Johannesburg - Cape Town-born graffiti artist Mohamed ‘Mo’ Hassan was given an opportunity to showcase his art at Sneaker LAB store in Braamfontein as part of their Halloween celebration.
Mo said he was approached by the sneaker care company to create custom artwork for their products for their Halloween campaign and competition. Apart from designing colourful packaging for the cleaning products, he will also be designing artwork for special T-shirts, stickers and skateboards.
Sneaker LAB is a sneaker care company, developed and manufactured in South Africa. The company affords artists an opportunity to collaborate with the brand and connect and share their work at special events such as the one the Halloween event on Friday.
“You can expect to see some more quirky characters and lots of silly puns and dry humour, combined with graphic design and pop culture elements,” said the 28-year-old.
Picture: Supplied
“My style of work is very illustrative, and cartoon-like, and is executed using a variation of traditional and new media. I have a very analog approach to my process, I always start with a pencil. And I often let the drawing dictate how it would like to exist, sometimes in the form of a painting on a canvas, and sometimes in the form of a print or animation. I try to be very playful with my execution while keeping a very serious tone about the messaging,” Hassan added.
While graffiti is seen as artwork that destroys beauty, but for Hassan is about own rules and values that have to be learnt and respected when displaying work on the streets.
“I understand that everyone has their own way of perceiving things, so I try and allow for the public work to speak for itself. My hope is that people will see lengths that artists are willing to go through to express themselves, and that they will see value in the effort that it takes,” he said, adding that he has been expressing himself through various drawings since he was a child.
Hassan said he has seen his artwork booming which resulted in him having to do three to four jobs a day.
“Some of the challenges faced are lack of resources, and I sometimes I run out of everything I need in order to see an idea through to its full potential. It is also difficult at times to manage multiple tasks and briefs at the same time,”he said.