Shepard Fairey designs shopping bags for Saks

From NYTimes.com: Consumers of the World Unite

Saks Fifth Avenue, which has surely felt the recession’s sting, is taking just such a fist-raising stand with its spring marketing. The campaign is inspired by the bold graphic designs and propaganda spirit of Constructivist art — although it is intended to be tongue-in-cheek.

The store hired Shepard Fairey, the artist who created the stylized Hope poster of Barack Obama that became one of the most highly visible, though unofficial, images of the presidential campaign, to design its catalog covers and shopping bags. They bear a rather unsubtle allusion to advertisements made in the 1920s for state-run department stores in the Soviet Union.

Shepard Fairey is certainly cashing in on his newly found mainstream fame.  There are pictures of the design in the article.

It’ll be an interesting balancing act for Shepard Fairey to keep a level of “street credibility” while doing commercial projects.