By Melanie Kimmett

Graffiti is a sore subject for city officials and with good reason considering Torontoist would also like to preserve the integrity of the city’s buildings and streetscapes. Being an artist herself however, Torontoist feels that urban street art is so special and authentic to each city and would rather embrace this medium than discourage it, as long as everybody’s views are being respected.
Berlin, Germany is well known for its amazing graffiti culture and that’s why Adidas’ recent guerilla marketing campaign for its new Adicolor shoe was so brilliant and idyllic!
Perhaps there is something to learn from this campaign, something Toronto officials could consider when dealing with costs of graffiti clean up. They’ve created skateparks to move the skaters off the streets, why not artparks or sections of the city that could be labeled as street canvases for the artists? Sections of the city that aren’t just the alleys of Queen Street West. There is something to ponder here for sure and Torontoist hopes they will.
In the meantime though Resistor, Eyebeam OpenLab and the Graffiti Research Lab have come up with the LED Throwies, colourful LED lights with magnets attached to them, to help decorate and colourfy your city in a way that is non-permanent and city officials may even enjoy!
Here’s how to build your own. Picture from Instructables.com.