(upbeat music) - [Announcer] Welcome everyone to the Penny Stamps Distinguished Speaker Series.

(upbeat music) - Welcome everyone to the Penny Stamps Distinguished Speaker Series.

My name is Christina Hamilton, the series director.

Today we present visionary artist, cultural pioneer, and innovative designer, Cey Adams.

Finally, as I should say, 'cause we were gonna do this I think last January or February.

So finally we have Cey here and we're very excited.

I wanna thank our community partner, Design Core Detroit and our series partners, Detroit Public Television, PBS books, and Michigan Radio 91.7 FM.

For any of you who are traveling to Boston soon or over the Thanksgiving break, you must go visit the Stone Gallery at BU where there is currently a retrospective of Cey Adams' illustrious 40 year career on view now through December 11th.

So you can hit it at Thanksgiving.

For those of you who can't make it to Boston, there's actually this very fun, interactive 3D model of the exhibition on the website.

So check it out.

Just two announcements today, students, a competition for you, calling singers, songwriters, musicians, artists, designers, lyricists, performers for a creative collaboration and a chance to win $3,000 and a full video production, design, and shoot at the U of M Video Studios.

Submissions are due one month from today, so check it out.

This is part of the Democracy and Debate Initiative and you can check out the competition at speakactvote.umich.edu.

For details.

Election day is Tuesday.

We encourage you to visit the Ann Arbor City satellite offices, the city clerk's office at UMA, or The Dude for all your voting needs.

These amazing spaces, of course, designed by our very own Stamps Faculty, Stephanie Rowden and Hana Smarick, of the Creative Campus Voting Project, they are open tomorrow, Saturday, Monday, and Tuesday.

And Tuesday is voting day.

So any questions, govote.umich.edu.

We will have a Q&A today directly following in here.

So if you have questions, there are microphones at the end of these two aisles.

When we get to the Q&A bit, just come on down and line up at either microphone and ask your question.

And now to introduce our speaker today, we have someone very special, U of M's own man of all seasons, I would say.

We have poet journalist, social entrepreneur, performing artist, author, filmmaker, philanthropist, and professor of arts leadership and entrepreneurship at the School of Music, Theater and Dance.

Please welcome Aaron Dworkin.

(audience applauds) - Thanks so much, Christina.

It is my distinct honor to introduce one of the pioneers in the world of hip hop graphic design.

As the legendary creative director of Def Jam recordings Cey Adams created album artwork and logos as well as advertising campaigns for the likes of Jay-Z, Run-DMC, Beastie Boys, Notorious B.I.G, Maroon 5, and many others, it's truly extraordinary.

Cey launched his career as a graffiti artist in the streets of New York in the late '70s and early '80s.

Born in Harlem and raised in Queens, New York.

Cey Adams honed his art skills, painting graffiti on the streets and trains of New York City.

At the same time I was growing up there, playing my violin.

Before he moved downtown, where street art was leaking into the city's high end galleries, alongside fellow artists, Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Futura, Hayes, Lee Quiñones, and Lady Pink.

Like his pop art contemporaries of the time, Adams understood the power of images, media and advertising, a position that left him uniquely suited to give visual life to a new movement called Hip Hop.

Around this time, he began a long time professional relationship with Russell Simmons, co-founder of Def Jam Records.

Later he began designing marketing materials for the Beastie Boys, and due to their friendship, Cey was dubbed the unofficial fourth Beastie Boy.

He designed logos and products for "The Chappelle Show," NYC's Hot 97 Radio Station, Nike, Coca-Cola and more.

In 2016, the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington commissioned Cey to create a large scale mural entitled, One Nation, during Freedom Sounds of Community Celebration.

He designed the spectacular Def Jam Recordings, the first 25 years of the last great record label and co-authored "Definition: The Art and Design of Hip Hop."

The first comprehensive anthology written in the name of the genre.

Bill Adler, formerly of the Boston Herald, said, Cey's career is a microcosm of the history of hip hop.

Cey recently co-authored a book that features recreated iconic hip hop photos by graffiti artists called "The Mashup."

Cey's vision pushes the boundaries of art and design as it intertwines with hip hop culture and society at large.

His artistic practice focuses on themes including pop culture, race and gender relations, and culture and community issues.

Cey lives in Brooklyn, New York, where he is always creating mind altering masterpieces.

I saw when he was on Sway in the Morning a couple years ago when he said that quote, "The work that we do as creatives is behind the curtain, so that the performers can shine.

But after all these years, it's time for us to step up and take a bow."

Thank you Cey for coming out to Michigan and coming out of your creative space for a brief moment to take a bow with us here today.

Everyone, please join me in giving a Michigan welcome to Cey Adams.

(audience applauds) - Hey everybody, thank you for coming out.

Thank you to Aaron, thank you to Christina for the wonderful opportunity to come here and speak to you all.

I have to tell you, it's been a long, long time coming, and I'm just so happy to see actual humans, so thanks a lot.

My career spans the better part of 40 years, so I really am gonna jump right into it because I'm really excited and I have a lot of ground to cover.

So I started making art when I was a teenager in the '70s, and myself and my contemporaries all grew up primarily in New York City making graffiti and what we now know as street art.

This is a drawing that I did back in the early '80s for a subway train that I was about to paint.

And like a lot of creatives, everything sort of starts out in a sketchbook.

And this was one of the sketches that I did very early on.

And the lyrics come from one of the very first Run-DMC songs.

And when you look at my work, you'll see a theme throughout it constantly.

I'm always tapping into music and lyrics and things like that for inspiration.

And so, like I mentioned, very often you'll see things like that.

This was one of the earliest subway trains that I painted back in the early '80s.

And one of the things that was really interesting for me was later on in my career I was fortunate enough to have professional photographers taking pictures of my work.

But at this time, I was basically doing it myself.

And so this is what that looked like.

And one of the other things I wanna mention is over and over again when you look at my work, you'll see that I have a reoccurring theme of using bright colors.

Because even back when I was a teenager, I understood that I wanted to make work that made people feel good, so just keep that in mind as we go through these images.

So this is a young picture of myself that was taken by my friend, Martha Cooper and I might have been 17 or 18, and we had a little gallery in New York City that represented us all.

And so this is myself, my friends Crash, Daze, Lady Pink, Futura, and many others.

And on this particular day I was making a painting entitled, Graffiti City.

And when I look at this image, it really takes me back because like I said, it was a very long time ago and I was a young kid and it just makes me so happy to be able to look at these images and to think that now I'm standing in front of an audience talking about my journey.

So it just makes me feel great.

One of the things that occurs to me when I'm looking at this is behind this building is I guess what you all call graffiti alley.

And it's just so amazing to see all of this art that people do and it's free spirited and then no rules and regulations and everybody here comes to celebrate it.

And back when I was a kid everything was about us defying authority.

So that's why there's a image of a police officer.

And it's sort of strange that all these years later, not a whole lot has changed when it comes to that.

But I guess the fact that I am standing here is living proof that we certainly have come a very long way.

So one of the things that like Aaron had mentioned, heavily associated with is my relationship with the Beastie Boys.

I met them back in the early '80s when they were first starting out and I was as well, and they commissioned me to design a logo for one of their records.

And this ended up being an image that they've used over and over and over again.

And 'cause we're talking about art and design, it's really interesting to me to be able to create a graffiti logo that's become synonymous with the band itself, and is something that I'm very proud of.

Because throughout my career, one of the things that's always been important to me was developing relationships.

And this is one of the relationships that I'm really, really proud of.

Wow, Def Jam.

It's been about 40 some odd years since I first met Rick Rubin and Russell Simmons, the founders of Def Jam.

And throughout my career, it's really been a defining moment because so many of these recording artists have gone on to great things.

Now I do have to mention that I did not design the Def Jam logo, Rick Rubin did that.

But I'm synonymous with all of the work that Def Jam has done as far as graphic design.

So in a lot of ways I feel like, I have ownership as well when it comes to this particular design.

Wow, LL Cool J.

So these are some of the album covers that I designed with LL, and like some of the other artists that you'll see, he's somebody that I've come up with when I was a kid and we've known each other for a very long time.

And this was a photograph that was taken by a photographer named Albert Watson.

And the images on the right are "Mama Said Knock You Out," "14 Shots to the Dome" and an album called "Mr.

Smith."

And one of the things that was really tricky was sort of introducing LL to the idea of photography as a medium.

Because in the beginning we had to educate everybody about what it is we do a as creatives.

And if any of you out there have designed album covers, one of the first things you realize is you have to get the artists on your side in order to get things past the client, which is the record label.

And so for me, that was always the most important thing is to get the artist to understand the value of photography.

And LL is one of those people that I think has come a very long way when you think about his journey and how beautiful his art is.

Wow, Public Enemy and Fear of A Black Planet.

Like LL Col J, Public Enemy and Chuck D in particular, is somebody that I've been friends with for many, many years.

And this is one of the designs that I'm most proud of, because we did this wow, maybe about 37 years ago, and it seems like it's taken on more of an important meaning over time.

When you think about the idea of a black planet eclipsing the earth and all of the things that's been going on with the Black Lives Matter Movement.

And if you even go farther back than that to the Civil Rights Movement.

When I designed this, I did not think a whole lot about whether or not there would be controversy.

I just knew that it was important to find an illustrator like B.E Johnson, that could do something as beautiful as this.

And to tell this kind of story with his airbrush and his paints.

And looking at it at this scale, it just reminds me of the power of beautiful art and graphic design.

Notorious B.I.G.

So now when I think about this record, like some of the others, it has a whole new meaning because Notorious B.I.G has been gone for almost 25 years.

And we just had an anniversary recently where he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

And I think that that's such a huge accomplishment, but the idea that he's not around to celebrate it is a little bittersweet.

But for this purpose, we're gonna talk about the photography because these photographs were taken in 1994 by a photographer named Butch Bel Air.

And the model's name was Keithroy Yearwood.

And he is since graduated college and he's a grown man out there probably doing great things in the world.

But back then Sean Combs came up with this idea of a baby being ready to die.

And I really did not understand it when we did it in the '90s, but I'm really proud of the graphic design.

And a lot of this was created by my lead designer, Kenny Gravels.

And one of the things that I'm gonna constantly do while I'm up here talking is I'm gonna mention other people.

Because it really was an army of people at my firm that created a lot of this art.

I did 90% of the art direction and a lot of the design, but we had a huge team that did a lot of the work.

So I have to mention that as I'm going through these things, Wow, DMX.

It's not lost on me that so many of my friends are gone.

But I feel very fortunate that we have the music and we certainly have the art.

And DMX, like a lot of the others, is one of those artists that was really, really intense.

All three of his albums were photographed by a photographer named Jonathan Mannion.

And for this particular image, DMX wanted to be in a literal blood bath.

And so what we did was we used a about 150 boxes of red dye and put a lot of water and mixture and we made this sort of red glue, and just washed him in it and he was totally game.

And when I look at it now,, it looks even more scary than it did when we took these photographs back in 1998.

But I will say that DMX, like some of the other artists I've been fortunate to work with, was really open to trying new things and they were not afraid to experiment.

And it makes me really proud when I look back and I think about all the cool things that I was able to participate in.

Jay-Z.

Jay-Z is another one.

You know, at this particular time, one of the things that I have to mention is that this is the same exact year, and around this time, Def Jam and the artists on the label were so hot.

We were doing two albums for each artist.

And so we would do one at the beginning of the year and one around the fourth quarter towards the end.

And we were working very hard.

And each of these artists got opportunities to become global superstars.

And Jay-Z is one of those artists that really pushed the envelope.

When we worked together, He was always quiet, soft-spoken, easygoing, but if he didn't like something, he would always speak up.

But in the end, he ended up being a really great collaborator.

And when I look back on this body of work, I just feel so fortunate that between myself, him, and Jonathan Mannion, we were always able to create something really memorable.

And like a lot of the other artists, he's somebody that I still work with to this very day.

So this is just a small overview of some of the album covers that I've worked on over the years with a whole team of my designers.

And while you know, when people talk about my bio, Def Jam is mentioned a lot, but I've worked with a lot of labels over the years and I've worked with a lot of other recording artists.

So you'll see Luscious Jackson in there, The Geto Boys, obviously the Beastie Boys, Mary J. Blige, Redman, Craig Mack, so many.

And again, this is just a small, small selection, but the one thing I do wanna talk about is art and design.

And so every time I got an opportunity to design one of these records, I made sure I and I alone designed the logo.

Because that was a thing that I was excited about.

I came from a graffiti background.

I was always interested in graphics, I had to teach myself the art of graphic design.

And this is during the cut and paste years.

So anybody of a certain age might remember that, I had to learn how to hand draw things, I had to learn how to cut Rubyliths and everything else.

And I made all of these logos.

And then I would hand it off to my team and sometimes they would handle the rest of the notes and the packaging.

But when it came to logos and the initial graphic design, I handled all of that.

So like I mentioned, logo design is something that is really near and dear to my heart and nothing makes me happier than to create a successful logo.

And so I decided that I was gonna break out just a few of my favorite logos.

And so for the purpose of what we're talking about, we'll zero in on Mary J. Blige because that's one of the designs that has made me not only really proud, but when I think about how many years she's been in the business and she's still using that very same design to this very day, it sort of reminds me of the power of a good logo and obviously typography.

Foo Fighters are a band that I've worked with quite often.

And this is one of the designs that really made me excited because I had never really gotten a chance to do my version of what I imagine would be something that the Beach Boys would love.

And so when I got this shot, I decided I was gonna do something with guys like surfing in the background and you have the sun setting and the band just absolutely loved it.

And Dave Grohl, like reminds me every time I meet with him, sometimes I'll see him at parties and things and I remind him about some of the stuff I did for the Foos and he says, oh, I always like that surfing design that you did.

Hot 97, that's another one that I'm really excited about because if anybody's familiar with radio stations all over the country, this is one of the designs that's copied over and over and over again.

Every time I go to a city and I see the radio station's logos, they always somehow zero in on taking something from this particular design.

And I don't know what it is about this graphic that constantly makes people wanna pull from it, but I find it very flattering.

Here are a few other logos that I've designed and one of the things I do want to talk about is this logo for Don Henley.

I got an opportunity from an organization that does tour merchandising and they called me up and they asked me if I wanted to design some logos and merch for Don Henley and Stevie Nicks.

And I jumped at the opportunity because I've always been a big Eagles fan.

And then a year later, because they loved what I did so much, I got an opportunity to work with The Eagles.

And then fast forward to maybe about seven or eight years later, I got to meet Glen Fry at an organization where we were both doing a fundraiser and we got to talk about some of the designs that we had worked on.

And for me it was really great, because very often I get painted with a hiphop brush.

And so whenever people can see me outside of that, it's a really wonderful thing because I love hip hop, but I've been around for a little while and I always like the opportunity to spread my wings.

And so this was one of those opportunities.

We'll talk about "The Chappelle Show" in a minute.

I'm gonna get back to that.

This was a series that I did for Adidas, for Muhammad Ali.

And so at the time, Muhammad Ali had seven life principles, and while I can't remember all of them, one of them was confidence.

And so they assigned seven different artists and each one got a different principle and mine was confidence.

And every artist was handpicked by Muhammad Ali himself and he approved all of the artwork.

And so for me, as somebody that grew up loving Muhammad Ali and everything that he stood for, this was really great to get an opportunity to literally collaborate with him.

And we made original art and from that original art we made a line of apparel.

And so we made jackets, we made shoes, and then we also had a giant art opening with a bunch of other artists.

And I got a chance to meet one of my art heroes, Leroy Neiman, shortly before he passed away.

And my buddy, Sheppard Fairey was another artist.

And you know, there were other folks as well.

But to get an opportunity to work with your hero and to make something that really speaks to not only myself but to a generation of other people for a contemporary audience was really wonderful.

And Adidas was just a brilliant partner to work with.

So this is a set of luggage that I designed for JanSport.

They did an artist series and I got a chance to incorporate a lot of the things that I love, which is all of the elements of hip hop.

I got to play around with spray paint elements, the graphic design, typography.

I got to incorporate a little bit of graffiti and those are things that I don't always get a chance to play around with.

But for the purpose of this particular design, they gave me so much space and freedom.

And these pieces sold like hot cakes.

One of the things that's a little sad about how fast things disappear on social media these days is you make something and you put it out there in the universe and it's gone so quickly and gobbled up.

And when I look back on this, I just think about, if I had known how quickly some of these things were going to disappear, I would've held on to some of them.

But this is just one of those things I'm really, really proud of.

Dave Chappelle.

So back in, I think it's 2001, I was working on a project with Chris Rock and he introduced me to Dave Chappelle.

And at the time, Dave had done maybe one or two things that I might have seen and he approached me about doing a logo design for a then sketch comedy show for a Comedy Central, obviously called "The Chappelle Show."

And he just said, do that thing that you do for Def Jam.

And I just decided that I was gonna make something that was in my mind, revolutionary.

He sent me a VHS tape, that's how long ago this was.

So he sent me a VHS tape of some of his sketches.

I popped it in my VCR, this really does sound ancient when I think about it.

And I looked at some of the sketches and I really thought he was the second coming of Richard Pryor.

And so I wanted something that in my mind was gonna be revolutionary.

And so I chose red, black, and green, because I thought his work had a militant edge to it and I presented it to him and he absolutely loved it.

And like I mentioned with Mary, Dave is one of those people that continues to use my work.

He doesn't stray.

Every time he does a show, he'll send me a little text message so I can see how they're using the logo in his stage setup.

And I just thought it was really beautiful because any creatives out there know when you make something there's no guarantee that it's gonna have legs all its own.

It might be great for that particular project, but the idea that it's gonna be used over and over and over and over again is really the essence of what it means to create something that has staying power.

Recently, I was traveling somewhere and I got a call from Dave and he says, I'm going out on the road with Busta Rhymes and I need a logo called Dave and Busta.

And I want you to come up with something, and immediately I thought about this design and I thought, okay, how am I gonna put this together?

And even as I'm saying that right now, I should probably like steer away from talking about this 'cause I don't have the graphic of what I did.

But if you Google it, it'll come up 'cause Busta Rhymes posted it quite a bit.

So this is one of the designs that I also did for the merchandise at his residency at Radio City Music Hall.

And this is an homage to one of the early New York City subway tokens.

And if anybody there's of a certain age, you might remember back in the day, it might have even been in the '70s when they were using this particular design, but Dave got it immediately and I thought it was a great homage to the early days of New York when I was growing up.

So this is a three story mural in Harolds Square in New York City for the Footlocker 30th anniversary.

They commissioned me to make this mural and the idea was to tell the story of the history of the brand and incorporate all of the elements of New York as well.

And so I had to study a deck that was about three inches thick and go through everything about the history of Footlocker.

And when I finished they were so excited that they created this giant mural, you couldn't even back up to get a photograph of the whole thing.

And this is really only a portion, and it's still there right now.

And if you find yourself in Times Square across the street from Macy's, where they have the Thanksgiving Day parade, pop in the Footlocker and check it out 'cause it really is a beautiful piece.

It's one of the few times when I really got to play around with pure typography and graphics, and really just let loose.

And when I look at it and I think about working with a really minimal color palette like black and white and gray.

It's something that for me is really great because very often as creatives, we have to challenge ourselves.

And working with the absence of color sometimes is one of the most difficult things there is.

So this is a thumbnail sketch that I made for a Google Doodle.

And then at the time when I was approached by the folks at Google, I did not know what a Google Doodle was.

But they sent me a couple of examples, they flew to New York and we sat down, and one of my friends who is an executive at Google, at the time, he called me up, and all he did was pick up the phone and say, Cey, 3 billion eyeballs, click, and he hung up the phone and I did not know what he was talking about.

And I call him back and he says, you don't understand, this is an opportunity that we don't normally get.

I'm doing the voice of my friend Lyor Cohen, who is a powerhouse at YouTube Music worldwide right now.

And back in the day when we were together at Def Jam, he had one of those voices that everybody would mimic and Lyor was one of those guys that ended up being a really important figure in my life throughout the course of my life.

And the executives from Google came to my studio and they told me that they were going to do a birthday party to honor hip hop and they wanted a design that was gonna celebrate that, and they were gonna make a Google Doodle.

And right now, if you Google Hip Hop 44, you can see the Google Doodle that I made.

And apparently it is the most interactive that they have ever done, it's the most widely Googled Doodle that there is.

And it's a lot of fun because you can learn about the history of hip hop, you can scratch on the records and it gives you a full history and it's so much fun and so I encourage you to check it out.

But one of the things that I was really proud of was having an opportunity to honor the culture at large because next year is gonna be the 50th anniversary of hip hop.

And it's a gigantic thing because for the first time, all of the record companies in the nation have band together to have one cohesive design called Hip Hop 50.

And again, this is another situation where I designed a really beautiful logo but I did not think about incorporating it into this deck because they kept going back and forth and back and forth.

And so finally they settled on the one that I ended up doing.

But for the purpose of this talk, I'm just gonna focus on this.

But also be on the lookout next year because you're gonna see a lot of really cool things about Hip Hop 50.

But this design was one that, like when I showed you Graffiti City, this was really an homage to the early days of subway graffiti.

And I really wanted to zero in on that because for me, the idea of Google calling me to work on a project really is sort of coming full circle because again, I would've never imagined that people would've been able to see us in the way that they do.

They did not micromanage the process and they just let me do my thing.

And that's something that's really, really important, especially at this stage in my career.

Wow, Levi's.

So like Google, Levi's is one of those brands that just plain old gets it.

This is the outdoor scaffolding of their new flagship store in Times Square.

And they called me up and they said, we want you to design something for the outside facade of the store in Times Square, it's gonna be our biggest store throughout the world.

And they did not micromanage the process, they just gave me access to their archives and they let me fly.

And it was a huge honor.

But I'm somebody that's very brand loyal.

I take my work very seriously and I'm really proud when I have an opportunity to represent a brand like Levi's.

I go back and I do my research and I think about the message that I want to convey, because at the end of the day, they're giving me an opportunity to represent their brand.

And their brand has been around for more than 100 years.

And this was a chance for me to take a lot of the elements that I had had in my studio and incorporate those into one cohesive piece of art and they used that on the outside of their store.

And then I had an opportunity to create things for the interior and we made clothing and a whole bunch of other things.

And I just wanna keep reiterating that I know a lot of times we're taught that brands and and big business are bad, but I will tell you that there are definitely a couple of opportunities and situations where big brands really do understand the power of creative and they will really give you an opportunity to shine, especially if they understand that you understand not only the audience but how you communicate their message with pride and integrity.

And it's something I take very, very seriously.

So these are a couple of my recent paintings.

So I started out and I was doing graffiti, I transitioned to graphic design and I also got an opportunity to make fine art.

But once I started my design firm, I really did not have time to do anything else.

I managed a team of creatives.

If anybody out there knows what that's like, it's like you are a parent, they get to have all the fun, I handled all the business and before you know it, I was just managing more and more people, our firm got bigger and bigger.

And while that's a great thing, I did not feel like I was having fun.

And so around 1999 I sold my design firm and I told the company that I sold it to that they have to keep my staff on and everybody got to stay.

And I left and I went to Hollywood and I started designing movie titles with my partner Steve Carr, who had already left a couple of years prior.

And so I was out in Hollywood designing movie titles and really having fun again.

And I don't want you to be confused about what I'm saying, I'm not saying that the work that I'm showing you, I did not love, I loved every second of it but it got to a point where it turned into a lot of business and I decided that I wanted to start getting my hands dirty again.

And so I started teaching young people grade school level, high school level, university level.

And one of the things that I discovered is I love watching young people create.

And so I started making art with grade school kids, glue sticks and magazines and paper.

And when I saw the light in their eyes I thought, you know what?

I wonder what it would be like if I did this on my own without the restrictions of working with a five year old.

And so I took a stab at it and I started making collage art because I figured, how hard could it be?

I already had roots in graphic design, I knew how to use a T square and a ruler and an Exacto-Knife.

And so I went and I started making my work and I decided that I wanted to do an homage to race car graphics.

And so that's sort of what you see.

I just imagined that being a car that was zooming by and it was cropped off and that's all the camera could capture.

And it was so much fun and it took me hours and hours and hours.

These paintings are 20 by 20 and I did about five or six of them, and I might have spent two days on each one and I'm talking about starting at 7:00 AM, having breakfast, taking a break for lunch, and then continuing on at dinner, until my hands were almost bleeding.

But I was so happy.

I made these paintings in 2011 I think, and I have not sold them yet.

And as time went on, I just started having so much fun.

And so I thought to myself, if I could do anything, what would I do?

I love graphic design, I love letter forms, I love painting.

And I decided I was gonna combine all those things, and I did a series called Trusted Brands.

I wanted to celebrate the brands that I loved growing up.

I did not make a phone call to get permission, I just started making art.

And that's what these paintings became.

These are 24 by 24.

And I started working in this grid format as a way of challenging myself.

And it was just a joy 'cause I did not have a client that I had to deliver anything for.

I didn't have a commission where people were promised the works when I was finished.

I was just making art for the sake of making art.

And it was just so much fun.

And then I just started going on and on and I started picking brands and then I got a call from the Bema Center in Omaha, Nebraska and they asked me if I wanted to do an artist residency program.

I didn't even know what an artist residency program was, but I said yes.

I packed up my stuff in my studio and I went to Omaha, Nebraska for three months and I started making art.

And this is in 2014.

And I made a whole body of art.

And this is a couple of the paintings that I made, and as you see when you look through it, you'll see grids.

And every time that line crosses, it changed just a little bit.

And I did that as a way of challenging myself.

If you look in the nose, you'll see Ellsworth Kelly, If you look over by the lapel, you'll see Eminem and you'll see just a little bit of his eye.

Whenever I can, I try to incorporate things about my friend, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring, and you'll always see a little reference to New York City because that's where I come from.

And I started doing this and I felt so liberated because nobody was getting in my way.

And then one day somebody said to me, have any of these brands knocked on your door or given you a cease and desist?

And I'd never thought about that because to me, I'm just celebrating the brands that I love.

I'm somebody that's very brand loyal, as you can see, go blue.

(audience cheering) But it was fun and I didn't think about if I was gonna be able to sell work, how I was gonna make money.

I just thought, you know what, I'm just gonna make art.

And I came back to New York and I got a little studio and I just set up shop and I said, no longer am I doing design.

From now on, I'm Cey Adams the artist, and if people are gonna hire me, they're going hire me to make art.

If I'm doing something that is design related, I'm doing it through the lens of an artist.

And once I made that decision, I never looked back, I never took another commission.

Everything that I did was about this work.

And so around that time in 2016, I got a phone call from the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, and they were building a black museum celebrating black American culture.

And they asked me if I would come and do a talk on the National Mall in front of thousands of people when President Obama was doing the ribbon cutting ceremony.

Thank you.

(audience applauds) And I decided what was I gonna make?

I thought, okay, you know what?

I have a national stage, I'm gonna make a giant American flag, a black American flag, but Angelo Dundee is gonna be represented, Tony Bennett is gonna be represented, Harriet Tubman, Muhammad Ali, Katherine Hepburn, Bob Dylan, John Lennon, it's gonna be America, everybody's gonna be represented.

The red, white and blue was taken out just to make people focus.

And it was so much fun.

And then the collectors came and people got it and they saw it.

And I've been making that kind of work ever since.

And it gives me so much joy to be able to stand here and look at this piece and to just see that people really understood the work that I was making and I got to tie the journey in as well.

And so after that, I realized it was time to get outside the studio.

A lot of my friends make street art.

And I said, you know what, I'm gonna take everything that I've learned and I'm gonna go outside and I'm gonna start making street art.

And I said, well what am I gonna make?

And then I thought, you know what?

What's the one thing that we need more of?

And so I said, you know what, it's the universal message, love, it needs no explanation.

And so I started making love murals.

And I started traveling around the country and people started commissioning me.

And everywhere I went I was gonna spread the gospel of love.

And after doing that I realized the other thing that I needed to do always whenever I traveled to a town, especially a town like this, is I need to touch young people because I've been making work for the better part of 40 years.

I've had a really beautiful life, I've met some really amazing people and I've had some really great times and now I need to tell young people about that story.

And so I travel to universities, I work at great schools, and I just teach people about making art, and I try to make it fun because I want young people to understand that you can be an artist, your parents don't have to be afraid, you can do it.

And there are a lot of examples out there now.

And so this was one of those moments when I got to interact with some of my young friends and it's just a joy.

Naturally after doing that, the other thing is publishing, it was time to make books about my journey.

This is a book called "The Mashup" that I did with my friend Jeanette Beckman.

She's a world class photographer and this is my graffiti and street art friends painting on top of her photographs.

And we just had a blast doing this, and it's a who's who in graffiti and street art.

And so I urge you, if you get an opportunity, grab one on social media and you will not be sorry, it's a beautiful book.

This is the last slide and it's one of the things that I'm most proud of.

This is the Smithsonian Anthology of Hip Hop and Rap.

It's a 300 page coffee table book and nine CD box set.

And I made this with all of my friends, whether they were photographers, illustrators, graphic designers, fashion stylists, everybody that I came up with is represented in this book.

This book celebrates the culture of hip hop.

And it was done with the Smithsonian Institute and it's something I'm very proud of.

And I will tell you that if you can't afford to buy it, go on Spotify, the playlist is available, It goes from 1979 to the Sugar Hill Gang to present day with Drake and Nicki Minaj and all the folks that are making music today.

And it's a beautiful collection.

And on that note, I'm gonna say thank you.

My name is Cey Adams and I really appreciate you listening to me.

(audience applauds) You know, one of the things that I wanted to do, I saw my friend Dave Chappelle do this and I just thought it was so much fun.

If you guys can stand up and take a selfie with me, I'd be really happy, because it always looks so great.

Like if I turn around and you guys are in the photo.

- Photo moment, everybody.

Yeah, there you go, awesome.

And then we'll go to Q&A.

Nice, yeah, you get it Linda.

One more, thank you guys.

And now we're gonna go to Q&A.

Remember, we have microphones down here at the ends of the aisles.

I know some people in the back have to rush to class as usual.

Please do so quietly so that we can get our Q&A going 'cause I know we have a UMS show following us today.

So folks with questions, please come up to the microphones and we're ready to answer your questions as you come.

- Hi, is this still on?

Doesn't sound like it's on.

- [Audience Member] Is this on?

- I don't know, okay, there we go.

- [Announcer] I don't know if there's, oh yeah, it's on.

Cool, thank you so much for your talk.

It was really great to see all of your work and have you talk about it.

As a young person who's had a lot of interaction with the internet now as an artist and a designer.

And I have sort of very mixed feelings about it, in terms of being able to promote your work on social media, 'cause you can get exposure, but there's also just this like loss in the sea of noise, and I was wondering how you've dealt with that, how you've seen other people deal with it?

- You know what, I never really thought about that because to me, I come from the land of bigger is better and I'm amazed at what you can do with technology.

So I've never been afraid to put my work on there.

I just think that if you're lucky enough to be able to make something and you're proud enough to have people see it, don't be afraid.

Because if somebody's gonna steal it, they'll find a way no matter how they do it, just like, get it out there.

Because people deserve to know, that's what the tool is for.

You gotta let it go, you can't be afraid.

I really do believe that.

Anyone else?

- Yeah, thanks so much for coming to speak.

I actually have a photo of myself in front of the Levi's mural.

I was in New York in 2018, got to see that.

And I've also been fortunate enough to work with some musicians and stuff, especially like people are just getting started.

How exactly do you work on helping them find their brand or create like a more iconic logo that also incorporates your voice, but really gets their feeling out there?

- You know what, wow, that's a, a really difficult question to answer in a pinch, but you know, I think you gotta lead with authenticity.

Don't put so much pressure on yourself.

If you make something and you believe in it, and I think if you just try your best and you know that you've done your homework about the brand, it'll shine through.

Believe me, when they approached me about that, I was nervous too.

It's like the biggest store ever, they've been around for over 100 years and they're coming to me.

I just said, all I can do is put the energy in based on what I know.

And you gotta just leave it right there.

It's too much pressure.

Right now I'm working on a campaign with them for the 150th anniversary of the 501, that's a lot.

I don't even know how to handle that, but I'm gonna do everything I just said to you.

- [Audience Member] Thank you.

- Hey, Cey.

- Hi.

- [Audience Member] Hope all is well, I have a question.

What is your favorite industry standard text or font and your favorite personal font that you like to use for your own work?

- Wow, you know what?

You're not gonna like this.

I'm a a Helvetica man.

It's just, it's been with me my whole life and I think that fonts come and go, but Helvetica will never let you down.

I really do believe that.

I imagine you've seen the film, look at it again.

- I think something I'm curious about is like, as artists and designers, it's really easy to spend a lot of time in the studio and I feel like a lot of the work that you've done, you're making connections with people and getting out there.

How do you find that balance between, doing the work and also being involved with like the culture and getting connected with people?

- You know what, there isn't a balance.

It's just, anybody that sat in front of a computer.

Like I spent two lifetimes sitting in front of a computer till my hands hurt, my knees, all of it.

I have to get out as an extension of maintaining my relationships with my friends.

It's not really about quote unquote networking.

I love people and now I'm out to tell the story of my journey.

So when I'm out here, I'm excited to meet people.

Like I'm looking at this couple right here, I don't know why, you know, like, are they here because they understand something about me or they love you guys, but wow, like I would never imagine somebody that age would give a damn about anything I'm talking about.

And I really do appreciate that.

I say that with all honesty because I just turned 60 years old, and I don't feel like it, but I also did not imagine that I'd be standing up here with a microphone in my hand talking about art and design.

When I was 20, I didn't even know what it was.

- Thank you.

- Thank you.

- [Audience Member] Hello.

I just wanna ask a question like, how did you pass from making graphics in the streets to helping to create these big albums like Biggie or DMX?

- You know what, I'll stop you right there.

It's 40 years, how old are you?

- [Audience Member] 18.

- Right, you're a teenager.

So when I showed that photo of myself painting, that's when I was your age, right?

Everything happened one day at a time, one week at a time, one day at a time, one week at a time.

40 years is probably older than your parents.

It's a long journey, but you know, they can't be that old if you're 18, but I'm just saying it's one day at a time.

You know what you do?

You wake up, you start by waking up, you start by giving thanks, and then you walk out the door and you knock out school and then you worry about all those other things.

The best thing you got going for yourself is that you are 18.

It's like I have a grandson older than you and I tell him all the time, don't rush, you're already where you're going.

Enjoy life, you got so much more to do.

Tell 'em.

- Thank you.

- Thank you.

- Thank you.

- Hi.

First of all, I really like your stories, your design is really amazing, thank you for sharing that.

Second of all, my question is, do you think as a graphic designer that you should collaborate more with people or just like build your own brand rather than doing that?

- You know what, I am my own brand.

I sort of hate that term because I think we've gotten lost in it, but the thing that I realize is that the electric company doesn't care how you get it done as long as you pay your bills.

And so the most important thing is to enjoy the journey.

And I work with an organization of young women called Unlock Her Potential.

And we just talk about how young women can move throughout whatever industry they're interested in.

In my particular field, they're primarily interested in some form of art and graphic design.

And I just remind them, don't try to take on the whole world, just focus on making good work and building clients one at a time.

Because the thing that was consistent about the story that I was telling is when people call you back.

Anybody will tell you a repeat customer is more valuable than 100 brand new customers.

And so that's what I think about, one day at a time.

I hate labels because I think it bogs us down and you still have to make the work.

And as creatives, we all know, you always have to educate people about what you do.

It's one of the things that I hate is, somebody wants to hire you and they don't know anything about design, they don't know anything about art, and you have to teach them every single day about who you are and what the value is of what you do.

But that is the job as creatives, and I think we all sort of understand that.

Thank you.

- [Audience Member] Thank you so much for this talk, it was very inspiring.

I was born in 1973, I'm 49, so representing Gen X in the group, if anybody's here.

I owned a lot of those albums that you designed and I started my career when we called it commercial art and it was paste up and it was Ruby board and it was all that, and this isn't really a question, but one thing that really struck me about your talk today that I was becoming cognizant of in my own career, as you're talking, is the relationships I mean, not just with the clients, but your illustrators that you come back to again, your photographers that you come back to again.

And just for the young people out there that wanna do this, like you don't have to be like this level, you can be like me level, which is local and work with local brands like Zingerman's and stuff like that.

It's like I build a career out of this, I do art every day.

And so much of it is those relationships.

It's who am I gonna call to do this illustration?

Who am I gonna call to do this shoot?

Who's gonna call me back to repeat this job?

And it's huge.

And if you are pricing your work for your time and the educating and giving them the value, it's like you can build build a career and starving artists, we all, you know.

- I mean the most important thing is you have to love it.

And I know it's hard when you're young because you also have to convince your parents, maybe they sent you to school so they believe in the idea of what you're doing.

But you have to love it, because in the end, that's the only thing that there really is.

You'll make money and spend money, you'll lose money, you'll make friends and lose friends, but if you don't love what you're doing, you are already lost.

It's like, just find the joy in making the art because that's really what's important.

- Hello.

- Hi.

- I was wondering if you could talk a little bit more about what makes art last for people and what gets something to be used a large amount of times, and last the test of time especially, and maybe if there's something from your work that you think still applies today in the digital world beyond like kind of the obstacles we face of stuff getting lost.

- You're not gonna like this answer.

You know what makes something last?

Two things, time and quality.

I mean, I don't know, like I'm standing here as a 60 year old.

If I was your age and somebody asked me that, I'd probably have the same answer.

I don't know.

I mean, who knows?

It's like you have to lead with integrity.

The brands that have been around for over 100 years, the reason they're around is because they're good.

I'm wearing Levi's, they are a brand that, these jeans do not fall apart.

And I'm one of those people like, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

And I really do believe that.

I think if you make something that's good, don't chase fads.

When that young person asked me about my favorite font, what did I say?

Helvetica .

Because it serves multiple purposes and if you're a graphic designer, you can make it a little bolder if you need to, you can make it a little thinner.

But the idea is that quality is the most important thing.

And I know that might not sound like an answer, but it really is.

Look around at everything that stood the test of time and that's what you will always come back to, quality.

Tell 'em.

Thank you.

- You hear what I'm saying?

- How you doing?

- This ain't really a question, but it's more like a gesture of gratitude.

So I wanted to give you my work of a graffiti if you would like to accept it, please.

- Oh, cool.

- It is my city, grand Rapids.

Thank you for being a huge inspiration to me, and me personally going into the concentration of graphic design at Stamps.

Like, it's just like an honor to be here, for you to talk to us.

- I'm happy to hear that, it makes me feel good because I was right there where you were and I love making art and the only thing I care about is now trying to make a connection with your generation because there's no lightning in the bottle answer.

It's like you gotta get up in the morning and you gotta do the work, and you're gonna make a lot of mistakes.

But if you love it, you are already where you're going.

There is absolutely nothing else.

And that's why I said peaks and valleys, just enjoy it.

Well thank you.

- Appreciate it.

- And if they cut us short, I'm gonna be out in the lobby if anybody has questions because I know this can be a little tricky, trying to do this, so as long as you don't have anywhere to go, don't hesitate to come over and say hi.

- Okay, Cey.

- Yes.

- I'm just gonna you a time check so that you could get this idea, 'cause I was just looking, I was like, oh man, we got a lot of questions today, which is awesome.

And we also have a show following us.

So currently you have about seven, eight, nine, 10 max minutes left.

- So I was wondering about your position as an art director.

You said you kind of left because you weren't really having fun anymore after time went on.

As someone who's aspiring for that kind of position, how would you recommend going into that kind of field and maintaining that energy of having fun and continuing making while you're in that position?

- You know what it is, I mean, you know, again, these things might not sound that helpful.

It's like you gotta love it.

And unfortunately, I hate saying this out loud, there's nobody more difficult than a creative.

I love you all, but I know it.

It's like creatives are the most difficult people.

Because they're young, they're never satisfied, you give them something, they wanna leave for another opportunity.

And all I think about is, man, I love being on that side of it.

Being somebody's boss is a drag.

The only advantage I have is I get to pick the sweet projects and then I'm like, eh, I don't wanna go do that.

You know what?

Here, why don't you start with that?

But you just gotta love it.

And I don't know, I think it's like anything else, you just gotta take baby steps.

But managing creatives is a challenge all by itself.

And for me, the thing I remember the most about that work is getting to make the work and knowing that everybody that I gave an opportunity to, they got to shine, and that really makes me happy.

I know I didn't answer your question.

- Fair enough, thank you.

- Thank you.

- Hi.

- Hi.

I'm Jordan, I was wondering more about your journey, and like mentorship because I'm so young and I'm wondering like, how do I get mentors and where's the next step with that?

- Start with Unlock Her Potential, I wish I would've met you a week ago.

I'd be mentoring you instead of the young woman that I selected.

But my friend Sophia Chang runs this organization called Unlock Her Potential, and Sophia Chang used to manage the Wu-Tang Clan.

And she has a book called "The Baddest Bitch in the Room."

And believe me, Sophia is.

But check her out, like she's now a rock star in her own right.

But she tells a story about how she was raised by Wu-Tang and she's a really cool person.

But she's created this program for people like you that wanna learn about different aspects of business.

And you have all these powerful mentors, male and female, and they're just like giving you everything they got.

And every time I'm working with young people like you, I will talk about anything.

And most of the time it's always how do I get over this hurdle?

How do I get over that hurdle?

But you know, again, it's not an instant answer.

It's always the same thing.

Start by doing your homework, working hard, but always believing in what you're doing.

Because very often people will tell you no, parents don't always understand what it means to be creative and they'll always send you in another direction.

You gotta follow your heart.

But start with checking out Sophia and Unlock Her Potential.

- Thank you.

- Thank you, Jordan.

- Hi.

- Hi.

Who's someone you wish that you could have or would like to do an album cover for?

- I never think about that, ever.

You know what it is, to be honest, is like, I don't even have time to do the stuff I'm doing right now.

And as I get older, I just love being wherever I'm at.

I can't spend 30 seconds wishing about anything.

It's just the way I am.

And I think that, I'm grateful for every moment I've ever had, but I've never chased anything.

And when the brands started knocking on my door after I did that Trusted Brands thing, I would've never dreamt that that would happen.

And I just feel very fortunate.

Thank you.

- Hi.

- Hi.

I'm Nina and I'm really interested in working in the music industry.

So I'm wondering like, how did they find your art?

- I'm gonna stop you, Nina.

I started there before it was an opportunity and I say that because I did not go through traditional channels.

It was just a friend that had a friend that had a friend, that sort of thing.

A photographer took a picture of one of my pieces and handed it to somebody.

And then I went down there and I negotiated my way in the door.

But it wasn't an opportunity.

It was more like they were lucky they met me, not that I met them.

And you know, whenever you hear people say the right place at the right time, that's what it was.

So my story does not really apply in a situation like that.

But what I will tell you is find me on Instagram and I'll try to give you a little bit more information and detail because it's not something that I can answer in a second.

And I'm on there, first name, last name.

Thank you.

Hi.

- Hi.

I was kind of going to ask a similar question just about like networking and meeting people and getting your name out there, I've met some pretty impressive people who've helped me out, I've helped them out.

But in today's day and age, especially post covid, social media, all of that, how do you suggest, networking.

- I don't even know what networking is like, I know that that was a term that we used once upon a time.

But I think you have to do all of it.

You have to do the social media stuff.

You gotta go to little art fairs, Comic-Con, like wherever people are that can look at work.

And I think you need to do mailers.

And I think you need to send those to people's offices because I think people will tell you that print is dead, but there's nothing that people like more than getting something in their hands from somebody else.

And the other thing you got going for you is that you're young.

You got so much time, just do all those things.

But chances are you'll probably build your own firm and you won't need any of this advice.

I really do believe that.

I think you're coming along on a good time in history where opportunities are what you create.

You don't have to wait for anybody, to hell with networking, do your own thing.

Just point to where you wanna go and start working towards how to get there.

- Thank you so much.

- You're welcome.

- Hi, thank you for all the knowledge that you have been giving us.

I was wondering if you had a piece of advice that you wish someone would've given you?

- Wow, that is a really good question.

You know what, what I just said to her, I wish somebody would've told me that, point to a star and just work towards getting there.

I wish somebody would've told me the value of being a teenager.

How many times have you see, now all the teenagers are gone, this isn't gonna work.

But how many times have you thought about, man, I wish I was older, man, I wish I was older.

When I was a teenager, I tell the story about when I was 14, there was this guy named Manny, and Manny was able to hang out in the pool hall, and Manny was only 17.

And I thought, man, why can Manny go in there?

But if I even stepped close to the door, they'd be like get outta here kid.

And I'm like, I'm 14, I'm the same height as Manny.

And I did not understand that being 17 is overrated.

By the time I was old enough to be in that pool hall, I outgrew everybody in that neighborhood.

And then I was hanging out in Manhattan.

I was like, man, Manny's never been here.

And all of that to say it's all overrated.

Just anything you wanna do, you can research it on the internet, and you can show up, even if you gotta drag your parents there with you.

Don't worry about getting there, just do your work, make sure the work is good, because if it's good, you are gonna be hiring the people that you wanna work with.

Believe me.

And this happened to me where a young person that I gave an opportunity to, gave me an opportunity, and boy was it a big one.

So really just focus on that.

Thank you.

Thank you.

- You have three minutes.

- Okay, oh, cool, you're on.

- Appreciate the talk, thanks for your time.

As someone who grew up on hip hop, it's awesome.

And one particular thing I noticed is that you pioneered a culture, right?

Like the art you were making at that time created a culture.

So I'm curious if when you were doing work later on in your career that's maybe for companies and stuff, did you have a different mindset that you're reacting to culture as opposed to creating?

- You know what, I never paid attention to any of that.

That that's sort of the age that we live in now, where we're reflecting in the moment, and we all know how great we are before we've even done anything.

And people throw these terms around legend, pioneer, icon, all that means is old, that's all.

Tell 'em.

When we were growing up, the idea of a legend was somebody that was a myth, nobody knew a legend.

You heard about legends.

Legends is always something that nobody is really sure about.

Now we walk around calling each other legends.

Like, if you are a legend, that means people know you throughout the land.

Like it's all overrated and so, yeah, yeah.

I think that the most important thing is just being good to people and being as authentic as you can, and that's hard.

But if you put joy first, all those other things won't mean anything.

You look at the shenanigans of folks on the internet, all of this madness, it's all rooted in people wanting to feel good about themselves because somebody told them that they're not great.

Muhammad Ali told himself, I tell people all the time, the audacity to call yourself the greatest of all time, and then you become it, there's nothing cooler than that.

It's like Martin Luther King, I had a dream, and then it became a reality, it's pretty cool.

- Thank you.

- Appreciate you.

- Hi, just to add on to that, back in the day, I would say to be a legend, you normally would be dead.

So it's different today.

So my question is, with your artwork, I know you have an idea and you know what you're gonna do.

But when it's done, do you ever feel like, Wow, where did this come from?

- As in a good way?

- Yeah, like kind of like, does it ever blow you away to see what you've done?

- Yeah, that Smithsonian box set, yeah that's Smithsonian box set.

Well, you know, especially when people don't give you any art direction.

Like it boggles my mind that I can rise to the occasion when I have to, but I also think that you create those opportunities so you are ready, and so when something great like that happens, you manifested it into reality.

I heard somebody talking about that museum six years prior and I thought to myself, man, I wanna be in that museum.

But I didn't know how, I didn't have a roadmap, but everything I was doing put me on the trajectory to have it happen.

So when it happened, I thought, I made this happen.

And that might sound grand, but Muhammad Ali, I'm the greatest of all time, somebody's gotta believe it.

And if you don't believe it first, your damn sure can't sell anybody else on it.

I really do believe that, thank you.

Last one, and then I'm gonna be outside if anybody wants to chat - Good job, I was just gonna say, last question.

- Hello, nice to meet you.

I think my question is, I was gonna ask you about your transition between graphic design and fine art, but I really wanna know, did you find your peers to be inspiring for you or did you have anyone that you looked up to that was.

- We're really gonna take this outside.

You know what it is?

And I sort of shudder to talk about this while I got a microphone in my hand.

But I love my friends, but we were all the same age.

If you have any memory of what your friends are like when they're the same age as you, we don't always know how to be kind to each other, we don't always know how to compliment each other, or it's a little bit of everything, and you have to pull out the good and shield yourself from the negative.

But now everything's all love, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, great thing.

But for me, I think the most important thing is you gotta have it inside already, even if it's not coming from your folks, you have to look in the mirror and you have to know who you are and what you wanna be.

And that's why I referenced Muhammad Ali because it's a good reference point.

You have to do it because you can't depend on anybody else to tell you you have value.

And it's one of the things I love about having a microphone in my hand because I get to say it to people and maybe somebody will listen.

But when I was coming up, I didn't know that.

My father never said to me, you are gonna be doing this or that or this or that.

I had to figure it out on my own.

And I was fortunate that I had good friends.

And so now I value those things that I learned even if I taught some of them to myself.

Anyway, I hope that helps.

I am literally gonna go grab my bag and I'm gonna come outside.

If anybody's lingering, please come.

Thank you so much, it really means a lot to me.

(audience applauds)