Literally, these are the writers I first came across, and studied there shit since 89’, in hype magazines or whatever publications I could come across, I was the introverted pot head kid that just smoked and tagged everything I touched like an OCD for the first years of my career, I just buried my head in magazines and sketched and aspired to get anywhere near as good as these guys. And crazy enough, they all still rock hard and are some of the heaviest innovators of graffiti to me personally of their generation, there were a few characters here and there which I thought gave it more social relevance and probably shaped me as a writer/artist too. And how hard is it to just pinpoint 5! – Teazer
#1 SABE
This guy is a machine and isn’t scared to take risks and flex in his letter Structure, which I envy hard. His color palette and overlapping of letters is mental. I heard early on that most of his burners were illegal tracksides or whatever that look like full blown legal productions. Crazy shit!
#2 BATES
Bates was a massive influence on me as a kid, down to making sure I had a lot of those letters in my name. Another weapon that just pumps out burner after burner with such consistency it’s mind-boggling to think what drives him, colours are always off-tap and adventurous. And I always loved how he chucked in obscure characters to draw attention and give context to the work.
#3 WANE
Another dude that blew my mind always, bending and flexing letters, variations, and creativity seemed so effortless. Characters, scheme but letters always steal the show. And just relentless consistency all over the globe like wtf!
#4 DMOTE
One of Sydney’s heavyweight exports of style and talent, growing up seeing his productions in Sydney in real life impacted me heavily! The epitome of graffiti I saw one of the boys commenting on his work. That pretty much sums it up, Like he somehow captures the essence of the 80’s New York but with that Sydney flavour! There is no end to the inventiveness in his work.
#5 PUZLE
What can I say that most people don’t know about this Melbourne king? He was doing on trains what a lot of other writers would be hard-pressed to do in a lifetime of legal walls. There must have been something in the water down there, and the time and the place was just electric to watch unfold. Similar entanglement of letters as my other favourites mesmerised me, characters and colour schemes were hectic always. And innovative in typography to boot.
Follow TEAZ on Instagram @_teazer_
Check out the artists mentioned in this feature
SABE @sabefys
BATES @greatbates
WANE @waneonecod
DMOTE @dmoterola
PUZLE @elzup