Propaganda Department, StreetArt & Art Direction

TOP SECRET / FOR YOUR EYES ONLY

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Propaganda Department

Propaganda Department is an art project that I began in 2009.

I was working as a UI/UX designer at the time, but I wanted a side project that would allow me to explore creative ideas that my day-to-day work did not allow.

The name Propaganda Department is inspired by the department of the same name in George Orwell's novel 1984, which is set in a dystopian society where the government controls the media and uses propaganda to manipulate the population.

I was particularly interested in Shepard Fairey's work and Russian constructivism, so I used these as inspiration for my first works.

The project is ongoing.

Logo

Murals

Power To The People, 2018

In 2018, city officials in Novi Sad, Serbia, painted over the Remed mural in the city center.

After this shameful move from the government representatives, the ChainReaction initiative was formed. The action is solely led by Serbian actress Milica Grujicic. She started an art rebel movement whose sole purpose was to bring back murals to the streets and buildings of Novi Sad.

I got the opportunity to create the so-called "fifth wall."
The theme was anti-capitalism, so I used Power To The People phrase and the communist's era propaganda style portraits.

This was only possible with the generous help of my friends and fellow conspirators Jelena Marjanovic, Dasko Milinovic, and Ljubomir Babic.

During its lifetime, the mural was vandalized a couple of times by neonazi groups. It was finally entirely destroyed in 2018 due to the new city government's urbanistic gentrification efforts; the entire quarter was demolished, including the building this mural was on.

Power To The People, Wine, 2022

In 2022, I was contacted by winery Bjelica regarding their Graffiti Collection line of premium wines. They asked to print Power To The People mural on their wine bottles so that this mural continues to live in a different form. They wanted to support the graffiti artists of Novi Sad through this effort.

The best thing about this particular collection is that it is considered a signature collection of the city of Novi Sad and is often shared with so-called "brother cities." Currently, brother-cities of Novi sad are:

- Budva, Montenegro

- Chángchūn, China

- Dortmund, Germany

- Modena, Italy

- Norwich, United Kingdom

Power To The People T-Shirt

First Communion, 2017

Mural proportions and image transfer to the wall were constantly bugging me, so I have learned from the best and found a way to do it.

Can you believe there is still no actual simple printer that could be attached to a wall and print out anything from the file? This could be easily made using a truck with an aerial platform whose controls are connected by some fine software. Yes, there are a few experiments, but nothing you and I can come up with and use to paint street art on the walls.

I wanted to find a way so anything from the computer could be applied to a wall by anyone.

You don't have to be a street artist with a background in design and a lot of experience so you can make art on the wall. Also, you don't have to own some fancy laser cutter to prepare. I wanted to find a technique that anyone could use.

ObeyGiant Influence

I'm following the work of many contemporary artists, but ObeyGiant (Shepard Fairey) is defiantly my favorite.

Everything that Shepard Fairey and his crew are doing fascinates me, and I'm excited like a child when I see their new mural or any other form of street art they do.

Following the work of this world-famous street artist closely, I have found a way to copy an image to a wall. I know a few techniques that people use, but Shepard Fairey has its way. So here it is.

Preparations

When we were younger, we used to do graffiti and stencils all over town. But we needed the discipline to prepare for it. Stencils used to be small and rare due to the lack of home printers. We used to take spray paint and just go somewhere and make graffiti. Sometimes it would be awesome, and sometimes it would be a total fail (most of the time).
Everything is in preparation. The best people are prepared exceptionally well for what they are doing. Look at Banksy, for example. His stencils are simple, but they are complete and well-made. He doesn't improvise; he knows what he is doing. More importantly, he comes prepared.
So take the time to prepare for your next project. I did the same thing Obey crew will do. I have printed out the entire mural on paper. I have printed it on my home laser printer on small paper, the A4 format in size. I arranged it on the floor and connected it with duct tape. This was my first time doing it, so I wanted to go manageable.

Execution

After preparations at home, we hit the streets and applied this print on the wall using glue in a spray can. Glue in a spray is entirely new to me.
This glue is fantastic! You can spray your paper, which will become sticky, and then you can easily apply it on any surface.
And then comes the most challenging part.

Cutting

You must cut out pieces of that paper and color the wall through that hole with acrylic spray. Simple as that. Your paper on the wall is your stencil. Like the good old stencil, but better! That doesn't sound bad, and it is not that hard to do; you just need a lot of scalpels because you are cutting paper directly on the wall.
After a few hours, you will have a beautiful piece of art on your wall.

Idea

People who passed us by were saying in a bit of disappointment that they thought this is usually done by hand. Assuming that this approach is somehow unfair because it is technical and can be used by anyone. Like you have to be born skilled.

Remember, this is not classic graffiti or bombing. This is a way to create a large-scale mural and transfer it to the wall in full detail and proportions.

Well, you can play it on a skill card or do it this way.
The important thing is to keep doing it.

Under His Eye

I was excited to try out the Sketchar iOS mobile app, which allows you to draw and paint in augmented reality. To use the app, you first need to scan your surroundings with the LIDAR sensor on your device. This creates a 3D map of the environment, which the app can then use to accurately place virtual objects in the real world.

Once I had scanned my surroundings. I chose an image from my photo library and used the app's tools to position it on the wall in front of me. I could see the image overlaid on the wall through my device's camera, as if it was really there.

Next, I selected the "Trace" option in the app and began moving my hand around the outline of the image.

It was a really fun and immersive experience, and I can't wait to try out more creative projects with the Sketchar app and LIDAR sensor.

Under His Eye T-Shirt

We Were Pioneers

Idea

A pioneer movement was an organization for children operated by a communist party in Yugoslavia. Typically children entered the organization in elementary school and continued until adolescence when they were expected to become members of the Communist Party.

We were pioneers.

After finishing first grade in elementary school in the country that used to be known as Yugoslavia, we became pioneers. Nobody asked our parents or us if we wanted to become communist party inductees, the same as nobody asked their parents. It wasn't optional.

This was a big deal when we were kids. For example, my elementary school was named after one of the local heroes of WWII, so we all knew the story's about him, his life, his kids, and his wife. So for every big school occasion, a principal will call in that woman, who will be at the school for an entire day! A WWII hero's wife will sit in the first row on a school play!

This iconography was an everyday thing to us, pioneers saluting the flag, red flags, red pins, red neckerchiefs... that was all part of the folklore of that time. So we thought, these München kids were never exposed to something like this. Let's give them something that will look different from any street art they have ever encountered. Let's provide them with an image that will look like it is done by one of the teachers in our school for a school day.

Local Police

Around 2 AM police car appeared.
We were somewhere at 75% done when a German police officer asked me to step down from the leader.

I told him that we were told that this is a designated graffiti area in Munich and that we are allowed to do this here, and that we even have worker's vests since we are working beside the road

A policeman said that we had picked the wrong wall. That wall was out of the limits. It was forbidden!

German policeman asked where we were from.

I said: Serbia

A policeman turned to his colleague in disbelief, stared at him for a moment, turned back to me, and said:
- "You should paint your graffiti when there are no police around."

- Does that mean that we should finish this?

- Yes, when there are no police around. Said German officer
and just drove away.

Limited Edition Metal Brooch

Propaganda DEPT. T-SHIRTS

New World Order

"That Day, the saucers landed.
Hundreds of them, golden,
Silent, coming down from the sky like great snowflakes,
And the people of Earth stood and stared as they descended,
Waiting, dry-mouthed, to find out what waited inside for us
And none of us knowing if we would be here tomorrow"

Neil Gaiman

In The Sign Of The Octopus

Chemtrails

The chemtrail conspiracy theory is based on a belief that there is a secretly organized spraying of the population with mysterious substances left in the sky by high-flying aircraft. One of these ideas is that clouds are being seeded with electrically conductive materials as part of a massive electromagnetic superweapons program based around the High-Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP).

Thrust The Media

"Trust the Media" design is inspired by a few things that sculpt pop culture. The message came straight from the 1988 "They Live" movie. Messages shown on the walls, on TV, and in that film's papers are so direct that they are almost rude.

Advertising is doing everything to create a subliminal and more approachable message, so we are used to that. It is almost like a second skin; we expect that information will be hidden, wrapped up in some more digestible form.

In the grand scheme of things, it is the same. It doesn't matter how you are saying something; it is what people think you are saying.

The same thing is happening here. People will see the message "Trust the Media," and most will get it as a joke, but 6% of Americans (study shows) will say, " ...but I do trust the media". There are always some people that will not find things like this to be ironic. 6% of Americans is a small percentage, but a significant number of human beings will obey everything said on television. Living in beautiful obedience...

Hands pulling those strings are an archetypal way to show that TV is manipulated in some form. This will hopefully turn a few of those six percenters, planting a seed of doubt in their minds.

The most disturbing fact is that 12 million Americans believe Lizard people (Reptilians) run their country.

This is also a tribute to their conspiracy theory.

The Ministry of Truth

The Ministry of Truth (Newspeak: Minitrue) is the ministry of propaganda. As well as administering truth, the ministry spreads a new language amongst the populace called Newspeak.

Big Brother Is Watching You!

We all live in a world where you must cover your telescreen camera with duct tape.
In modern culture, the term "Big Brother" has entered the lexicon as a synonym for abuse of government power particularly in respect to civil liberties, often specifically related to mass surveillance. Under his eye, there is no place to hide.

Orwell got the idea for Big Brother from advertising billboards for educational correspondence courses from a company called Bennett's during World War II. The original posters showed J. M. Bennett himself, a kindly-looking old man offering guidance and support to would-be students with the phrase "Let me be your father." After Bennett's death, his son took over the company, and the posters were replaced with pictures of the son (who looked imposing and stern in contrast to his father's kindly demeanor) with the text "Let me be your big brother."

Big Brother represents Joseph Stalin. Another theory is that the inspiration for Big Brother was Brendan Bracken, the Minister of Information until 1945. Orwell worked under Bracken on the BBC's Indian Service. His employees customarily referred to Bracken by his initials, B.B., the same initials as the character Big Brother. Orwell also resented the wartime censorship and the need to manipulate information from the highest levels of the Minister of Information and Bracken's office.

Department of Propaganda, Printing Press

Department of Propaganda

INGSOC

English Socialism, better known as INGSOC, is the main antagonistic faction in George Orwell's 1949 book Nineteen Eighty-Four as well as the 1984 film adaptation of the same name. It is the sole political party of Oceania, a totalitarian super-state.

Propaganda Dept Opposition

Tear Gas

Düsseldorf, Germany

Mongoose vs. Snake

ANTIFA
Activist, political slang, short for anti-fascist (the widely-used abbreviation for the German AFA group), refers mainly to militant anti-fascists who engage in physical confrontations with Nazis, such as members of Anti-Fascist Action.

Propaganda Worldwide

I've sold a couple of thousand Propaganda Department branded t-shirts over the past 10 years, and many of those shipments had stickers included. That is why nowadays, you can see Propaganda Dept. logo on the streets and post signs of any major city around the globe.