Shepard Fairey created the Obey Giant street-art campaign featuring a stylized André the Giant image.
Fairey began the campaign in 1989 while he was a student at the Rhode Island School of Design. The first stickers used an image of professional wrestler André the Giant with the phrase “André the Giant Has a Posse.” Legal pressure later led Fairey to adapt the image and develop the “Obey Giant” identity.
The campaign spread through stickers, posters, and public spaces, helping establish Fairey as a prominent figure in contemporary street art. The Obey clothing brand grew from that visual language and was formally developed in the 2000s.
This is different from KAWS’s recurring characters or Banksy’s stencil-based public art. Fairey’s project is particularly associated with repetition, propaganda-style graphics, and the tension between commercial clothing and unauthorized street distribution.