10 of the Best Graffiti Writers in the World. Style Masters.
This list isn’t exclusive, of course. There are plenty of other incredible artists out there that I could have chosen.
These 10 are pretty damned good though
Dondi

The Style Master General.
One of the most influential writers of all time. The ultimate stylist.

Revok

My favorite of the LA style writers. I eat that West Coast style up and Revok has taken it all to an impossible extreme. So fresh.

(all revok photos courtesy flickr user anarchosyn)
Vulcan

(vulcan photo courtesy flickr user otherthings.
“The Style Messiah.”
The stuff he did in the 80s is more complex and thought-provoking to me than 99.999% of the work done since. His photos in Spraycan Art (one reproduced below) are amongst my favorite pieces of all time.

Daim
The 3d master. Daim takes what, in the hands of some is basically a cheesy novelty style and brings it to the absolute top of the graffiti style game. Top notch color, form, design and draftsmanship.

photo courtesy flickr user Pasota.com

photo courtesy flickr user Harry Palmer
Doc/Arab
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(photo credit to Doc himself. Swiped from myspace)
So much style.

Ces

(classic vet and ces halloween wall courtesy flickr user dmax3270)
The classic wild style practitioner. Very influential.

Bates

For my money, the best style writer in the world today. At a time when many people literally paint the same outline dozens or even hundreds of times and just change up the colors, Bates paints a different style pretty much every time. If you’re a writer, know one thing: Bates can probably do your style better than you.

Delta

One of the most unique styles in graffiti, Dutch old school legend Delta takes his industrial design background and applies it to the letter form in wildly creative ways.

(photo credits to … you guessed it … my hard drive*)
Dream TDK

RIP
One of the first West Coast writers that really impressed me when I was younger. He had a really smooth classic style. People doing 500 color “burners” could learn a lot by looking at Dream’s letters.

REAS

Reas is, for my money, the best practitioner of that funky AOK/RIS style that basically took over graffiti a few years ago. So fresh, crazy influential and as Todd James, one of the top ‘writer makes good stories” ever.

Photo credits are noted where possible. A lot of these are just pulled from my hard drive (and therefore originally pulled off the net), so if you see an image here that’s yours and you want it pulled or just want me to properly credit you, please just let me know.
alex Says:
Not a bad list but I definitely would have added Cycle, Espo, Tracy 168, Twist and a couple of others in the top ten.
Posted: July 27th, 2008 at 11:03 am
rob Says:
cycle is imok, so I didn’t want to look like I was playing favorites… lol. he’s super fresh.
Posted: July 27th, 2008 at 11:33 am
David Cancel Says:
Need one on top “all city” bombers. Like JA, Cope2, Cost, etc.
Posted: July 27th, 2008 at 11:41 am
Tom OKeefe Says:
Nice list Rob.
Posted: July 27th, 2008 at 3:53 pm
NOW Says:
KOSIONE LOOMIT EWOK TASSO SEEN?
TOO MANY TO PICK 10!
But Thank you!
-NOW
weareallone.tv
Posted: July 28th, 2008 at 1:07 am
rob Says:
“TOO MANY TO PICK 10!”
Exactly!
Posted: July 28th, 2008 at 6:48 am
Dan Semy Says:
I’d add Wane, Revs and T-Kid but it’s a fine list nonetheless.
Posted: July 28th, 2008 at 10:06 am
Necro Says:
weres sane smith cmon
Posted: August 2nd, 2008 at 5:27 pm
Solar Says:
SABER!! wtf!
definetley over a couple of the old school ones
overall nice choices
Posted: August 18th, 2008 at 4:53 pm
NYC GRAFFITI ART Says:
I THINK YOU FORGOT COPE2 WEST METRO GHOST KET
CES FX
Posted: August 18th, 2008 at 6:38 pm
rob Says:
@NYC GRAFFITI ART
Definitely didn’t forget those guys. GHOST vs. REAS was one pairing I thought a lot about. WEST is insanely good too. There are just so many fresh writers to choose form I had to just choose… I’ll debate this list internally for a while.
@solar Again it was SABER vs. REVOK and I went with REVOK. It’s probably because we both have names that start with RE, but his stuff appeals to me just a little more than SABER. SABER is super fresh.
Posted: August 24th, 2008 at 8:50 pm