The Infamous Graffiti Magazine

The Infamous is a graffiti magazine based in Philadelphia that published its second issue this week.

Art directed and designed by Shaun Baron, The Infamous showcases content and imagery in a smart and original way, very different from previous efforts at presenting this art and culture. There are pages with tips on color theory, technology, and quality control, and of course, lots of examples of graffiti art. Baron has harnessed the talents of the graffiti scene to create bold illustrative covers and features, but all contained within a tightly-formatted and minimal design architecture. This is a brilliantly-conceived and executed magazine, completely produced and designed by one person on a very limited budget. And of course, here at SPD we love to see low-end challenges turned into high-end publication design results. See more pages from The Infamous on the next page.

(Above) Issue #1 cover illustrated by Pre, vectorized by Waldemar Delgado.

A feature spread on a Philadelphia graffiti artist named Boner. Photograph by Deva Tet One.

Shaun Baron: I didn't want to include any of the usual graffiti drips and sprays in the format of the magazine. We wanted a clear separation between the photographs and artwork and the architecture. We use graffiti artists as much as possible for cover art, feature section openers, display typography, and for the illustrations for the features themselves.

Illustration by Yes2 and Miss17.

Feature well opening pages. Left: illustration by Waldemar Delgado; right: illustration by Ikews.

(Left): Section opening page, photo-illustration by Waldermar Delgado. (Right): Issue #2 cover, illustration by Miss17 and Yes2.

The Burners section, photographs of graffiti.

Our favorite page in Infamous is the "Blackbook" spread, blank pages designed to let the magazine become a personalized sketchbook.

Feature spread, illustration by Akil Nuru.