I’m a huge believer in touch points. Brands need to directly touch and interact with their users for any transformative experiences to happen. Having worked as an art director, I saw the visceral reaction people gain from a great-looking experience. Working in nonprofit fundraising now, I hear how people see how support—financial or otherwise—furthers a public good, emanating a warm glow of happiness from interacting with a brand, or cause, from first experience to an idealized state. Building altruism was my Master’s thesis, and creating feeling from an experience is where I think Vorthos players build their support. One feels good that a win came from a Dragon using its Firebreathing ability to Smite mere Soldiers to a victory. That hook, that visceral connection of making a mere happenstance game into something greater is one of the many reasons we keep playing this cardboard crack of a game.

Once players set up their holds, they begin shaping their experiences directly. Every gaming store that has seen a player-led mural being created knows firsthand how choosing which planeswalker to feature is a difficult task. I’d like to take that aspect a bit further. I’m a huge fan of street art, and I want to examine why the hell Magic hasn’t grabbed onto the medium.

First, though, we need some nomenclature definitions.

Street art, in a nutshell, is just Art in public places. My capitalization of the A in art is intentional. It symbolizes that the art has value. These public spaces are often offered by city ordinances and are often very organized, but they don’t necessarily have the consent of the property owner.

Graffiti is, in a nutshell, writing or drawings on a wall or in a public space. It differs in that graffiti is generally considered to be created without consent of the property owner and often deemed to lack value, thereby relegating it to defacement and vandalism of said property.

So, how are these terms different? Street art is objectively a more positive word and often connotes a higher value for said art. In layman’s’ terms, street art has a message—a purpose—and tries to push an agenda. Graffiti often also has an agenda, but a sinister one to deface or claim ownership via a gang’s markings, for example. In the eye of the law, both are considered illegal, and often, most street artists previously considered themselves graffiti artists. Up until, oh, the 1990s, street art didn’t exist. We’ve had examples of graffiti since, well, ever. The Greeks (Theros win!) had graffiti, as did Mayan and Roman cultures. Hell, the Alexamenos graffito is on plaster and has been around since at least 300 CE.

Yup, that’s Jesus. Not sure why he’s a horse, but whatever.

Our current view of “graffiti” came around in the 1970s in New York, and that’s what I’ll focus on. Yes, it’s confusing as hell to have two terms to explain one thing, but know that one is basically tagging, and the other is more stencil/poster work. (I’m simplifying, so you can bust my balls later, but stick with me here.)

Graffiti’s tagging:

Here’s a street art poster:

Where this area of art is today is on the fringe of being wholly acceptable into the art world, graffiti or street-art based. They even have classes, panels, and workshops on the subject matter. Banksy taking residence in New York has shown that this medium of being defacement has eroded slightly and a few artists are transcending and taking it all the way to the bank. The movie Exit Through the Gift Shop is the best art movie of the past decade and has pushed this medium into white-walled museums and into public consciousness. Hell, if Banksy even stencils a wall now, people will do anything to remove said wall to cash in on his fame and sell the wall.

So, Wait. Stop! Why the Hell Does This Matter?

Magic is a counterculture game. Have you not seen the reports? Have you not seen Wizards of the Coast’s ad campaign that Friday Night Magic is the (only) place I rule? Did I not write about it not being geek-chic despite every other geeky thing in the world now being acceptable?

I wrote in the past that players aren’t fixing the issue. I wrote how we aren’t making Magic visible. We hide our collections in corners of our houses. (Ahem, that’s the real reason I made this article on showing me your stash, and I learned that most Twitter-active folks aren’t in that group.)

We aren’t visible, and when we are, it’s more often than not, like Finkelgate, not that awesome. I’m not cool with staying in the margins—that has to end sooner rather than later. The player base has exploded, and being a niche game won’t hold forever. Duels of the Planeswalker proves that.

So, let’s get to some more touch points. At this point, I’ll throw anything at the wall to see if it’ll stick.

We all love murals. Art on walls is hard to hate on an “entirely” level. That’s a great step one.

Get . . . That Word . . . Out

I argued last week that Magic needs to open up its logos, making them accessible. That’s a brand conversation, and I urge you to ping @ElaineChase on it for further information. She’ll probably go quiet, but she always listens.

As for these murals, some do exist already, but that’s within the safe confines within the store.

Let’s get that art—our iconic five colors—out of the store and into the public. Magic commercials aren’t really happening, despite that Cartoon Network, especially Adult Swim, would be perfect for them or during the Big Bang Theory.

To create a community presence, let’s consider what we, as random people, can do. We have community artists in Magic now. They’re the alterists. They're a bit edgy and rough around the edges, sure, but they haven’t been really urged to push the boundaries yet because Wizards can’t officially endorse them due to copyright concerns.

Could a local game store owner commission them to make a wall mural? Yes.

An outside mural? Oh, hell yes.

Could someone contact the local city ordinance to have a massive art wall made? You betcha.

Why can't we have graffiti—and eventually a street artist—in our circle? Eric Klug and arguably Sandreline are “the” alterists as of now. Took a while, but we have the ice of the iceberg finally. I’d kill to see a mere Tumblr of MTG murals and tie them into alters. I think you see where I’m going with this. Maybe we can get Klug to make a mural of five colors of Magic, all Mucha-style. Hell, I’d be happy with a random person asking Klug for permission to take five of the images below, put it on a 3M overhead projector, project onto the wall, and just trace the colors. Is that rocket science, you guys?

Put that outside a shop, and you’ll be written up in the local paper for a new art happening in town. I’m totally serious. Then, see what happens when you ask for a PSA of a tournament coming out. Talk about free advertising.

Taking alterists’ works and transferring them onto a wall is neat.

Commissioning an alterist to make a mural is also neat.

Making art with friends is the neatest.

Seeing someone stand above the fold and start taking our game to the streets is what I’m looking for. I’m not for vandalism, obviously, but there are always places and ways to bring the message to the people. I know a few street artists who do murals, sure, but any of the beautiful lettering graffiti artists could do basically any lettering without much trouble. Lettering is more than a mere tag, using spray paint to write something. Notice how lettering deconstructs itself below. Images are from a pretty approachable book I own called How to Draw Graffiti Style. While rudimentary, it covers the basics, and it’s at least worth checking out via interlibrary loan if you’re interested.

See that embellishment, that smashing down of elements into the base units then exaggerating them? Taking that lesson into practicality, I found a quick plug-and-play graffiti-maker online. While not perfect, it give an idea of what I mean to cross that bridge. Certainly conjures up a Jace that isn’t emo; that’s for sure.

That’s what I’m talking about. Sweet.

Okay, that’s neat and would be great on the bottom of an MTG-themed skateboard, sure, but what about other things? Using guild logos in random places would also be graffiti. Image the Golgari symbol . . . 

Add it to all recycling bins in your local game shop and everywhere else appropriate where any “recycling”—hint hint—would happen. I like composting bins, but that’s just me. If you know a city official who works in recycling, see if he or she can slip the logo into places.

Garbage is cool and easy, but if you really want to go all-in on green, paint green-themed logos on the walls:

Yes, I’ve been dabbling in Pinterest more and more.

I would riff on the fat pack epic scenes that have been around for years—such as, for example, the image of Korlash, Heir to Blackblade" href="/p/Magic%3A+The+Gathering/%3Ca+href+%3D+%22javascript%3Avoid%28%29%22+target%3D%22_blank%22%3EKorlash%2C+Heir+to+Blackblade%3C%2Fa%3E">Korlash, Heir to Blackblade versus Tombstalker by Jean-Sebastien Rossback—and then recreate them anywhere I could. Often, these are Spectrum annual art volume inclusions and quite amazing in the imaginative realism sect of fine art.

There are a ton of photo-manipulation-uploading things online that you can use to test out ideas—like this one:

Or try another image, such as the Scars of Mirrodin fat pack art by Jason Chan. If you’re as bored as I am with multicultural city murals with black and white hands—or worse, poorly-drawn children’s faces—maybe our girl Elspeth and guy Koth would be better on a community center. Frankly, it feels more racially harmonious than most terribly-painted murals, and it’s a lot cooler.

Social Activism

I would kill for an unlicensed, unsanctioned, and unsponsored art show using Magic as the hallmark storytelling element. Star Wars already does it all the damn time

Woof. That’s heavy, yo.

If you have any artistic gumption (talent isn’t even needed), you could utilize your local game store as an umbrella for local art grants to collect funds. Make cool Magic art on the walls while being paid to do so. Seems good to me.

If that’s not your bag and you need a social purpose, that’s cooler still. Here are some topics:

• Comment on booth babes.
• Comment on the oversexualization of women planeswalkers—Liliana and Chandra to Elspeth.
• Comment on copyright using Polish Tamales as the marquee case . . . ask him for stencils; God knows he’d help you out.
• Comment on how games morally corrupt kids, or worse, how video games create school shootings.

I can think of a dozen card arts that would fit all of these things.

It’s really not that difficult to take a Magic card art and add a pithy comment, and then you’re on your way to being the next Banksy. The idea-creation is easy, it’s the maintenance and ongoing content that separates art project from a greater message from a vigilante street artist, strafing legality of message placement.

Give it a try in your store first, and then go wild! If you do, show me your results with a tweet. I’m ever at @VorthosMike.

God knows I’m always up for seeing something cool in our community.

When a project like this goes live, Tumblr Vorthoses live for it. Reddit users also like it. So, post away!