Niels Shoe Meulman is a visual artist, graffiti writer, graphic designer and art director, based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Meulman’s designs and artwork are in the permanent collections of the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, as well as part of many private collections.

Early Years

Meulman began tagging as Shoe in 1979 and was a graffiti

Graffiti

Graffiti is the name for images or lettering scratched, scrawled, painted or marked in any manner on property....

 legend by the time he was 18. In the eighties Shoe met New York artists like DONDI

Dondi

Dondi was a daily comic strip about a large-eyed war orphan of the same name. Created by Gus Edson and Irwin Hasen, it ran in more than 100 newspapers for three decades .-Interview:...

, Rammellzee

Rammellzee

Rammellzee was a visual artist, graffiti writer, performance artist, hip hop musician, art theoretician and sculptor from New York.-Life and work:...

, Haze

Eric Haze

Eric Haze is a well known graffiti artist and designer from New York City. During his early years as graffiti writer in the 1970s Haze was tagging the name "SE3" before taking on his more popular identity as "Haze"...

, Quik and Keith Haring

Keith Haring

Keith Haring was an artist and social activist whose work responded to the New York City street culture of the 1980s.-Early life:...

 in Amsterdam. Inspired by their New York Graffiti style he formed the graffiti crew Crime Time Kings with Bando from Paris and Mode2 from London. Together they gave a distinctive style to graffiti in Europe.

Professional Experience

In the nineties, Meulman advanced his technique by apprenticing under the Dutch graphic design master Anthon Beeke (1989–1992). He ran his own design company, Caulfield & Tensing (1992–1999), with Michael Schaeffer and enabled by start up funds from Internet entrepreneur Walter de Brouwer. The advertising agency FHV BBDO took over the company, and employed Meulman as senior art director (1999–2001). Upon leaving the agency he was partner in the advertising agency Unruly with Dennis Polak.
Commercial works of note include a signature shoe design for the British sports brand Umbro; the creative direction of the magazine WAVE; the re-styling of the Dutch television channel TMF; packaging calligraphy for Bols Genever, and a line of luxury silk scarves which he designs for Unruly.

Calligraffiti

Shoe calls his art of writing Calligraffiti, an art form that fuses calligraphy and graffiti. He launched this movement in 2007 with a solo exhibition in Amsterdam under the same name. Since then, his Calligraffiti pieces (signed NSM) have been seen in various international exhibitions in Europe and North America. In March, 2010 the book 'Calligraffiti - the Graphic Art of Niels Shoe Meulman' was published by From Here To Fame Publishing in Berlin. John Langdon

John Langdon (typographer)

John Langdon is an American graphic designer, ambigram artist, painter, and writer.The son of George Langdon, a teacher at The Episcopal Academy in Merion, Pennsylvania, John Langdon attended that school from 1950-1964. He received his bachelor's degree in English from Dickinson College,...

, the ambigram

Ambigram

An ambigram is a typographical design or art form that may be read as one or more words not only in its form as presented, but also from another viewpoint, direction, or orientation. The words readable in the other viewpoint, direction or orientation may be the same or different from the original...

 artist who wrote the preface, is quoted in the book about the first time he met Shoe and saw his work: 'You are as good as me. Only I did more.'

Further reading

• Langdon, John; Eeuwens, Adam (2010). Calligraffiti, the Graphic Art of Niels Shoe Meulman. Berlin: From Here To Fame Publishing, 2010, ISBN: 3-937-94621-7

External links

Artist Web site: nielsshoemeulman.com

Art Web site: calligraffiti.nl

Scarf Art: unruly.nl