As in usual art it has its own heroes- legends of graffiti, role models for many writers.
Nowadays everyone who heard a thing or two about graffiti knows such writers LOOMIT, DAIM, CAN2, COPE2 and others. More or less modern styles in graffiti are based on the ones created in past times.
The époque which became the starting point for graffiti development is called OLD SCHOOL: it lasted from 1966 to 1984.