4.25.12, 21st St./7th Ave., Manhattan
I love MALIN+GOETZ‘s product packaging and logo design. It is the ultimate eye candy for Helvetica-loving graphic designers. I’ve never used their products, but I’ve been tempted to buy it just for the packaging. Here is one of their shops in Chelsea, complete with a smoking rabbit.
– Barbra Tolentino
4/6 – It’s hard to escape the frenzy of the new season of Mad Men. The captivating ads are plastered everywhere; the talk around the water cooler about the future of Don Draper is plentiful. Not to mention retailers like Banana Republic are jumping on the band wagon by showcasing Mad Men inspired fashions in their windows. I have to say, I love it all. The visual style is breathtaking and inspiring and seems to be showing up on my radar everywhere I go.
A few weeks ago I attended a field trip with my son Andrew to the New York Transit Museum in Brooklyn, which ended up being another unexpected time warp back to the 1960′s. The tour of the old subway cars was interesting in itself, but when I looked up to see pristine ads from the period, I was in heaven. From the 2012 Madmen to those of the 1960′s: I say thank you. You have left an undeniable mark on the advertising business, and a visual style to be cherished, studied and re-examined. -M.G.
3.21.12, Flatiron, Manhattan
It’s early spring in NYC and the flowers are already blooming. Also check out the Flatiron 23rd Street Partnership logo, which is a nice play on the intersection of the streets. – AL, BT, JW
W Hotel Hoboken Lobby
Artist: Ann Carrington
I’ve marveled at this mural that sits in the W Hotel Hoboken lobby for some time and finally remembered to take a photo of it while at an event in the hotel. From a first glance, you’d never notice that the mural is constructed out of thousands of household metal objects that stick magnetically to a huge slab of metal. Take a look at the closeup photo of the objects that make up the mural. It’s truly breathtaking in person and unfortunately my photo doesn’t do it much justice. -Noelle Pistilli
Give people a pen, marker, spraypaint, and even chalk — and they’re going to want to scribble their quotes, sayings, lyrics, poems, slang, tags, curse words, ideas, feelings, thoughts, beliefs on the walls. A child’s desire to scrawl all over white walls — to create something where there is nothing — is still inherently trapped in us as adults! So the answer isn’t always to repress graffiti, but rather, EMBRACE it! And this chalkboard scaffolding does just that. Talk about harmless graffiti – it’s not vandalism as it invites you to write, and it’s sure easy to erase.
3.8.12, 14th St./6th Ave., Manhattan - Interactive chalkboard scaffolding! A great idea for anyone passing by to draw whatever they want with the provided chalk. – Barbra Tolentino
1/11 - Robert atop the Museum of Art and Design: REA celebrated the beginning of 2012 with fantastic views and great food including this dessert — cheesecake with pomegranate paired with sherbet. I approved this because the plate was so artfully balanced in composition and color…that is a lie. I approved it because it was delicious. – IR
And… AFTER.
1/27 - REA offices: A good cuppa coffee deserves a good look. I approved these because the colors and hand-crafted approach made me want to buy the coffee just to get the cup. – IR
Found this in Williamsburg, Brooklyn on North 11th Street on Jan 16, 2012. This guerrilla sidewalk art can be found here-n-there in Willamsburg, and I believe I found it elsewhere in the city as well. I like it because of the dynamic freeform made by the drizzling while making an identifiable image.
A friend of mine has this Bob Dylan’s Scrapbook. Although I’m not personally a fan of Dylan, I was flabbergasted by the design of this book. I appreciated the extensive amount of assembly work required to put this whole thing together, and loved the concept and implementation. I found it very engaging and tactile. It also gave a sense of authenticity will all of the “scraps” looking like they were the originals that Bob Dylan might have handled himself back in the day. – MT
