Book Review: Street Art - The Spray Files

Street Art: The Spray Files - Louis Bou

Louis Bou's book is an excellent, handsomely printed overview of the international Street Art scene, attempting to provide helpful genres of classification for the myriad of types of representations to be found in cities around the world. From Stencils to Stickers to City Textures, the book lovingly documents each style with chapters filled with beautifully laid-out photos of prime examples of each. Louis Bou, a Barcelona-based graphic designer by trade, is not only the author of the book, he also took all of the photographs inside and did all of the design and layout work for the tome as well.

From Banksy, the artist who famously hung one of his pieces in London's Tate gallery, to Milan's unsettling Microbo and the Japanese-culture-influenced work of Barcelona's Btoy, the reader is treated to hundreds of exquisite examples from dozens of artists. Bou is clearly a gifted photographer with a great feel for the environments where the art is created. The reader is spirited from the streets of Bilbao to the alleys of Paris to the sidewalks of Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean to see the various pieces.

What is Graphic Design?

Graphic design is a creative process which most often involves a client and a designer. It is undertaken in order to send out a specific message or messages to a targeted audience. The term "graphic design" can also refer to a number of artistic and professional disciplines that focus on visual communication and presentation.

The field as a whole is also often referred to as Visual Communication or Communication Design. Various methods are used to create and combine words, symbols, and images to create a visual representation of ideas and messages. A graphic designer may use typography, visual arts and page layout techniques to produce the final result. Graphic design often refers to both the process (designing) by which the communication is created and the products (designs) which are generated.