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Niels Meulmans initial recognition came as Shoe within local and international graffiti culture. This evolved into a business for decorative lettering when he was 18. Eager to learn more, he became apprentice to Dutch graphic design master Anthon Beeke to learn the trade. Throughout the nineties he ran his own design company Caulfield & Tensing, before joining BBDO as senior art director. In recent years he has been working under the name Unruly, a flexible creative outfit that specializes in typographic design. Meulmans designs and artwork are part of the permanent collection of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and the San Francisco MOMA. Other essential works include a signature shoe design for sports brand Umbro, logo and corporate identity for Dutch television channel Talpa and the Unruly Accessories silk scarf series. Now it is time for Meulman to use all his fields of expertise and to go back to the essence; the art of writing, or Calligraffiti as he calls it. Thursday September 13th 2007 will see the opening of a large solo exhibition (to be held at the BG venue in Amsterdam) of new art by Niels Shoe Meulman. An ancient story about a king and a calligrapher is the starting point for this show, which features a large variety of works on paper, a Calligraffiti booklet, special guest artist and good friend Eric Haze (who will also be exhibiting his recent works) and limited edition Patta x Shoe x Haze t-shirts. Patta also produced a series of indepth interviews about the legend Shoe, covering his whole career from the graffiti days, his design career, the advertising work and his passion for Calligraffiti. in addition, they conducted mini interviews with friends and colleagues like Bando, Haze and Rammellzee. Check out the first video here below.

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