Motorola has collaborated with legendary graffiti artist Futura to produce 30 custom-tagged phones. The mobile phone developer, which Google sold to Lenovo in 2014, posted a video to YouTube yesterday in which Futura rides an elevated subway line and tags a bunch of Moto X Pure handsets in the middle of an empty warehouse. Futura (whose real name is Leonard McGurr) was a fixture of the New York City graffiti scene in the 1970s and '80s, and is now a successful gallery artist who has previously collaborated with brands including Nike, Levi's, and The North Face.
This is not the first time that Motorola has teamed up with an artist to create custom versions of the Moto X Pure, which The Verge reviewed last September. In November, designer and author Jonathan Adler produced a limited-edition run of Pures specifically targeted for the holiday season.
The limited-edition phones were initially being sold for $349.99. You can now buy one through Stefan's Head, a text-message based e-commerce service, by texting 646-759-0904. This is a one-time run, a representative for Motorola said in an email, and there are no plans at this time to produce more.
Futura tags a bunch of Moto X Pure handsets in the middle of an empty warehouse
Lenovo said in January that it would begin slowly phasing out the Motorola branding from its products this year, and in light of that, this video feels a bit sad when Futura discusses what the brand has meant to him over decades. For me, it’s sort of like connecting with a classic brand that I was not just a consumer of, but like, loved their products. So it’s kind of like a return to Motorola for me." Moving forward, Lenovo plans to keep the name "Moto" and the winged M logo on its products.