Phase2 began his career in the late 1970s as one of many juvenile delinquents in NYC. The emerging hip-hop culture was becoming more established as a true artistic movement. Graffiti tags evolved beyond simply writing one’s handle. The letters themselves became provocative and esoteric at the same time. Legibility took a backseat to enticing curves and shocking colors. This new technique became known as 'Wild Style'.

Subsequently the trend of bubble letters took hold in a big way. Also known as 'softies', Phase 2 helped usher in a trend of increasing obfuscation in letterforms. The style has roots in psychedelic poster art from the late '60s. Viewers had to be somewhat hip and in-the-know to decipher the words.

Bubble letters remain popular today. The technique has been repeated so much over the past decades that their appearance is commonplace around the world. Artists have to become increasingly creative to rise above the herd.

The basic approach is to make the letters so thick and stretched out that they crash together creating random organic shapes. Similar techniques are used by logo designers when they make text-based logotypes.

Crashing letters creates a sense of motion, action, and character. The graffiti tags in bubble letters may not say anything to the casual observer, but they have a clear emotion to convey nonetheless. Colour takes a more prominent role, and the corners of letters can have a wide variety ranging from soft to sharp.

The 'softies' have remained a touchstone for hip-hop culture. In the '70s they were cutting edge, and by the '90s, they had become retro. Modern advancements of the style have re-energized the bubble letter style, and now it is solidified as an element of typography. Softies speak to an anti-establishment hip-hop mentality before they are even read by a viewer.