Evan Roth

Evan Roth graduated as class valedictorian from the Communication, Design and Technology school at Parsons The New School for Design with an MFA. At Parsons, he developed Graffiti Taxonomy, Typographic Illustration, Explicit Content Only and Graffiti Analysis - several different concepts of design. His focus is on "technology, tools of empowerment, open source and popular culture."
One such typographic illustration is of the Hip Hop artist, Jay Z in the project "Brooklyn Go Hard." The rapper is illustrated through the use of all different sized letters in all different orientations from the word 'Brooklyn.' Roth did the same thing with other artists such as the rapper, Biggie Smalls. This project consists of an animation of the illustration of Biggie with lyrics from one of his songs while the audio plays in the background.
Evan Roth also created something called Graffiti Analysis. Graffiti Analysis is a computer program that studies the movement involved in creating graffiti art. The machine tracks the artist's hand as he creates a work of graffiti. The software then analyzes it and produces amazing visualizations of the data. It is used in popular graffiti aplications such as Laser Tag.
Evan Roth also developed something called Graffiti Taxonomy, which is a database that catalogues all the different varriations in lettering and style among different graffiti artists. For example, the catalogue take a look at all the different ways that various artists write their "n's" or "p's" when making a tag. This project along with EyeWriter (a machine that allows graffiti artists with paralysis to draw graffiti design just by using thier eyes) were featured in the British Design Museum's Designs of the Year.
Roth's work is similar to the trend of new media and graphic design in the sense that his work is heavily accomplished through technology and computer programs. So much of today's graphic design is done on the computer, whether it's generating vector art flourishes through Abobe Illustrator, or editing photos wildly into abstract or highly interpretive subjects. His work is different in that it seeks to be a tool to study graphitti art as well as be an example of stylistic aesthetic. A lot of his projects are purposed to learn more about the mechanics of art and the practice of it.

Sources:
http://graffitianalysis.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evan_Roth
http://evan-roth.com/about.php