Niels Shoe Meulman, also known as Shoe is a master when it comes to graffiti, graphic design, and typography. He grew up in Amsterdam and made his way to New York at the early age of 16. Shoe has had a lucrative art and design career, and continues to stay humble and push himself towards becoming a better artist and overall person. We are honored to include such a legend on WLC – Enjoy.

You were born in Amsterdam in the late 60s, how do you feel that growing up in Amsterdam has influenced your art?

Well, growing up in the late 70s, early 80s in Amsterdam was like living in an anarchy theme park. Riots, drugs, concerts, shoplifting, squats, you name it. Tons of fun, and a really good way to discover the world around you as a teenager.

My parents were no hippies but definitely were free-thinking, as were most people around me at that time. This resulted in a vibrant Punk scene with lots of graffiti writers. I started tagging my name ‘Shoe’ around that time but I didn’t really share all the negativity of the ‘No Future’ crowd. Don’t get me wrong, I liked wrecking things but I was just more ‘pro’ than ‘anti’. So I decided to not put the safety pin through my cheek and set out to become professional creative.

You started tagging in ’79 and became a very well known graffiti artist at an early age. How did you get your start in graffiti and what were your main influences?

I wasn’t going to museums much but I really liked a lot of Pop art, and when I went to New York in 1984 at age 16, I had a sense of belonging right away. Here they had the high-impact positive visuals I was looking for. The packaging design, the superhero comics, Puma’s with fat laces! And of course the painted trains…I had found my purpose (for a while anyway).

During that trip I was hanging out with Dondi White who later made me overseas president of the infamous graffiti crew CIA. We met a couple of times in New York and in Amsterdam and his influence is very visible in my pieces from that time. Another big influence was Bando with whom I ran around in later years.

Looking back though, I was always searching for a style of my own. It was always very frustrating when another one of my illegal aerosol experiments ended up in disappointment or jail. But I guess it did pay off in the end. When I was about 18 all the Dutch newspapers, magazines and tv-shows wanted a piece of me.

Your graffiti eventually evolved into graphic design. How important was apprenticing under Anthon Beeke and what influences did it have on your graphic design style and techniques?

Soon after I started art school I decided to take a short cut. I stopped going and founded a small design studio. But what I really wanted was to have a mentor to teach me the trade. I think Anthon Beeke saw something in me that reminded him of himself. He was a bit of a rebel in the 60′s and also never attended art school. After being his assistant, traveling and working in his studio for three years I had learned about typography, the printing process, book design and many other aspects of graphic design. This was before the Apple Macintosh arrived on the scene, so I was working with rulers, Rotring pens, scalpels and spent many hours in the dark room making stats. I think that’s why my approach to graphic art is different from those who learned graphic design on a computer.

When did you decide to fuse your graffiti with calligraphy and start producing a typographic style now known as Calligraffiti?

I had been experimenting with calligraphy, looking at books of Medieval scribes and Japanese crests since my teens but the graffiti movement was so powerful that it kind of overruled my calligraphic interests. I always claimed to be a graffiti writer, not a graffiti artist. In my mind ‘artist’ was a title reserved for either a subsidized loser or a genius all-knowing observer. In 2007, at age 40 I could finally see myself going for the latter.

In February that year I was invited by Adam Eeuwens and Rebeca Mendez to be part of the jury of the Art Directors Club in New York. I decided to stay for a month and hooked up with old time friend Eric Haze, whom I met through New York graffiti legend Quik. At his studio in Brooklyn we decided to both do some typographic experimental paintings and the style I later named Calligraffiti was born.

What are some of the major corporations that you have designed for using Calligraffiti?

A quick look in the near past would include Heineken, Mercedes, Nike, Bols Genever, Umbro, Gran Marnier. I guess I’m all about sneakers, cars and alcohol. It needs to be said though, that none of these brands actually embraced my style as part of their campaign style but that’s probably a good thing since I would feel awkward committing to one brand completely.

Can you tell us the bases behind the works that you produced for the Calligraffiti Throw-Ups exhibit at Project Space in LA that just recently ended?

With every major exhibition I always like to something site-specific or otherwise distinctive within the Calligraffiti realm. I define these concepts partly by conceptual thinking but mostly by accident or intuition.

I was doing a series of song titles and ended up showing the pieces at an exhibition at Rush Hour, a record store and label. The same goes for a mural I did in Cologne; I did the writings in Sütterlin, a German script writing banned by Hitler in 1940. Last month I did a mural during the Dutch Design week in San Francisco with my girlfriend Adele Renault. The text was the oldest known piece of Dutch literature, written by a monk in the 10th century.

Anyway, a few months before the one-man show at the Incase Arkitip Project Space I was fooling around with paint bombs. I felt throwing paint would be the most direct way of getting the paint on a surface and the explosions perfectly match the directness of calligraphy. The fact that I love baseball probably wasn’t a coincidence.

I have to admit is that when I did the first Throw Up piece on a big piece of linen I first did the writing in a circle and returned the next day to throw my home made paint grenade. In a zen-like state I aimed for the exact middle…and missed. Ahah! For the other pieces I threw first and did the writing after. Mind over meditation!

You’ve been doing art for such a long time, what keeps you motivated and inspired to produce new work?

Hmm…like I said, I never considered myself an artist until I was 40 years old. During the whole graffiti period I wasn’t really aware of what I was doing. I just did. I was learning, practicing. Same goes for my years as a graphic designer and art director. And I’m not just talking about learning the practical, material aspects. I think I was mostly experiencing what it’s like to exist on this spinning ball we’re all on. I guess that this notion itself is my main motivation.

Who are some of your favorite artists?

I have a couple of tattoos. Nothing outrageous, but they refer to some names. Let me sum them up for you. The first one I got is a red star with three S’s. It is the logo of the 80′s band Sigue Sigue Sputnik. I also have Marshall McLuhan’s ‘The medium is the message’ written in the style of Magritte’s handwriting on ‘Ceci n’est pas une pipe.’ Another is a drawing by Andy Warhol that refers to Shakespeare’s ‘To Be or Not To Be’; it is an elegant heeled shoe and reads ‘to shoe or not to shoe’. And I have an outline of the drawing Dondi did for Malcolm McLaren’s Duck Rock album.

And of course Liang Kai, the 12th century Chinese master who refused a very high rank of painter-at-court and retired to a life of drinking and painting. And I can’t forget my man Leonardo. Mona Lisa ya’ll!

Do you feel that collaborating with other artists and creatives is important?

Yes. I’ve found that the occupation of artist can be somewhat lonely. And I always had graffiti crews to go bombing with, business partners to go to meetings with, copywriters to go to lunch with and employees to pay. Now I got me. So yes, it’s important to have friends to discuss work with and to partner up sometimes and paint together.

Do you have any advice for future artists that want to make a career out of their art?

Everyone has their own period in life when they peak. A genius wunderkind that peaks at 12 is fucked. So be grateful you’re still struggling to get better and more successful. You haven’t reached your peak yet. I know I haven’t.

And maybe also this one: When other people value your work more than you, you’re still learning. When you value your work more than other people you’re an artist. Or a faker. Ahah!

Any future art exhibits in the works?

Planning a series of events in New York in May 2011. I will be working together with a great artist called Nik Christensen and I got a group show with the Type Directors Club. John Langdon has a wall waiting for me in his garden in Philly and I’m doing some work for The New Museum at the moment. There’s more, but I can’t tell you yet, ahah.

What goals do you have for the next few years?

I have plans to be partner in a new gallery in Amsterdam. Partly because I can’t have buyers coming to my apartment, but mostly because I think Amsterdam should be a hub for art with roots in the street. There are so many artists that I feel affiliated with emerging at the moment, but many – like me – have no back up from galleries and museums that really care.
Furthermore I hope to witness first contact with alien life before I die.

Is there anything else about you that you would like the world to know?

If there are exceptions to the rule, there are no rules.

There you have it. Niels Shoe Meulman’s exclusive interview with WLC. Make sure to stop by calligraffiti.nl often. He’s always adding new images to his site. You can also find Shoe on facebook.