Gauntlet Gallery
What is Shepard Fairey’s piece called “Tools Of The Trade”?
Artist Statement
STUDIO NUMBER ONE is beginning a series of promotional prints by designers from the studio. First to kick off the program is my co-worker and friend of over 20 years Jason Filipow. Jason and I have a mutual love of skateboarding, Bad Brains, Rauschenberg, Warhol, and ink applied to paper. Jason did the photography and design for the "Tools of the Trade" print and I threw my two cents in when asked. I wish I could take more credit for such a great design. I can at least take credit for hiring the guy. I think this is limited to 250 for sale on obeygiant.com. The edition size is 350. It is double signed… once by Jason, and once by the founder of Studio Number One… me. -Shepard 18 x 24 inch Screen Print, Signed by Jason Filipow and Shepard. Edition of 350.
Summary
Tools Of The Trade is a 2007 screen print, 18 x 24 inches, in an edition of 350 published by Obey Giant. The print was designed and photographed by Studio Number One designer Jason Filipow, with Fairey contributing input, and it kicked off a series of promotional prints by studio designers. Per the source, it is double-signed, once by Filipow and once by Fairey. The work celebrates the shared craft of design and printmaking, foregrounding the implements and process behind the studio's output rather than an overt political message.
Why It Matters
This print is unusual within Fairey's catalog because it foregrounds a collaborator rather than Fairey himself. According to the source description, it launched a series of promotional prints by designers from Studio Number One, Fairey's studio, beginning with longtime friend and co-worker Jason Filipow, who handled the photography and design while Fairey contributed input. That makes it a documented artifact of how Fairey's studio operated as a collective rather than a solo enterprise. The double-signature, attributed in the source to both Filipow and Fairey as founder of Studio Number One, gives collectors a tangible record of that collaboration. The shared interests named in the description, skateboarding, Bad Brains, Rauschenberg, and Warhol, situate the piece within the same subcultural and pop-art lineage that informs Fairey's broader work. For collectors, the print rewards interest in the studio system and process behind the OBEY brand, offering a behind-the-scenes perspective that more iconic propaganda images do not. It is the kind of release that documents creative community and the people who build a recognizable visual identity together.
Collector Perspective
This appeals to collectors who value the studio story behind OBEY rather than only Fairey's headline political images. The documented double-signature by both Jason Filipow and Fairey makes it attractive to those who collect collaborative or attribution-rich works. As the inaugural piece in a promotional series spotlighting Studio Number One designers, it fits collections built around the studio's internal history and process. At 18 x 24 inches it is an approachable display size, and its subject, the tools and craft of design, suits collectors drawn to printmaking culture itself. The source notes a portion was offered for sale on obeygiant.com out of the stated edition of 350, which adds a release-history detail collectors often track.
Historical Context
Tools Of The Trade dates to April 2007, a period when Fairey's Studio Number One was an established creative engine behind the OBEY output. The source frames it as the launch of a program promoting the studio's own designers, beginning with Jason Filipow, a friend and co-worker of more than twenty years. This places the print within Fairey's mid-2000s arc, when the OBEY operation had matured into a studio practice with a recognizable team rather than a single artist working alone. The named touchstones in the description, skateboarding, Bad Brains, Rauschenberg, and Warhol, reflect the punk and pop-art influences that shaped Fairey's sensibility from his early sticker-campaign roots. As a collaborative, designer-credited release, it documents the collective dimension of the OBEY enterprise during this era.
FAQ
Who designed Tools Of The Trade?
According to the source, the print was photographed and designed by Jason Filipow, a Studio Number One designer and longtime friend and co-worker of Shepard Fairey. Fairey states he contributed input when asked but credits Filipow with the design, calling it the first in a series of promotional prints by designers from his studio.
Is this print signed?
Yes. The source description states it is double-signed, once by Jason Filipow and once by Shepard Fairey as the founder of Studio Number One. This double signature reflects the collaborative nature of the release.
What is the edition size?
The stated edition size is 350. Fairey notes in the description that he believes 250 of those were offered for sale on obeygiant.com. The print is a screen print measuring 18 by 24 inches, published by Obey Giant in 2007.
What makes this print significant in Fairey's catalog?
It launched a program spotlighting designers from Fairey's Studio Number One rather than Fairey alone, making it a documented record of how his studio operated as a creative team. The shared influences named in the description connect it to the punk and pop-art lineage behind OBEY.
Related Works
About the Artist
Shepard Fairey (b. 1970, Charleston, South Carolina) is an American street artist, graphic designer, and activist, and a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design. His 1989 “André the Giant Has a Posse” sticker grew into the global OBEY GIANT campaign — an ongoing experiment in propaganda, obedience, and visual culture. He reached worldwide recognition with the 2008 “Hope” portrait of Barack Obama, now held by the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery. Across screen prints, stencils, murals, and collage, Fairey channels propaganda aesthetics toward themes of peace, justice, environmentalism, and civil rights. His work is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Victoria & Albert Museum, and LACMA.