6 minute read
SVA ALUMNUS ERIC HAZE: FROM STREET ART TO BRAND COLLABORATION
Design icon Eric Haze (BFA 1985 Media Arts) is a born and bred New Yorker. A multi-hyphenate talent, Eric can be described as a celebrated street artist, graphic designer, art director, branding expert, fashion designer, painter and typographer. Clearly a man of many talents, his artistic journey began in his youth, when he was smitten by the art world. Thanks to his father, a Columbia University professor with many artist friends, Eric was exposed to the modern art world. At just eight years old, Eric had the opportunity to view a family friend’s extensive pop art collection, which included the iconic Warhol soup can image. It was then that he was struck with the notion that art did not have to just be a pretty picture.
Through his father’s relationships, he found himself in the studio of Elaine de Kooning, who was commissioned to paint portraits of Eric and his sister. Eric was then taken under the wing of Ms. de Kooning and, today, still has two of the paintings he created under her tutelage when he was just 10 years old. Less than a year later, graffiti art came along and, as he says, “wiped the slate clean” for him as an artist. Soon after, at the age of 13, he joined an art collective, The Soul Artists, who were invited to have an art show at St. John the Divine. Some years later, Eric—along with Fab 5 Freddy, Futura, Lady Pink and Zephyr— was discovered by a journalist from the Village Voice, who featured him in the cover story “In Praise of Graffiti: The Fire Down Below.” Soon came an invitation from influential art curator Diego Cortez to participate in “New York/ New Wave,” a seminal art show at P.S. 1, which would be Jean-Michel Basquiat’s first museum exhibition. By this time, Haze was well known in the mix of the downtown art scene.
Eric worked as a painter for several years, doing commissions and murals as an aerosol artist, but the common thread in his work was always typography. Applying this skill, he became one of the first graffiti artists whose tag emerged as a recognized brand. With Basquiat and Keith Haring as close friends, Eric had a front row seat to their meteoric rise. While he appreciated that graffiti was his entry point to the art world, Eric was always fascinated by mass production and felt compelled to go in another direction. His “lightbulb moment” came when he decided to forge a different path: chasing a dream as a graphic designer/art director.
With this realization, he understood that to excel in that field, he required professional, state-of-the-art skills. That’s when, at the age of 22, Eric made plans to go back to school and study graphic design. His introduction to SVA was in the Division of Continuing Education, where he took two courses with the legendary Ed Benguiat. Eric brought Futura with him to class, and Benguiat, recognizing their talent, allowed them to sit in. Sold on SVA, Eric then entered the undergraduate program.
Although graffiti gave him a sense of being invincible, it was graphic design that lured him to create his own design studio after graduating. Due to his deep understanding of the hip-hop community, Haze was hired to design logos, album covers and branding for artists like the Beastie Boys, LL Cool J and Tommy Boy Records.
In 1992, Eric also founded his own eponymous Haze clothing brand, which led to three flagship shops in Tokyo. Recent design projects include a collection for Jimmy Choo, the U.S. Olympic ski team, and an official Brooklyn Nets jersey featuring his unique and iconic hand lettering. Eric has also continued painting throughout the last 20 years, exhibiting personal work in New York, Los Angeles, London, Tokyo and Shanghai.
Eric says that being an art director has afforded him the opportunity to incorporate a wide range of styles into his work, allowing him to create his own special brand of design. Haze admits he has had “high highs and low lows” throughout his life and career. He wants to document all of it and is in the process of writing his life’s story.
Eric Haze’s advice to art and design students at SVA is that “anyone can do it if you apply yourself with a certain amount of belief and determination. Do the work, do the work, do the work.”
His parting words for anyone in the art world are: “what you believe in is always right. Do not let other people tell you what to do with your life. It’s up to you to decide what to do and then enlist people around you to support that path.” ◆
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