Whilst surrounded by 21st century revivals of 20th century trends, the discovery of two young street artists reproducing graffiti culture is not in the least surprising.

But would last century's rabble of stereotypical graffiti youths, wielding aerosol cans in each hand, have ever been openly interviewed about their al fresco creations? In this case, times may have changed for the better.

Tom Archer is 19 years old, and nothing pleases this artist more than a bit of spontaneity.

Tom favours Photoshop for the majority of his artwork, although the last thing he wants to do is limit himself. "I do not like to define my work into a box and find that I often enjoy mixing numerous different styles", he explains. Tom produces a form of stencilled graffiti, a manifestation of the spirit behind stereotypical nineties street art.

"Graffiti has a place on canvasses although it's hard to do free hand work on such a small scale." Even so, he tries.

Let it be recognised, Tom's artwork doesn't resemble the 'mindless' graffiti tags he refers to. His elaborate monochrome designs and photographic colour contrasts focusing on human faces are in no way reminiscent of the lurid neon tags found under the average dual-carriage way flyover.

For someone who claims not to "especially enjoy the written and explanatory side of art", there's some reflective philosophy to be discovered in his work. The hive of his artistic activities is a small summerhouse-esque shed in his back garden, but Tom's no Bohemian artiste.

"I love to go mad! I'm a big fan of adding quotes to my work as they add meaning and ask questions."

Shying away from life is not an option: Tom likes to be confronted by a challenge and is shaking his cans of spray paint like the Magic-Eight Ball of existence itself, using his art in a daily attempt to answer life's 'big questions'.

Adam Blackwell holds one resolute belief: "graffiti culture will never die out".

The 17 year old's creative passions are reliant on his complete disregard for limitations. In his bedroom, the walls, ceiling and furniture are all plastered with his designs, so it's easy to believe his claims; "I just draw as and when an idea comes to me...Art fills the gaps and often begins as a result of my constant distraction from work at first."

"The majority of my work is done on the spur of the moment"

- it doesn't matter at all whether he has can of spray paint; a lump of chalk; a pencil or a biro to hand. "There isn't a specific medium I enjoy", Adam maintains. Imagination is his only restriction.

Although this allows his work to take "many different forms", Adam sees his graphic creations as lying deep in the realms of subjectivity. "Graffiti is a broadly used term, from what's regarded as distinct vandalism to an impressive 10 ft long design. It's clear that much of my work is inspired by graffiti artists and therefore holds a graffiti style - is it graffiti or graffito (singular) or even art, it's really your choice."

Adam's designs appear to fall into the category of street art, but his articulate comments prove that he's clearly no vandal. As his work demonstrates, graffiti need not be defined as 'anti-social', and can be recognised as an artform in its own right.

Tom explains that there's hope for graffiti culture yet: "Even though art is a broad word there's a big difference between art and tagging."

These young artists are tapping into new channels of street art. And what's more is that neither are about to receive an ASBO for defacing public property.

Check out Camilla's full article on modern graffiti in this Summer's issue of Bad Taste