Iconic brand celebrates 86 years as an unconventional canvas
This video, “An Unconventional Canvas,” captures Eine taking on his biggest, most unpredictable, project to date and highlights the challenging path to create a large scale painting on the ground. With the epic feat only entirely viewable from great heights, Zippo and Eine secured satellite footage and used the power of drones to capture the creative journey.
January 18, 2018, London – Zippo and acclaimed street artist Ben Eine unveiled a huge 188,368 square foot mural today. Depicting the word “CREATE,” the artwork came to life on a truly unconventional canvas: a sparse, industrial ground space in East London, UK.
The huge artwork required 752 gallons of recycled paint, a 52 gallon bathtub for mixing, 18-inch wide rollers and a team of 30 supporting volunteers and six artists. Due to the sheer scale of the piece, Eine could only check the progress of the artwork with the use of drone footage.
A master of messages, Eine is famous for the large, colorful letters and phrases he paints onto city streets across the globe. For this latest piece, he painted the word “CREATE,” a nod to self-expression and the Zippo brand mission to celebrate art in all its forms.
Ben Eine commented: “I love to paint and beautify the most unexpected of places – I’ve painted everything from doorways to trains but have always wanted to do something really huge and different. Painting on the ground was a cool challenge because you can’t just stand back and see what you’re doing. I got to create a unique stamp on my home town – a pretty awesome achievement.”
Co-founder and CEO of Global Street Art, Lee Bofkin, comments: “The last decade has seen an explosion in the number of street art murals around the world. We've helped organize nearly 2,000 murals because we, like so many others, passionately believe in the power of a unique canvas. Painting on the ground at scale is extremely challenging and this mural truly sets a new standard for scale and skill.”
Lucas Johnson, Zippo global brand manager said, “Zippo lighters have long served as a canvas for art. Ben’s work celebrates creativity in all its forms.”
For 86 years, Zippo has brought unmatched levels of artistic talent to the smallest of canvases, the Zippo windproof lighter. Through this partnership with Ben Eine, Zippo has been able to help create of the largest pieces of art in the world.
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QUICK FUN FACTS:
The amount of the paint used weighed more than a fully-grown hippo and could fill thee Jacuzzis.
90,909 Zippo windproof lighters would need to be laid down face up to cover the painting.
It took a more than 500 hours to complete the painting.
Each letter is 65.62 feet tall or roughly 12.6 humans laying head to foot!
