Steve Lambert

wrote a book!!!

Yearly Archives: 2004

The Anti-Advertising Agency

The Anti-Advertising Agency borrows the structure and methods of an advertising agency, but creates art works which critically examine the role of advertising in everyday life. I am the Agency’s “CEO” and collaborators fill other roles in the Agency. For example, The SF Print Collective serves as a “board of directors” and artist/collaborators are “creative directors” for their respective campaigns.

The various sub-project campaigns are a collaboration between myself and other artists including Adam Connelly, the San Francisco Print Collective, Sara Dierck, Michael Dodge, Packard Jennings, Josh MacPhee, Dara Greenwald, Susan Greene, and Amanda Eicher.

In 2005 I was given a show at the McBean Project Space at the San Francisco Art Institute. We used the space to set up an office for the Agency. Pictures and writing about the installation can be seen on the Our Offices area of the Anti-Advertising Agency website.

The project is paid for through a grant from the Creative Work Fund.

Ad Lib

screenprint on paper
18 x 24
with the Anti-Advertising Agency

This print was the first project to introduce the Anti-Advertising Agency and developed in collaboration with Adam Connelly and the San Francisco Print Collective.

The first run of the print was an edition of 600. The prints were distributed to the public through the mail, visits to schools, casual gatherings, and various other encounters. Participants were asked to imagine they had their own billboard that thousands of people would see everyday. They were then invited to write whatever they wanted on the billboard. The resulting prints were posted on the Anti-Advertising Agency website and subsequently wheat-pasted around the streets of San Francisco.

The resulting work was a collaboration between the Anti-Advertising Agency and the participants who drew their ideas on the print.

Sign Here – SF

These drawings examine some of the unavoidable visual content absorbed in everyday life.
All drawings are ink and watercolor on paper with Post-it brand ‘sign here’ tags attached. This series is of locations in San Francisco.

Most are 18×24 inches watercolor and ink on paper, except for the framed one below which is approximately 3 by 5 feet.

ADVERTISEMENT Shirts

steve-lambert-advertisement-shirt

I created these shirts while teaching at a high school where students wore logo and company names on their chest with pride. I made dozens of them and sold them through this site for about a year. They made their way across the country and are still worn by some die-hards.

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