Appropriate conduct

Not knowing very much about the Los Angeles graffiti scene, I’m really not sure how to judge whether this L.A. Weekly cover story is on the mark in touting the significance of a crew, or collective, there called The Seventh Letter.

With more than 100 members operating under the Seventh Letter banner, names like Revok, Retna, Saber, Push, Rime and Zes are just a few to watch as they fast become L.A.’s modern muralists. The Seventh Letter’s roots go back nearly 20 years, when the collective’s founder and leader, Eklips, a legendary writer in his own right, started the AWR (Art Work Rebels/Angels Will Rise) and MSK (Mad Society Kings) writing crews while bombing around the Motor Yard in Los Angeles.

Okay. Well, anyway, nowadays they have a brand, and do a bit of client work as well.

Having done paying jobs for Adidas, Boost Mobile, Nike and Scion, Seventh Letter members may get heat from other artists for selling out, but they refer to their opportunities as “buying in.” Why let a junior designer in an ad agency attempt the crew’s style when the real guy can do it better and faster and offer the product a little credibility?

“When a company hires or sponsors a Seventh Letter writer, they know they are going to get a professional, someone who can conduct themselves in an appropriate way,” says Eklips.

Here’s the site, if you want to hire or sponsor them, or just check out the many pix, including a Juxtapoz collaboration.