Hello My Name Is: Degon

Name: Degon
Crew: NGFX
City/Country: Barcelona
When did you start writing? In the beginning of 1999.

What’s graffiti for you?
A way to show my visual concerns in a physical way.

Influences?
I guess my influences come from a lot of places: design, street art and graffiti, music, people, etc.

Tell us about your city, how is life and graffiti there?
I was born and raised in a small city called Vic but I’ve been living in Barcelona since I did my design studies. Vic is where I started painting back when I was a kid. It’s quiet, has a good amount of legal walls and people is very respectful with the pieces. Years ago, many factories got abandoned because companies moved their production to countries with cheaper salaries, so it was a small paradise of forsaken places just next to my home’s door. We had great times painting, doing street art and even recording stupid videos there. Sadly, most of them where demolished and we had to go back to the walls. Barcelona, in the other hand, is bigger, more energetic, wilder, with a lot of creative inputs but no so many legal places to paint, more people sees your stuff but usually your piece only lasts enough time to take a picture when you finish it. I like to paint in both places.

What keeps you still writing?
Still having ideas in mind I want to try to do.

What first made you interested in graffiti and how did you end up on that track?
As a young teenager I started noticing what was happening on the walls when I was hanging around with my friends. I got attracted to all those letters, colors and shapes, in part for the artistic side, in part for the “badass” feeling that every young kid has inside. I got totally caught by the idea of leaving “anonymously” something in the street generating a second identity. So I started with my first tags, corny crew names and childish bombing with my school friends. Since my city is not that big, it wasn’t difficult to know the writers I admired at that time, paint with them and eventually found a crew that stills stands after 11 years (long life to NGFX!).

What trends are you seeing now in the graffiti world that you don’t like?
Graffiti has become very mainstream in the social networks such as Instagram. Obviously I find them very useful to show what I do and to watch what other people does. But what bothers me a bit is that some people put a like on a picture but they don’t even notice a graffiti next to their home. Like they need to see it in a more comfortable, everyday context to appreciate it. If you are one of those, don’t double tap my pictures! 

What do you do when you’re not painting?
Work as an audiovisual designer with my partners @devicers, collect and curate beautiful ugly logos @fuckingturbo and try to be a wannabe fake rapper being the half of @judder.mp3.

How would you describe your style?
I would say “graphic”. I like the point where design meets street art. I don’t really care about techniques or if people call what I do “real graffiti” or not. In fact, the less “graffiti” it looks like, the better to me.

Can you remember the first piece you did?
It was in 1999 on a half pipe near my place in my hometown. I wrote “DEG”, it was black and surgical green (I always loved that color’s name) and I’ve got no picture of it but I still keep the sketch.

Future plans?
I would like to travel more for painting in new places with new people.

Do you adapt your pieces and tags to the spot/surface?
Yes. Depending on the smoothness of the wall I can use more or less tape, roll ups, etc. so this also means the kind of results I get.

What do you think about the new generation of writers in your city?
I really like the real trash/“ignorant style”. I feel it’s a fresh breath in the very often too classical graffiti world.

What are the best and worst aspects of graffiti?
That it’s ephemeral. For both aspects.

Who do you paint for?
For myself.

What writers have inspired you?
A lot of people in many different ways, but just to name a few of them: the NY graffiti classics when I started; Viagrafik, Satone and Berlin’s street art movement (with it’s multiple art shapes, papers, stickers and rooftops); Felipe Pantone, Dems, Roids, Lush, Sawe, Ariz, Enric Sant, nowadays; and of course, the rest of my crew mates Ralp, Snail, Bazak, Caneda, Bisual, Kaz, Body and Serbasiko.

Can you ever feel tired of graffiti?
I’ve already felt tired sometimes. I think is natural that you focus on different things as you grow up. There’s been times when I couldn’t think about a weekend with no painting and other ones when I painted just few times a year. But I’ve never given up.

What do you hope people will think and feel when they see your stuff?
Whatever they feel like but indifference.

FIVE FAVOURITES
Spray Paint: Motana Colors
City: Barcelona
Markers/pens: UNI Posca
Surface: Smooth concrete.
Cap: Banana normal cap.

Instagram: @degon_