Shepard Fairey, Obama and the obey sticker

(Australia Street, Newtown, Sydney)

The OBEY brand keeps kicking every decade doesn't it?

New stickers are ALL OVER Melbourne and now Sydney is getting hit hard. Just infesting this planet.

But, um, why isn't the OBEY slogan used with Andre the Giant's face any more?

That's 78 per cent of the reason why the poster became famous in the late 1980s.

The poster's creator, Shepard Fairey, has been a busy boy lately - especially with the Associated Press.

According to his website (link), a settlement was reached recently for a copyright infringement lawsuit over the Obama HOPE poster he created during the 2008 US presidential election.

Apparently Fairey used the highly lucrative image without permission from AP.

(Image source)

But it's OK now, according to a press release on Fairey's site:

The two sides have also agreed to work together going forward with the Hope image and share the rights to make the posters and merchandise bearing the Hope image and to collaborate on a series of images that Fairey will create based on AP photographs.

Great to see both parties are able to work together going forward and come to an agreement that Shepard Fairey is a talented artist who they can co-brand with/milk.

I wish more of us could work together going forward because that would end every war and the pains they create.

Have you ever had to work together going forward with someone you really cared about, but fucking hated?

Is there a more insidiously bureaucratic phrase than motherfucking "work together going forward"?