Yes, absolutely inspired. :(

I'm with the anonymous poster on the Atypi website on this one. Oddballs I feel is a bit harsh though...

ROFL.

Is that serious? Did someone actually make those stickers? I can't tell if this is satire or what!?!

Who made them? Is it a dig at Hrant, or a tribute? Is it shameless self promotion by the man himself? What is certain is that they should have thought twice about using stickers given the mess they leave.

Come on, somebody must be able to enlighten us.

No idea who did them - there was also a t-shirt sticker to accompany the obey one: http://www.flickr.com/photos/brew/44639471/in/pool-atypi2005/

Shram H. Paparazian

OK, I guess that I'm not smart enough to understand this. The whole "obey giant" and "hranr" thing I can get, but this? What does "Shram" mean? And is Hrant's last name intentionally mispelled so that the word "paparazi" is inside of it? Do these two equal an insult? If it is an insult, shouldn't we get it?

I thought the whole "has a posse" thing was used as an expression of solidarity with an individual, I've seen it used in this way before. However the mispelling of the name seems to be mocking.

Is it suggesting the word "Sham" maybe?

I vaguely remember a post on one of the forums which referred to Hrant as "Paparazzi" and was quite negative about him.

I'm as puzzled as Dan.

Is there a possibility that there is another person named Hrant in the world. In the New York metropolitian area I know of two other Dan Weavers and they are a writer and a creative director. Not only the same name but in the same business.

The whole "…has a posse" thing is a reference to the cult art movement that began at RISD in Providence c. 1990 that is now Obey Giant. The original stickers has a picture of the then pro-Wrestler Andre the Giant, this the text, "Andre the Giant has a Posse."

The "movement's" site is http://www.obeygiant.com

Their story is at: http://www.obeygiant.com/main_new.php?page=articles

Here is a start at other images of what I mean: http://flickr.com/photos/search/tags:obey%2Cgiant/tagmode:all/

the 'obey' campaign has had a number of spinoffs/ripoffs/parodies, not made by Shepard Fairey. (The man behind the whole 'Andre the giant has a Posse' and 'Obey' campaign.) I've even seen a Jakob Nielsen 'obey'

http://www.soviet-poster.com/poster_database.htm

urrr, thought this might be of interest.

this is the only other place i know of that links hrant to the paprazzi: http://www.typophile.com/node/14249

Man you guys are hip. I myself have no idea what any of this means (and I found out about this yesterday). I've seen the Andre stuff of course, but that's "negative", right? In which case my chances of getting one of those stickers as a memento -even anonymously- are slim... Speaking of anonymity, why is the AtypI story so?

BTW, the mock shirt could have been done by another party, as a reaction. "Shram" is indeed strange; the classic "Rant" would have been better. Being called Paparazzi though is quite common - it's the first thing some people (especially those not sufficiently exposed to foreign names) think of; my sister used to be called that all the time by a male coworker - but in that case it was a term of endearment. Didn't work though.

> Is there a possibility that there is another person named Hrant in the world.

Yeah, and some of them actually have talent, like that 'oud player. Except he's blind, so he would've missed the joke.

> pro-Wrestler

Makes sense I guess. Except I don't get paid.

> http://www.obeygiant.com/main_new.php?page=articles

Thanks. This makes it sound kinda nice. Except the mess it leaves.
Plus we don't know if the people who did this were thinking that.

> I’ve even seen a Jakob Nielsen ‘obey’

Euw. That seals it then.

Oh, and most of all: did they have to use Helvetica? That's just uncalled for.

hhp

Hrant, the Andre stuff isn't supposed to be negative, not at all. Here's the first relevant article that came up while googling ...

http://tinyurl.com/8gg3b

I don't see them as negative either.
And face it, you are a legend in the type community.

Hey! People who made these: Send a few to Hrant, you owe him.

Is Nick behind this? >:^)

"Is there a possibility that there is another person named Hrant in the world. In the New York metropolitian area I know of two other Dan Weavers and they are a writer and a creative director. Not only the same name but in the same business."

And is it possible that they have a face that looks like his? I highly doubt it. Check out the sticker, it is obviously a rendition of Hrant.

I would be complimented. Not that I condone defacing public and private property, but thats pretty damned funny.

I am so unhip, I don't get it but it seems like an attempt at a harmless joke.

ChrisL

PDF sticker download ...

Whether it's meant as a mock or a loving gesture is maybe irrelevant. The point is Hrant is an institution. I think it's genius. Knowing that Hrant is capable looking at it and still being unflappable makes me smile. Hrant has proven that he's capable of being as outspoken as he is and also capable of rolling with the jokes that come with that outspoken territory.

The Hrant/Jakob Nielsen comparison is right on -- though I've never met Nielsen. Jakob Nielsen is in the same boat. Some love him, others love to hate him and he can be the butt of some jokes. But Nielsen has been there, like the bit of irritating sand that makes a pearl possible. Nielsen's set himself up as an expert in that he has strong opinions on everything and he backs it up. You look at Nielsen's work and it can be pretty ugly and gets designers and other UI professionals in a tizzy (me included at times), but you cannot question the fact that his presence on the scene has elevated the discussion and kept the debate on the table in good and productive ways.

...obscure industry oddballs...?

This makes no sense, especially in Helsinki.

Mat, why do you say that? Type design is an obscure industry and they (me included this time) were oddballs.

KITTENS!

omg i love kittens.

---

jlt : http://www.hewnandhammered.com : rock & roll mf

Where are the kittens? omg, the kittens.

www.kittenwar.com

I want a Hrant t-shirt. So, what is the typeface?

Gerald

Does the anonymos Atypi newsposter mean that stickering the hell out of the place would be all right if the sticker didn't depict someone only familiar with a small group of obscure industry oddballs?

Bieler, we all do, but which Hrant? the one we know or the other one that looks just like him?

Shram definition

make of that what you will

the creator of the mystery stickers must admire Hrant's ice cold typographic insight :)

The AIGA just released this bit on appropriation of someone's likeness... It's interesting stuff but it may not apply in Helsinki and clearly the creator of the posters isn't after commercial gain if "commercial gain" means selling the posters. If this is the case, how come politicians' likenesses seem to be fair game?

Appropriation and exploitation
This means the use of a person’s name, likeness, voice or other aspects of personal identity without permission for commercial purposes. Protection against this category of invasion is usually called the right of publicity.

Full article here: http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm?Alias=designbusiness
(Requires AIGA membership.)

I think Hrant likes being exploited.

;^>

Joe,

Does that mean all of the trendy designers have to stop making GW Bush parody posters? :)

Wait, I'm confused... Where did the kitten reference come from and how does that relate to ice cold (shram) Helvetica.

Yeah, Kyle, the Bush and Arnie parodies have got to stop. =)

Mat, why do you say that? Type design is an obscure industry and they (me included this time) were oddballs.

It seemed appropriate after the oddball statement.

I recall I saw some "Obey the Giant" t-shirts at "Urban outfitters, San Francisco, last year (during TypeCon of course). I remember I enjoyed the wierd message. Almost bought one.
"Obey Hrant" I would gladly buy unless it was set in Helvetica though.

Cheers

Discussion of parody as fair use:
http://www.publaw.com/parody.html

parody is an issue in Stussy v. FreshJive

http://www.freshjive.com/

so nobody knows who did this? Neckface? Turk 182?

I'd definitely like to be wearing this shirt sometime soon.

“Obey Hrant” I would gladly buy unless it was set in Helvetica though.

it needs to be set in Patria, is there a Patria sans? ;^P

I used to like this thread, the whole kitten-thing brought me down a bit but after the appearence of Neckface I love it!
Could someone please do a mock-neckface version of Hrant?
Next batch of typophile stickers should be "The Street Hrant Series"

Banksy Hrant
Faile Hrant
and so on.

T-shirts? I was thinking just "stick" with the stickers, and people would just apply them directly to their bare torsos. Except maybe with a "hair" less adhesiveness. (Now I'm starting to sound like that Typophile geezer tag team... ;-)

hhp

tattoes for the women; pattern haircuts for the men; branding irons for the animal kingdom; crop patterns for the earth...

>>tattoes for the women;

Absolutely, when I looked at Hrant's picture first, fonts and typography did not come to my mind. Instead it was Umar Sharif and Dr. Chivago!

Forgive me Hrant :) Anyway you are not very far from Hollywood. Give it a try..

it's perfect... but the tagline underneath should read "BOUMA".

Aaaaargh! There he is! That's him! That's him!

sorry, folks. i guess i got a bit of the trixter spirit a couple weeks early... it's this brisk october air, i'm afraid. that combined with working on holiday fonts makes one crazy.
i still want a T-shirt tho...

Good one Paul :-)

ChrisL

Spooky it was.

hhp

Did anyone notice Yves has knocked Hrant from the top of the posters. The babies must be sleeping.