Gary Taxali is a contemporary illustrator living and working in Ontario, Canada. Working primarily upon motifs from vintage advertising and comic book art, Taxali has gained widespread recognition and numerous awards for his work in illustration and design. In 2011, Taxali was commissioned to design six limited edition coins for the royal Canadian Mint.
Shepard Fairey rose to fame in the street art community in 1989, when he developed the viral "Andre the Giant Has a Posse" campaign in Providence, RI. Like Taxali, Fairey was heavily influenced by the artists such as Andy Warhol and often incorporates popular culture references in his work. Although he remains deeply engrossed with street art, Fairey has since expanded to oeuvre to include print design and illustration. In 2008, he composed a portrait of Obama that was lauded as "the most efficacious American political illustration since 'Uncle Sam Wants You'" by Peter Schjeldal and was subsequently used as the cover of Time Magazine's People of the Year Issue for 2008.