMA” (actual name) looks, sounds, and conveys a shitty attitude. BE CHOOSY. B ) Use paint, gain a thorough knowledge of supplies, remember that permission walls, stickers, and dust tags are small parts of a balanced diet, be bold, learn a style of writing for every occassion,and write your name bigger every time you go out.

Jealousy is a diesease for the weak

Your heart is your greatest possession, dont let it get taken from you.

Dont write on houses of worship, people’s houses in general, other
writer’s names, and tombstones. Writing on memorial walls and cars is beef beyond belief. Furthermore, involving civilians in your beef is grounds for dismissal. These are are the five fingers of your right hand. Get to know them well. Give soul claps, firm handshakes, and throw smooth bolo punches.

Although being a toy seems undesirable, you should enjoy it while you can. At this stage you can bite all you want with no remorse. All your elders will say is, ” Awww isn’t that cute, kootchie kootchie koo.” So steal that dope connection, rob that color scheme. and loot whole letterforms. Dont worry about giving any credit, we’ll pat ourselves on the back and brag how we’re influencing the next generation. However, style isnt a crutch or a schtick. It is understanding why that connection you bit flows, or why that color scheme bumps. Style is the process to an appealing end. Once you got it down to a science, you can reinvent letterforms to suit yourself. This creative growth will amaze the old and young alike. Pretty soon somebody will steal your secret sauce and the cycle will be renewed. If this happens to you, don’t bitch about not getting your due. Graffiti is the language of the ignored. If your style is stolen, someone heard you speaking. You got what you wanted from the beginning, some attention, you big baby.

It must be noted that the vandal squad loves graffiti. Their job requires
them to fiend for graff as much as you do. When you wreck enough walls, they’ll want to meet you. Just like the ball huggers outside the graff shop, they’ll recite every spot you hit, with the difference being you’ll also hear the Miranda Warning. To postpone this, go solo as much as possible. Dont write with anyone that wont fight for you. Don’t be paranoid, but be careful. If you avoid writing on pristine properties, you’ll stay in misdemeanor territory, and you wont divert the cops’ attention from pastry and caffiene consumption (consult local laws to be sure). Remember, if they didn’t see you do it, it’s almost impossible for them to win a conviction without your own damming testimony. Shut up, shut up, SHUT UP! Giving a cop info on another writer will doom you to a life of ridicule, from cops and kids alike, with no parole.

There’s nothing wrong with knowing your the shit as long as you are. But once you reach that conclusion, your one foot over the edge of falling off. Watch your step fathead, there’s no shortage of people chanting, “JUMP JUMP JUMP!” There are plenty of writers that have been painting well for the better part of 20 years, and your posing and fronting looks retarded next to them. Get back to work, you “never was” slouch. In conclusion, graffiti is free, impresses the girls, is heroic in our couch potato culture, will provide you with a million stories to tell at parties, and a sure cure for the inner-city blues. If it’s not fun, you’re doing it wrong or have been doing it too long. So get going, fame awaits the fly among you.

END ESPO TERRITORY

I’d like to thank ESPO at this point for being the only dude to write a comprehensive rules of graffiti that was easily findable on the interwebs. This sort of stuff should be available in every corner store so kids don’t hurt themselves. And that’s for real.