Graffiti- Art or Design?

Graffiti are usually large pieces of images or letter drawn on a publicly interface, such as a wall or a train. Graffiti artists use spray paint, markers, or other materials to make their artworks. Some artworks can be considered as vandalism because of breaking the law.

I, myself, think that graffiti is both art and design, it's just up to the usage purpose and the legality.

A graffiti work can be an art:
- because it has been founded, maintained and developed a lot since since the day of ancient civilizations such as Ancient Greece and Roman Empire
- when people make it to express their own point of view, not for any public purposes or involved in clients and money

A Graffiti piece of Dove

A graffiti is considered as a design:
- when it communicates messages to audiences and creates some useful and thoughtful meanings such as society and politics
- when it is used as a form of advertising
- there are lot of things that is decorated with Graffiti such as fonts, T-shirts, shoes, etc

*Note: those're just my points of view, so there's no right or wrong :D


Well, about Vietnamese visual theme for Graffiti art, I think that'd would be a very nice idea. However, Graffiti styles tend to be more Western, the artworks seem to be more intense, strong, bold, hard and rough. On the other hand, Vietnamese visual themes are more tender, soft with curves and thin lines. Besides that, many people in Vietnam, especially elder and mature people, still consider Graffiti as a bad thing, vandalism or illegal stuff just for bad and low-educated young guys. Therefore, it's hard and will takes time to make Vietnamese people accept it as an art and apply it into their normal life such as paper-hangings, clothes, etc. If Vietnamese Graffiti artists can combine these two different things together, it'd be interesting and may build up a new special style for Graffiti in the future.