Hip Hop Is

For Hip Hop Is, the exhibition at Groninger Museum exploring the global influence of hip hop culture, we developed a poster series that transformed the national campaign into a collective artwork.

From graffiti pioneers like Dondi and Futura 2000, who turned New York’s subway system into a moving canvas, to producers such as Dilla and Premier, who redefined music through sampling, hip hop has always been about claiming space and reshaping it on your own terms. We translated this principle directly into the design of the posters.

At the core of the design is a bold typographic composition that fully occupies the format. The words Hip Hop Is function as both title and open statement, intentionally unfinished. Rather than finalizing the posters as closed designs, we treated them as surfaces for intervention. Local graffiti writers were invited to respond directly to the posters, adding tags, markings and personal gestures. In total, approximately 50 unique variations emerged, each created by different contributors.

The result is an activating campaign that embodies the spirit of hip hop culture, offering something unexpected on every poster.