Primary Sourcing
We start from photographs, interviews, and preserved blackbooks wherever they exist, rather than from secondhand retellings.
Our Method
How Aerosol Archive researches a piece of graffiti history: sourcing, dating, cross-checking, and writer-first framing.
How We Plan a Route
At Aerosol Archive, each guide is built around a simple idea: a trip goes better when the plan matches the day's real constraints. We combine scouted routes, honest timings, transport checks, and seasonal notes so every itinerary gives you a clear starting point and room to change your mind on the way.
How We Build a Route Guide
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02 Careful Dating
Claims about firsts, timelines, and turning points are checked against multiple sources and flagged when the record is thin.
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03 Writer-First Framing
We describe techniques and decisions from the writer's perspective: what problem a style or shortcut was actually solving.
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04 Cross-Checked Scenes
Where a scene's history is contested, we compare accounts rather than repeat whichever version is most widely circulated.
What Our Readers Say
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Aerosol Archive is the first place I've seen the New York and European timelines laid out clearly, side by side, without one overshadowing the other. Emily Watson
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The technique breakdowns are genuinely useful. I understood why wildstyle letters interlock the way they do for the first time. James Miller
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I use these articles when I teach. They're specific, well-sourced, and never flatten the culture into a single simple story. Sophie Brown
Planning and Improvising
We treat a route as a framework rather than a script. A good plan should get you to the right place before dark, but it should also leave room for the unscheduled hour: the beach that was not in the guidebook, the longer way round the headland, the second coffee while the tide comes in.
Guidance You Can Use on the Day
Our writing is built for travellers who want usable guidance: not glossy inspiration, not rigid instruction, but enough structure to set out. Every guide aims to leave you with a workable plan, a sensible packing list, and a clear idea of what to do when the weather changes.