One of the most important design elements in graffiti art is the arrow. Arrows express movement and energy. In her groundbreaking book “Tag Town,” Martha Cooper photographed vintage graffiti tags in her Washington Heights neighborhood, still visible from the early 1970s through the 1980s (tags are those hard-to-read scrawls you see on mailboxes and other surfaces in most cities). Many of these labels contained arrows as well as stars, hearts, numbers, and crowns. From studying the images of these early tags, we were able to determine that the complex arrow variations we see in today’s advanced Wildstyle graffiti letterforms originated from simple graffiti tags.

An arrow is an internationally understood symbol used on signs to simply indicate direction, as in “Entrance” or “Exit”. However, in graffiti art, an arrow is a powerful visual tool that is often combined with letters to give them movement and dynamism. An arrow guides the viewer’s eyes in a specific direction. An arrow can project from either side of a letter, zigzagging in and out, back and forth, and in circles, across a two-dimensional surface, creating depth and rhythm. Graffiti artist Ezo says that every graffiti artist has his own arrow and it’s true: the variations and design possibilities of an arrow are endless. An arrow can be drawn in all shapes and sizes; thick and thick or long and thin, pointed or square, single or multi-ended. An arrow can organically follow the flow and direction of a letter, like a vine. Or it can shoot out the side it sticks out of, like a missile, as in “The Rammelzee” artwork, known as Gothic Futurism.

So early graffiti writers incorporated simple arrows and other basic design elements into their tags to make them stand out and grab attention. From that simple beginning, the arrow has evolved into a multifaceted, complex and self-contained art object of its own. A New York graffiti artist and writer, Mare 139, actually creates beautiful three-dimensional sculptures out of metal sheets that contain only arrows, with light and space as parts of his designs. We believe that arrows are a fascinating and diverse element of graffiti letterforms, providing artists and students with continuous possibilities for innovation and style. We love arrows.