Placa Jackpot
Being from New York, I tend to look at graffiti from a very east coast perspective. As far as handstyles go, New York signature style tags and Philly scripts are the influence I came up seeing the most first hand. However growing up in the Jersey Suburbs, during the Powell Peralta era of skateboarding, there was always a constant influence of "cholo" graffiti that spread across the country, by magazines, and stickers and imitated graffiti in any local skate spot. And in some way this influence was deep in my subconcius and interest before I even wrote graffiti, or learned in any of my own local style
When I designed the Mene Mexicali Font, it was primarily an experiment, based on images I studied from the Mexicali graffiti scene and some proportions and other influence that I took from Skate Scene Cholo styles and Philly tall prints which although I do not write ina philly style, were always in my realm of exposure.
Since starting the Handselecta project. I have been particularly interested in Cholo hand styles, being as it is culture foreign and removed from me. But its stylistic influence is obviously great, through hip hop, tattoos, skateboarding, custom cars, and, video games (peep GTA, I heard rumor those placas were by Mister Cartoon)
The following is a list of links and images pertaining to Cholo graffiti, STYLES. I make no claims about gangs, particular or general. According to Chaz, many of these styles predate todays gangs. And gang culture in general was much smaller and local in scale when these styles started appearing post WWII.
A cholo style borrowed for a 60's album cover art for Jackson Brown.
So here are some of my Cholo articles of interest for lettering enthusiasts.
"Cholo Style Graffiti"article by Chaz Bojorquez.
Chaz
Mister Cartoon - Known more for his tattoo and script styles lately, but occasionally roacks those square cholo style letters.
Mike Giant
Count Trackula's Blog
Sleepy Lagoon Blog
Sleepy Lagoon - Check the "Placa Archive" on the lower right hand side of the page.
Golden Age of Gang Graffiti photo set on Flickr
Street Writers-Out of print, and extremely rare. Someone posted images of the book in a flickr photoset
Clanton 14 - One of LA's oldest gangs
Placasos 1
Placasos 2
Chicano Underground
Teen Angels Zine Ebay Store
Teen Angels Zine Myspace Page
When I designed the Mene Mexicali Font, it was primarily an experiment, based on images I studied from the Mexicali graffiti scene and some proportions and other influence that I took from Skate Scene Cholo styles and Philly tall prints which although I do not write ina philly style, were always in my realm of exposure.
Since starting the Handselecta project. I have been particularly interested in Cholo hand styles, being as it is culture foreign and removed from me. But its stylistic influence is obviously great, through hip hop, tattoos, skateboarding, custom cars, and, video games (peep GTA, I heard rumor those placas were by Mister Cartoon)
The following is a list of links and images pertaining to Cholo graffiti, STYLES. I make no claims about gangs, particular or general. According to Chaz, many of these styles predate todays gangs. And gang culture in general was much smaller and local in scale when these styles started appearing post WWII.
A cholo style borrowed for a 60's album cover art for Jackson Brown.
So here are some of my Cholo articles of interest for lettering enthusiasts.
"Cholo Style Graffiti"article by Chaz Bojorquez.
Chaz
Mister Cartoon - Known more for his tattoo and script styles lately, but occasionally roacks those square cholo style letters.
Mike Giant
Count Trackula's Blog
Sleepy Lagoon Blog
Sleepy Lagoon - Check the "Placa Archive" on the lower right hand side of the page.
Golden Age of Gang Graffiti photo set on Flickr
Street Writers-Out of print, and extremely rare. Someone posted images of the book in a flickr photoset
Clanton 14 - One of LA's oldest gangs
Placasos 1
Placasos 2
Chicano Underground
Teen Angels Zine Ebay Store
Teen Angels Zine Myspace Page
posted by Mene Oner at 3/20/2007 09:38:00 PM
4 Comments:
I have been interested in these type of handstyles for a while. Thanks for the links.
Ive been Writng since I was 14 ( Now 30) but I was more on the eastcoast lettering style..Im from the west so I noticed that sometimes subconscious ly I would turn my e's into 3's like the cholo style that is heavy out here( im in az) but I just wanted to say thanx for the blog cuz in stead of people just biting the style you provide history and a in depth look into blackletter ( cholo ) style..which Im lovin.. I checked out mad stuff on chaz and mister cartoon and this is another place of reference for me to learn this beatiful style of lettering.. Peace!! merkhaze 999
I started writing when I was around 12 (42 now). I'm orginally from So. Cal. so I got witness many of the Golden Age of Chicano writing. It wasn't until the late 80's early 90's I started to see the New York style of tagging moving in and the Golden Age phasing out.
what does the lower case T mean or stand for from the handselecta font? i like the lower case T im just wondering its meaning or were it comes from?
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