2020 was, for all of us, a year that will go down as one of the most troubling and unprecedented periods in modern history and although there wasn’t much to smile about last year, it’s fair to say that local graffiti artist Sam Roddam, who provided CommunityAd with a beautifully artistic – and most importantly, local – distraction, helped spread a little happiness around the workplace.
Having recently opened up the third floor of our offices based in Cecil Square, Margate, we thought what better way to capture the lovely town, where we first moved into 6 years ago, than with a locally influenced wall painting.
Known as Soul Artist, Sam’s incredible piece was tailored for CommunityAd and included Margate landmarks such as the Turner Contemporary, the Lido, Margate’s Lighthouse, Dreamland’s Ferris Wheel, our wonderful beach and the recently renovated Clocktower.
Overjoyed with Sam’s masterpiece, I delved further to find out more about the 30-year-old’s background in graffiti art, he told us:
“My earliest memories of graffiti don’t come from one thing specifically but I was introduced to graffiti through listening to hip hop music and skateboarding while growing up, so between album covers, skateboard graphics and seeing graffiti at the skate park I stumbled across graffiti and it instantly interested me.
“Around the same time, I also met a graffiti legend by the name of ‘AROE’. He was holding a graffiti class at Pie Factory Music Youth Centre and he showed me the basics of graffiti from designing basic letters to how to spray a design onto a wall.”
Sam is clearly enthusiastic and passionate in his work and whilst it is a very niche trade, pursuing it full-time was always in his plans, he said:
“After meeting AROE I went from copying cartoon characters from magazines to drawing my own designs and coming up with my own style of lettering. Over time, I learnt how to paint my designs onto walls, turning a plain wall into something colourful and giving people something to look at became a passion.”
With an archive of wonderful work, Sam really knows how to bring a wall to life through his creative style and blend of bright and energetic colours, I asked him, alongside CommunityAd’s piece of course, what his favourite projects have been?
“I have two favourite pieces I painted in 2020.
“The first piece is Riley’s coffee shop design because it was a new style I had never painted before and it was also my first commissioned piece.
“My other favourite piece is a superhero design I painted for a little boy’s bedroom, which was a combination of Marvel and DC, with Iron Man and Batman’s face on each side of the little boy’s name. I’m a superhero fan myself so this design was really fun to paint!”