New York Street Art: This Steelcase tractor-trailer truck on Houston Street is an example of a commercial transport vehicle with bold, well-designed and attractive branding.
New York Street Art: Image from the design documentary film "Helvetica" showing a close-up of provocative American Apparel billboard ad in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. The billboard has the Helvetica font in its design.
New York Street Art: This image shows a still frame from the awesome documentary film "Helvetica," which as we all know is a font. Indeed, the movie is about this font. We recently watched the film on our laptop and were stuck by this image of a provocative American Apparel billboard ad at the intersection of Allen Street (1st Avenue) and Houston Street, in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, near Global Graphica HQ.
New York Places: Apotheke is a new mixology cocktail bar on Doyers Street, in the heart of old Chinatown, downtown NYC. The bar occupies a space that was formerly a Chinese restaurant (the sign still hangs in front) and once an opium den way, way, way back in the day of ol' New York. In any case, Apotheke is a dark, gorgeous space. The bar looks like an ancient pharmacists lab stuck in a Belle-Epoque-era central-European brothel. (The name Apotheke means apothecary or chemists.) Instead of drugs and synthetic chemicals, jars and beakers are filled with a dizzying multitude of various types of cocktail ingredients: herbs, spices, bits of fruits, powders, leaves, and exotic fluids, alcoholic and otherwise. The atmosphere, to be real, is an obvious yet beautiful trick of affluent, faux-bohemian hipster luxe, coolly hidden behind a cheap, plastic restaurant facade and tucked snuggly under a veneer of authentic downtown grit that has virtually all but vanished from lower Manhattan. - Supercore
Miami Graphic Design: Poster for the Rhythmatik club DJ event in Miami. Love the Star Wars film imagery and style -- the line drawing of a Storm Trooper wearing headphones and the movie's iconic movie typography.
New York Street Art: Cool, mysterious frontage of recently closed bar-restaurant (the name of which escapes us) on Spring Street between the Bowery and Elizabeth in Nolita. Love the reflective black window and red neon light. Your humble photographer is reflected in the window image.
We're loving this UK street art website aptly called UK Street Art (www.ukstreetart.co.uk/). Lots of good, juicy street art images from the United Kingdom in a well-designed website. Check it.
Shot of the amusing new ad campaign for fictional "Be Kanye" product -- pills that turn you into hip-hop megastar Kanye West. This ad is by Absolut vodka and is appearing on New York City subway trains.
Close-up of detail from amusing new ad campaign for fictional "Be Kanye" product -- pills that turn you into hip-hop megastar Kanye West. This ad is on the interior of New York City subway trains. The behind-the-scenes company behind ad campaign is Absolut vodka. The ad has nothing to do with Absolut, but we presume it's a way to generate some buzz and get people talking (or blogging) about it or posting pictures of it (hey, OMG, it worked!)
Awesome little "Savage Hustler" graffiti-style wood-cut affixed to a wall on Spring Street in Nolita, NYC. The wood-cut gives the words an organic, natural texture and add dimensionality to a graff style that is usually
flat.
The colors and design used in this parking-lot tow sign in Reykjavik, Iceland are part of a palette we've seen used in lots of traffic signage in Europe.
It's a bit of a surprise that the Tate Modern, the globally esteemed London art museum, has recently opened an exhibition of street art. But with the international explosion of street art in recent years, the countless number of books on the subject recently published, broader mainstream appeal and adoption of the aesthetic by a growing cadre of designers and the media, it should not be a surprise at all.
The Tate is a massive sign of recognition of street art's place in the wider culture.
The show has created space in its galleries (and fittingly on the exterior of the museum itself) for works by an international group of street artists. Two of our favorites, New York collective Faile and Brazilian brothers Os Gemeos, have work at the Tate exhibition, which runs until August 25.
Our minimalist workspace as it is now in '08 in downtown Manhattan, New York City, where all the magic still happens. Compare the images in this post and the previous post and it's interesting to see what's changed: artwork on the wall, newer smartphone, earbuds instead of headphones, different books and magazines, coffee cup has a proper saucer, etc.
French artist Space Invader strikes Barcelona with his signature mosaic of the videogame icon. This one is black, which is kind of unusual for Space Invader. Usually his mosaics employ brighter colors. This is our favorite of all his works, which we've seen in several cities throughout Europe and North America the past few years.
Hola! Greetings from Barcelona. We have been in Spain this past week, hanging out, getting some much needed relaxation time and checking out some of the amazing street art, design and architecture that Barca has. We will be posting some of it on Global Graphica in the coming days, so stay tuned. In the meantime, we raise a glass of sangria.
Ivan Corsa Photo
Photo gear: Canon PowerShot SD 630 ELPH digital camera
On the iPod: Mando Diao - "Before Rock ad Roll"
Kicks on our feet: Vans "Plaid" Slip-ons
Ivan Corsa Photo
Photo gear: Canon PowerShot SD 630 ELPH digital camera
On the iPod: Mando Diao - "Before Rock ad Roll"
Kicks on our feet: Vans "Plaid" Slip-ons
Ivan Corsa Photo
Photo gear: Canon PowerShot SD 630 ELPH digital camera
On the iPod: Mando Diao - "Before Rock ad Roll"
Kicks on our feet: Vans "Plaid" Slip-ons
Video: Anti-Advertising Campaign in New York City by Graffiti Research La
The folks at the ever ingenious and creative Graffiti Research Lab have made a clip of their recent anti-advertising campaign. The guerilla effort exploits video panels that display commercials outside subway entrances around New York City. The point is that the thousands of marketing messages we are exposed to on a daily basis is the true graf problem urban dwellers face.
Osaka: Detail - Truck with Sumo Character Logo - No. 2
Ivan Corsa Photo
Photo gear: Canon PowerShot SD 630 ELPH digital camera
On the iPod: Kaiser Chiefs - "I Predict a Riot"
Kicks on our feet: Converse "John Varvatos" Laceless Sneakers
Photo gear: Canon PowerShot SD 630 ELPH digital camera
On the iPod: Kaiser Chiefs - "I Predict a Riot"
Kicks on our feet: Converse "John Varvatos" Laceless Sneakers
Photo gear: Canon PowerShot SD 630 ELPH digital camera
On the iPod: Peter Tosh - "Legalize It"
Kicks on our feet: Converse "John Varvatos" Laceless Sneakers
Photo gear: Canon PowerShot SD 630 ELPH digital camera
On the iPod: Peter Tosh - "Legalize It"
Kicks on our feet: Converse "John Varvatos" Laceless Sneakers
Photo gear: Canon PowerShot SD 630 ELPH digital camera
On the iPod: Peter Tosh - "Legalize It"
Kicks on our feet: Converse "John Varvatos" Laceless Sneakers
Photo gear: Canon PowerShot SD 630 ELPH digital camera
On the iPod: Deerhoof - "Wrong Time Capsule"
Kicks on our feet: Converse "John Varvatos" Laceless Sneakers
Photo gear: Canon PowerShot SD 630 ELPH digital camera
On the iPod: Deerhoof - "Wrong Time Capsule"
Kicks on our feet: Converse "John Varvatos" Laceless Sneakers
And here's a shot of the left side of a massive mural on the support structure under the expressway west of Shinsaibashi in central Osaka.
Ivan Corsa Photo
Photo gear: Canon PowerShot SD 630 ELPH digital camera
On the iPod: Boredoms - "Chocolate Synthesizer"
Kicks on our feet: Converse "John Varvatos" Laceless Sneakers
The right side of a massive mural on the support structure under the expressway west of Shinsaibashi in central Osaka.
Ivan Corsa Photo
Photo gear: Canon PowerShot SD 630 ELPH digital camera
On the iPod: Boredoms - "Chocolate Synthesizer"
Kicks on our feet: Converse "John Varvatos" Laceless Sneakers
In a post dated January 24, 2006, we posted the above image, and misidentified the sticker shown and its creator as "Neckface." But a reader, Mikhail, has kindly shown us the error in our original post. The photo above actually shows Twerps! "Lobster Roll" sticker and not a sticker by Neckface. We found the sticker on the base of a lamppost in Soho, New York City. As Mikhail pointed out, "Twerps! works almost exclusively with stickers" but Neckface does not. We apologize to the artist and our readers for the error. (Props to Mikhail for setting us straight.)
The artist(s) known as Thundercut strikes a crosswalk signal at the corner of Greene and Prince streets in the heart of Soho, New York City. As always, these cheeky sticker cut-outs cleverly dress up the "green" walking figure on the crosswalk lights.
Who or what is "Bunana"? This characiture and typographic illiustration is an intriging bit of paste-up in NoLIta, in the area between the Lower East Side and Soho of downtown Manhattan. The pastel, crayon-like coloring give it a child-like quality. Yet, the subtextual shape is suggestive of something un-childlike
Detail 2: Rheingold Street Art, Orchard St., New York
Here's another detail shot of Justink's street art sponsored by the Rheingold Beer Company. The art work can be found on Orchard Steet, between Delancey and Rivington streets, in the hipster haven of the Lower East Side of Manhattan, NYC.
Here's the detail shot of "Shapes." Not your average East Village-graf, "Shapes" is a stencil-like splatter-work of red paint and sans-serif letters in all-caps. While the artistry and style is neither "wild" nor "hip-hop" by the standard of traditional techniques, this is a highly distinctive and original tag. Even though it's small, you can't miss it on East 9th Street between 2nd and 3rd avenues, a stretch of gentrified and expensive downtown Manhattan real-estate with practically zero graf but least a half-down Japanese restaurants.
Background Note
Not your average East Village-graf, "Shapes" is a stencil-like splatter-work of red paint and sans-serif letters in all-caps. While the artistry and style is neither "wild" nor "hip-hop" by the standard of traditional techniques, this is a highly distinctive and original tag. Even though it's small, you can't miss it on East 9th Street between 2nd and 3rd avenues, a stretch of gentrified and expensive downtown Manhattan real-estate with practically zero graf but least a half-down Japanese restaurants.
CORRECTION: The artist who created this sticker was misidentified in our original post below. The work featured in the detail image above is Twerps! "Lobster Roll" sticker. We apologize to the artist and our readers for the error. (Props to Mikhail in NYC for setting us straight.)
2006-04-24
***
A detail of a recent Neckface sticker in Soho, NYC.
Background Note The work of Neckface is among the most familiar array of street-art images in lower Manhattan and Brooklyn, New York City. Neckface works in several mediums and is known for stickers and wall pieces featuring creepy characters who have little if any neck (hence the apt name "Neckface"). Neckface also often simply scrawls his name in large child-like lettering on the sides of buildings and other urban surfaces. But it is for his stickers that he is probably best known. These can be found in many major cities, including NYC, San Francisco and Tokyo. The Brooklyn-based artist is oringally from California. He has exhibited his work in galleries throughout the world and has had his art (and himself) featured in magazines and newspapers.
CORRECTION: The artist who created this sticker was misidentified in our original post below. The work featured in the image above is a "Lobster Roll" sticker by "Twerps!" We apologize to the artist and our readers for the error. (Props to Mikhail in NYC for setting us straight.)
2006-04-24
***
Here's the wider, contextual shot of a recent Neckface sticker in Soho, NYC.
Background Note The work of Neckface is among the most familiar array of street-art images in lower Manhattan and Brooklyn, New York City. Neckface works in several mediums and is known for stickers and wall pieces featuring creepy characters who have little if any neck (hence the apt name "Neckface"). Neckface also often simply scrawls his name in large child-like lettering on the sides of buildings and other urban surfaces. But it is for his stickers that he is probably best known. These can be found in many major cities, including NYC, San Francisco and Tokyo. The Brooklyn-based artist is originally from California. He has exhibited his work in galleries throughout the world and has had his art (and himself) featured in magazines and newspapers.
Richard Gregg is an Englishman living and working near Tokyo, Japan. He took this photo in Havana, Cuba, which is just one of many cities and countries he has visited while on an incredible around-the-world cycling journey that he's undertaken off and on for over a decade. Along the way, Gregg has taken tens of thousands of photos and has exhibited and published his photos along his cycling odyssey. Here is the first in a series of Gregg's photos of street art and urban culture that we will be posting from time to time on Global Graphica. In this image, a huge stencil-like portrait of the late Latin American politcal icon Che Guevara beams above a Lada, an East European car make from the Communist era.
Background note: The artist had his tongue firmly in cheek when he put up this wheat-paste poster on a U.S. Postal Service mailbox on Houston St. in Soho, in New York City. The do-it-yourself cut and fold paper mailbox diagram is clever, cheeky, ironic and funny. Good stuff.
Background note: The artist had his tongue firmly in cheek when he put up this wheat-paste poster on a U.S. Postal Service mailbox on Houston St. in Soho, in New York City. The do-it-yourself cut and fold paper mailbox diagram is clever, cheeky, ironic and funny. Good stuff.
We love this massive "X" on these freight doors outside the Swiss Cultural Center in the trendy Les Marais district of Paris. The Swiss Cultural Center is kind of a hidden gem; the center is in a beautiful, post-modern multi-level exhibition space at the end of a narrow alley. The cneter is home to frequently changing art shows featuring work by young artists and designers. The alley, through which one pust pass to reach the center, is filled with great street art and graf.
Sony PlayStation Portable Street Art / Guerrilla Marketing 3
And here is yet another photo of the Sony PSP "street art" ads in downtown New York City. Like how these are usually in pairs. The doe-eyed kids look partly inspired by Japanese manga comic books.
Background:
During the past few months, we've seen dozens of these street art pieces of kids engaged with various handheld toys and other objects that, upon closer inspection, are actually Sony PlayStation Portable devices, that is, the PSP. This image was taken in Soho. Most of the ads are confined to downtown Manhattan. This "graf" is really a clever attempt by Sony to appropriate the street art vernacular for advertising purposes as part of its guerilla marketing efforts for the PSP. We have to admit that the ads are cool; we like 'em. Unfortunately, when we spotted this one, the batteries on our Nikon digital camera were out of juice, so we had to shoot these images with the lower resolution of the camera embedded in our Palm Treo 650 Smartphone.
Sony PlayStation Portable Street Art / Guerrilla Marketing 2
Here are some more shots of the Sony PSP "street art" ads in downtown New York City.
Background:
During the past few months, we've seen dozens of these street art pieces of kids engaged with various handheld toys and other objects that, upon closer inspection, are actually Sony PlayStation Portable devices, that is, the PSP. This image was taken in Soho. Most of the ads are confined to downtown Manhattan. This "graf" is really a clever attempt by Sony to appropriate the street art vernacular for advertising purposes as part of its guerilla marketing efforts for the PSP. We have to admit that the ads are cool; we like 'em. Unfortunately, when we spotted this one, the batteries on our Nikon digital camera were out of juice, so we had to shoot these images with the lower resolution of the camera embedded in our Palm Treo 650 Smartphone.
Sony PlayStation Portable Street Art / Guerrilla Marketing 1
During the past few months, we've seen dozens of these street art pieces of kids engaged with various handheld toys and other objects that, upon closer inspection, are actually Sony PlayStation Portable devices, that is, the PSP. This image was taken in Soho. Most of the ads are confined to downtown Manhattan. This "graf" is really a clever attempt by Sony to appropriate the street art vernacular for advertising purposes as part of its guerilla marketing efforts for the PSP. We have to admit that the ads are cool; we like 'em. Unfortunately, when we spotted this one, the batteries on our Nikon digital camera were out of juice, so we had to shoot these images with the lower resolution of the camera embedded in our Palm Treo 650 Smartphone.
While we're on the subject of spaces and places in downtown Manhattan that are no more, here's a shot of the recently torn down Gaseteria gas station at the corner of Houston and Lafayette streets in Soho, New York City. More precisely, it's a picture of a billboard advertisement of the station at the station. We've always loved this sign because it's so obviously from a different stylistic era of advertising and retail signage. Even the messaging is quaint: "Thank you for making us #1" and "New York's 'House Brand'" are presented in an almost laughable, but endearing, way. Most of all, we love the design aesthetic and the illustration of the station itself, with bright yellow NYC taxis sitting at all the pumps. It's a big surprise that Gaseteria wasn't demolished to make room for new luxury apartments and condos (given the location, the land and air-rights alone are worth potentially tens of millions of dollars.) No, what replaced this old petrol stop was a new, shiny, modern service station of a well-known brand franchise.
Giant Adhesive Bandage on Relay Post Box - Close-up 2
And here's another close-up shot of the adhesive bandage street-art.
There's a bit of drippy black graf on this green relay-mailbox in Soho in New York City. But it's covered by a cheeky piece of street art in the form of a giant adhesive bandage: A street art dressing for a graf writer's boo boo. Brilliant.
BW, the photo was taken with a Palm Treo 650 cell phone.
Giant Adhesive Bandage on Relay Post Box - Close-up 1
Here's a close-up shot (with photog's hand in view) displaying the bandage design. This image was shot using the built-in camera on a Palm Treo 650 Smartphone.
There's a bit of drippy black graf on this green relay-mailbox in Soho in New York City. But it's covered by a cheeky piece of street art in the form of a giant adhesive bandage: A street art dressing for a graf writer's boo boo. Brilliant.
Giant Adhesive Bandage on Relay Post Box - Context
There's a bit of drippy black graf on this green relay-mailbox in Soho in New York City. But it's covered by a cheeky piece of street art in the form of a giant adhesive bandage: A street art dressing for a graf writer's boo boo. Brilliant.
Here's the side of the "Superfeen" truck by ESPO in Soho. This panel reads "Go Superfeen Go!" Note the superhero Superfeen's key qualities noted at the sides: "He's not for truth and justice" and "He's for the American Way."
"Superfeen" is the latest brilliant installment of graf-cum-street art by the renowned New York artist ESPO on this always-parked Soho truck. The back of the truck is a panel dubbed "Caffeine and Nicotine," wherein an anti-superhero takes a coffee and smoke break. Unfortunately, we weren't carrying the heavier-duty Nikon digital camera that's usually in our bag, so we had to make do with our Treo 650 camera phone, and thus image resolution quality is a bit wanting.
Ivan Corsa Photo
Gear: Photo taken using camera embedded in a Treo 650 SmartPhone.
On our iPod: Animal Collective - "Feels"
"Superfeen" is the latest brilliant installment of graf-cum-street art by the renowned New York artist ESPO on this always-parked Soho truck. The back of the truck is a panel dubbed "Caffeine and Nicotine," wherein an anti-superhero takes a coffee and smoke break. Unfortunately, we weren't carrying the heavier-duty Nikon digital camera that's usually in our bag, so we had to make do with our Treo 650 camera phone, and thus image resolution quality is a bit wanting.
Ivan Corsa Photo
Gear: Photo taken using camera embedded in a Treo 650 SmartPhone.
On our iPod: Animal Collective - "Feels"
It seems like there's clever billboard advertising everywhere in New York City, so when we see a billboard that actually stops us in our tracks and makes us pause and smile (and snap a bunch of pictures while we're at it, too), well, that's something. That's what happened when we saw this massive ad-screen for CourtTV. The ad has been designed as the side of the Soho tenement apartment building upon which it's hung. In the windows, shadows suggest tenants engaged in criminal intrigue. The apartment buildng is at the corner of King St. and 6th Avenue, a block south of Houston St., in a neighborhood that is home to some of the hottest, most acclaimed advertising agencies in the world.
Here's the context shot of the CourtTV billboard apartment building.
It seems like there's clever billboard advertising everywhere in New York City, so when we see a billboard that actually stops us in our tracks and makes us pause and smile (and snap a bunch of pictures while we're at it, too), well, that's something. That's what happened when we saw this massive ad-screen for CourtTV. The ad has been designed as the side of the Soho tenement apartment building upon which it's hung. In the windows, shadows suggest tenants engaged in criminal intrigue. The apartment buildng is at the corner of King St. and 6th Avenue, a block south of Houston St., in a neighborhood that is home to some of the hottest, most acclaimed advertising agencies in the world.
Here's a closer view of the windows on the Court TV billboard in Soho, New York City.
It seems like there's clever billboard advertising everywhere in New York City, so when we see a billboard that actually stops us in our tracks and makes us pause and smile (and snap a bunch of pictures while we're at it, too), well, that's something. That's what happened when we saw this massive ad-screen for CourtTV. The ad has been designed as the side of the Soho tenement apartment building upon which it's hung. In the windows, shadows suggest tenants engaged in criminal intrigue. The apartment buildng is at the corner of King St. and 6th Avenue, a block south of Houston St., in a neighborhood that is home to some of the hottest, most acclaimed advertising agencies in the world.
Here's the detail shot of Buff Monster's silicon-breast-enhanced wheat-paste in downtown New York City.
Here's some recent work by the street artist known as Buff Monster. This pink Japanese-anime-like character - the "Buff Monster" - can be found in many places in Los Angeles, where the artist lives. But this example is a continent away in lower Manhattan, NYC. Sometimes one of Buff Monster's "X" eyes sports an eyepatch. Sometimes the character's domehead has devil horns or antennae. Here, it sprouts breasts that could be the envy of many a pornstar. According to Tristan Manco in his excellent book "Street Logos," Buff Monster has said that the inspiration for his pink street-art icon was inspired by the rememberance of a sticker he saw in Tokyo, Japan when he was a child.
Here's some recent work by the street artist known as Buff Monster. This pink Japanese-anime-like character - the "Buff Monster" - can be found in many places in Los Angeles, where the artist lives. But this example is a continent away in lower Manhattan, NYC. Sometimes one of Buff Monster's "X" eyes sports an eyepatch. Sometimes the character's domehead has devil horns or antennae. Here, it sprouts breasts that could be the envy of many a pornstar. According to Tristan Manco in his excellent book "Street Logos," Buff Monster has said that the inspiration for his pink street-art icon was inspired by the rememberance of a sticker he saw in Tokyo, Japan when he was a child.
The New York City Apple Store in Soho resides in a former US Post Office building formerly called "Station A" in Soho. It's located in the heart of downtown Manhattan amid multi-million-dollar real estate in the form of lofts, apartments, retail spaces, creative offices and historic cast-iron architecture. Like those lofts that have been converted from former factory space, the Apple Store is an excellent example of the re-development and re-purposing of existing structure as new, mixed-use space.
Pictured above is the context shot of some great NYC sticker street art.
Sticker bombing is a common sight in downtown New York City. Here and there public street signs get hit with a mad vengeance. This stop sign in Soho is good example. The stickers are a mix of street art and guerilla publicity.
Here's a detail shot of this awesome sticker street art.
Sticker bombing is a common sight in downtown New York City. Here and there public street signs get hit with a mad vengeance. This stop sign in Soho is good example. The stickers are a mix of street art and guerilla publicity.
Here's a shot of some graphic design in the form of cool logo/symbols painted on the storefront of Surface To Air in Paris.
Surface To Air (or Surface 2 Air) is an underground-ish creator's atelier, art gallery, event space and boutique all wrapped up into one at very central Paris address in a right-bank neighborhood near Les Halles. Here is a shot of the iron-shuttered, graf-scrawled storefront from across the lane. Like Colette a couple of kilometers away, Surface To Air is a small mecca of under-the-radar creative cool.
This is a shot of the Surface To Air signage, a non-descript, sterile sans-serif logotype.
Surface To Air (or Surface 2 Air) is an underground-ish creator's atelier, art gallery, event space and boutique all wrapped up into one at very central Paris address in a right-bank neighborhood near Les Halles. Here is a shot of the iron-shuttered, graf-scrawled storefront from across the lane. Like Colette a couple of kilometers away, Surface To Air is a small mecca of under-the-radar creative cool.
This image doesn't really need explanation ... well .. okay, maybe it does ... a little. Whenever a building undergoes some sort of renovation work in New York City, scaffolding is placed on all sides of the building adjacent to the sidewalk. The scaffolding covers the sidewalk, and the sides of the structure is often repurposed as billboard space and as a placeholder for signs of those street-level retail businesses whose front signage is blocked by the scaffolding. Pictured here and below is a cheeky use of scaffolding space as signage by Digital Ink, an electronic printing company on Varick Street in Soho.
Another shot of the clever use of scaffolding space by Digital Ink to advertise its business in New York.
This image doesn't really need explanation ... well .. okay, maybe it does ... a little. Whenever a building undergoes some sort of renovation work in New York City, scaffolding is placed on all sides of the building adjacent to the sidewalk. The scaffolding covers the sidewalk, and the sides of the structure is often repurposed as billboard space and as a placeholder for signs of those street-level retail businesses whose front signage is blocked by the scaffolding. Pictured here and below is a cheeky use of scaffolding space as signage by Digital Ink, an electronic printing company on Varick Street in Soho.
One more shot of the clever use of scaffolding space by Digital Ink to advertise its business in New York.
This image doesn't really need explanation ... well .. okay, maybe it does ... a little. Whenever a building undergoes some sort of renovation work in New York City, scaffolding is placed on all sides of the building adjacent to the sidewalk. The scaffolding covers the sidewalk, and the sides of the structure is often repurposed as billboard space and as a placeholder for signs of those street-level retail businesses whose front signage is blocked by the scaffolding. Pictured here and below is a cheeky use of scaffolding space as signage by Digital Ink, an electronic printing company on Varick Street in Soho.
A close-up shot of the awning and signage of the recently closed Pop Shop. The Shop, on Lafayette Street in Soho, New York City, was part of the legacy of late downtown artist Keith Haring. The shop was an emporium of all things Haring and an example of how licensing and merchandising of an artists body of work could be lucrative and continue to promote a the artist's work long after his death. In fact, Haring's iconic graffiti-inspired imagery was virtually a brand in and of itself. As is often the case with Manhattan real estate in neighborhoods that have changed dramatically through gentrification, leases property prices and rents skyrocket. The Pop Shop can no longer afford the landlord's new asking price on the lease of the current retail space. So long, Pop Shop.
A full-frontal shot of a green mailbox that his been bombed.
Fourth image in a series of four. Original text below.
Snapped this image of one of those nondescript green mailboxes covered with wheat-pastes, stickers and assorted graf. This side of the box has a couple of black-and-white artworks and a promotional sheet for a local band called New York City Smoke. You can find this mailbox on Prince St., between Crosby St. and Broadway in Soho, across the street from Dean & Deluca and surrounded by those downtown mega loft apartments.
Snapped this image of one of those nondescript green mailboxes covered with wheat-pastes, stickers and assorted graf. This side of the box has a couple of black-and-white artworks and a promotional sheet for a local band called New York City Smoke. You can find this mailbox on Prince St., between Crosby St. and Broadway in Soho, across the street from Dean & Deluca and surrounded by mega loft apartments.
Paris: Shepard Fairey Takes Obey to the Left Bank 2
Need we say more. In the chic Parisian nabe of St. Germain de Pres, the ubiquitous Andre the Giant visage stares out from a wheat-paste poster of the Obey/Giant Has A Posse icon by designer/artist/street-marketer Shepard Fairey.
Paris: Shepard Fairey Takes Obey to the Left Bank 1
Need we say more. In the chic Parisian nabe of St. Germain de Pres, the ubiquitous Andre the Giant visage stares out from a wheat-paste poster of the Obey/Giant Has A Posse icon by designer/artist/street-marketer Shepard Fairey. Here the Obey wheat-paste is shown in context with some other street art below and in the upper right.
This "secret" SoHo restaurant was outted this past summer by the New York times in a Style section article. Appearances can be misleading. The photo shows a small, no-frills Mexican diner and bdeli/bodega called The Corner La Esquina, but the real restaurant is behind and below the diner "front." To ge to the real La Esquina you must pass through an unmarked, non-descript door that looks like an employees-only portal to a storage room. Once past, you enter a totally different space, a quintessentially chic downtown restaurant and boite. La Esquina is at the interesection of Cleveland Place and Kenmare and Lafayette streets, a block south of Spring Street.
Here's the latest superlarge Calvin Klein billboard at Houston and Lafayette streets in Soho, New York. What more can we say? This ad is as sexed-up as all the other Calvin Klein ads that fill this space in lower Manhattan. Whether the advert is touting underwear, jeans or just the Calvin Klein brand, the titilation factor is always turned up to 11. The tenement building upon which this billboard screen hangs is probably a very valuable piece of Soho real estate given both its location and the adspace.
We've been in France for the better part of the last two weeks, so there's been a bit of a hiatus here at the Global Graphica site. But we're back with a vengeance and loads of new images of street art and graf and more from France. We took these shots while wandering around neighborhoods in the centers of Paris and Dijon.
The work and moniker of street artist Space Invader is inspired by the 1980's Japanese arcade video game sensation "Space Invaders." The artist's mosaics are large renderings of the digitally pixelated alien from the video game, and the tile-works come in various sizes and colors. We found this example of Space Invader in the trendy and gallery-filled Saint Germain-des-Pres neighborhood of Paris, which like many central nabes in the French capital is made up of expensive residential and commercial real estate.
The work and moniker of street artist Space Invader is inspired by the 1980's Japanese arcade video game sensation "Space Invaders." The artist's mosaics are large renderings of the digitally pixelated alien from the video game, and the tile-works come in various sizes and colors. We found this example of Space Invader in the trendy and gallery-filled Saint Germain-des-Pres neighborhood of Paris, which like many central nabes in the French capital is made up of expensive residential and commercial real estate.
We've been in France for the better part of the last two weeks, so there's been a bit of a hiatus here at the Global Graphica site. But we're back with a vengeance and loads of new images of street art and graf and more from France. We took these shots while wandering around neighborhoods in the centers of Paris and Dijon.
The image here is a close-up shot of the well-known street artist Space Invader, whose work can be found in just about every major global city -- from New York to Tokyo to, well, Paris. We found this example of Space Invader in the trendy and gallery-filled Saint Germain-des-Pres neighborhood.
Check it ... we caught this wallpaper-like pattern on one of those red emergency 911 call-boxes that dot the streetscape every few blocks. This one was at the corner of Prince and Mott streets in Nolita, NYC. This could be cool on a t-shirt.
It's not unusual in downtown Manhattan to see storefront shutters decorated (or defaced) with graf, street art or murals. This one on Elizabeth Street in Nolita is among the best we've ever seen. "Hello" shows the artist's deft use of color and typographic sensibility. This rules.
This is an awesome piece of work: The words "FAME GAME" spelled out with a wood frame and affixed to the side of that cynosure of downtown Manhattan street art, the building at 11 Spring Street, in Nolita. This work is on the Elizabeth Street side of the building. The unoccupied 19th-century apartment house was, until recently, undergoing interior renovations by its owner, NY Post scion Lachlan Murdoch. The transformation of the building into a piece of large, luxury residential real estate for Murdoch all but guaranteed that the end was near for 11 Spring's place as a venue for street artists. But Murdoch recently shocked the media world by announcing his resignation as publisher of his father's, Rupert's, newspaper. He also announced that he would move to Australia. The renovation work came to a sudden halt at 11 Spring, so for now expect it to remain a home for street-smart visual culture. See more shots of Fame Game below.
Here's a beter view of the interior (as well as the collection of sneakers and other merch) through the front window of the Adidas sneaker concept store in Soho, in New York City. Note the way the interior space is lit.
German shoemaker Adidas has a fashion-forward concept store for its designer sneakers on cobblestoned Wooster Street in Soho, in New York City. The shop is a well-designed groundfloor and cavernous space surrounded by loft apartment buildings and shops like Stussy and Head Porter. Here we see the front of the space, which boasts large windows and a minimalist, garage-door facade.The iconic Adidas brand of three stripes and lift-blue can be found echoed on the collection of garbage and the upturned pallet resting curbside in front of the sneaker emporium.
Previously we reported on the Time magazine billboard at Houston and Wooster streets in Soho, NYC, where large colorful tags have appeared by NYC graf writer Cope2 ("CopeII"). The idea is that each week, more aerosol art will go up on the billboard screen, which hangs from the north face of a loft apartment building, until eventually the Time magazine logo and trademark red-border will go up in the space and frame the Krylon work. In this second installment of photos from Week 2, you can seen the updated billboard with new, additional layers of graf. Week 3 images to be uploaded here soon.
Notes:
Sneakers on our feet: Puma 5000M
Tunes in ours ears: M.I.A. "Galang"
A detail shot of the Time magazine "graf" billboard that hangs on a lofts apartment building at the corner of Houston and Wooster streets in Soho, NYC.
Notes:
Sneakers on our feet: Puma 5000M
Tunes in ours ears: M.I.A. "Galang"
NYC was recently treated to the work of experimental Japanese architect Shigeru Ban, who is known for his use of low-cost, re-purposed and recycled materials to create stunning cleverly designed structures. These buildings can be built and torn down quickly. Pictured above and below in this Global Graphica series, is Ban's Nomadic Museum on Pier 54 in lower Manhattan. The Nomadic Museum was designed for a massive exhbition of photos and film by the artist Gregory Colbert. The structure is a long cathedral-like building that fills the full length of what was disused pier on the Hudson River. The museum's walls are made of box-car-sized shipping containers, which still bear the colors and logos of the shipping companies that once used them to ferry goods across the world's oceans and seas.
A view of the face and entrance of the Nomadic Museum by experimental Japanese architect Shigeru Ban at Pier 54 in New York City. The Nomadic Museum was designed for a massive exhbition of photos and film by the artist Gregory Colbert.
In this image, the ticket office to the Nomadic Museum, in New York City, is seen tucked in a space between shipping containers on the right flank of the structure.
More of the clever Time Magazine adspace with graffiti by Cope2 (CopeII)in downtown Manhattan, at Houston and Wooster streets in Soho. We're trying to remember what was being pushed on this billboard previously -- it was either Altoids or Addidas sneakers. Or maybe it was ...
Time Magazine is engaged in an unusual billboard advertising stunt. On a white fabric screen hanging from the side of a building at Houston and Wooster streets in Soho, a large colorful tag has been aerosoled. The graffiti is first rate and unhurried (unlike a lot of "ups," which are often written with hasty economy). The artist, or "writer," is Cope2 (or "CopeII"), a well-known veteran of the NYC-graf underground. According to sources, the idea is that each week, more aerosol art will go up on the screen. By the end of a month, Time magazine's branding will go up in the space. Now who said advertising wasn't fun anymore? We'll document the series here on Global Graphica in the coming weeks. Stay tuned.
Found this faded massive advertisement on the side of a building in the far West Village, where the hood morphs into the Meatpacking District. This sign is really old. The neighborhood must have been quite different back when this ad pushed parking space and a car dealership. The nabe has changed dramatically since the sign was put up and the car dealership -- despite our best search -- no longer exists. Now the area has the most desirable apartments, brownstones and townhouses in New York City and -- per square footage -- the most expensive residential real estate in all Manhattan. That real estate boom and the local trendiness of the Meatpacking Distirtc has fueled the numerous nearby loft conversions.
Okay, this is as originalas this stuff can get. Alife, the style collective whose inspired Lower East Side store stocked all sorts of cool sneakers and tees by the various likes of Paul Smith and Nike, has been on a sticker bender recently, but here we have what could pass as a mixed-media art experiment in and of itself. We found this in the ultra-trendy Meatpacking District, formerly a mostly industrial-commercial area that is now home to multi-million dolar condos and luxury loft, as well as high-end boutiques, restaurants, clubs and hotels. New York never fails to offer contrast -- street art as guerrilla marketing set amid the beef-packaging warehouses and ultra-hot urban real estate.
So we were walking down Broome street after work last week in the heart of Soho, where all those amazing luxury lofts and apartments are, and we came across this "OK" sticker art. "Woah, that's cool," we said to each other. The boy's face in this image looks like it was inspired by Japanese manga comic books. But he's rendered in stark black and has the bandanna or kerchief on his face like he's some ol' school bandit. It's weird and it's more so because it's got the power to be cute while ever so slightly hinting at something subversive at its core, beneath the surface.
This logo is the boss. When you see your local fire department with a logo and name like Chinatown Dragon Fighters, well, damn, if our apartment building was on fire we'd want this fire company to come to our rescue first. Could there be any team of firemen in the world with a cooler name that this? Did you hear us? DRAGON FIGHTERS! You know what Dragons are, right? Hell, those f**ckers breathe fire. Think about it. This is like calling your local police force the "The All-time Best Psychotic-Murderer Ass-Kickers in the World." So when the roof is on fire in downtown New York City, who ya' gonna call? Dragon Fighters, damn straight, dude!
We found this Obey stencil by artist/publisher/seminal guerilla-marketer Shepard Fairey on a light-post base in the Lower East Side of New York City. Fairey is, of course, the person behind all those Giant Has a Posse stickers of Andre the Giant that found their way stuck to surfaces all over the world in the 1990's. We love Fairey's work (including his recent Swindle magazine) and his ever-expanding visual vocabulary of icons and imagery.
This is the second in a series of three shots of a mural by 1980's art star Keith Haring at the landmark Carmine Street Pool in the West Village, in New York City.
The late Keith Haring was one of several art stars to emerge from the downtown New York City art explosion in the 1980's. Haring made a name for himself early in his career for graffiti and street art. After becoming established he was commisioned to create major public art works, including this massive mural at the landmark Carmine Street Pool in the West Village. The mural has a summery aquatic-swim theme and is a perfect compliment to its venue. Note: The pool was the set of the swim scene in the critcally acclaimed 1990's Larry Clark film "Kids" that starred quintessential donwtown indie actress Chloe Sevigny.
Here's a wide shot of the same Chelsea building in New York City where a real estate developer has cleverly built new luxury condos over an existing and intact historic 19th-century building.
Real estate developers looking to maximize use of space, as well as profits, must find creative architectural solutions to create new, larger residential spaces within the constraints of New York City's myriad rules and laws governing zoning, air rights, and historic preservation, not to mention building codes. One work-around and novel way to create new condos is to build on top of an existing tenement building. Sometime the developers will work with an architect that will re-skin a building's exterior with a contemporary shell to match that of the addition. Other times, they just put a contemporary-style rooftop addition while keeping the original (and historic) brick-and-mortar building intact. Here is a shot of a such building on 6th Ave. in New York City in that part of Chelsea that borders the Meatpacking District and West Village. Needless to say, the new residential condos are "luxury" style and not inexpensive.
Hey, "All kinds of alterations done," folks! Gotta the love the Chinese boy and girl characters flanking the message on the left and right, which you see on the doors of various Chinese dry-cleaners/tailors/laundromat shops. The imagery is rooted in a tradition, we imagine. The touch that really makes this signage classic DIY are the adhesive letters. Mom-and-pop all the way! But this signage goes the distance -- look closely and you'll see that that wide cellophane packing tape has been placed over the lettering in strips to keep it from falling off (or being ripped off). This signage rules!
We love the store front to the SSURPlus select clothing shop in New York City. Regular visitors to this site may recall an earlier photo of the SSURPlus boutique many months ago. That shot was taken in the day. But this one-of-a-kind store window with it's etched-glass Bruce Lee motif takes on a whole other look at night when it's illuminated. The backlit glass makes the SSURPlus shop in NoLIta an unmissable presence on the stretch of Spring Street between Elizabeth Street and The Bowery. The shop sells hoodies, graphic tees, jeans and downtown-inspired gear with that certain dollop of hip-hop flava that brings kids here from as far as Tokyo and Stockholm looking for fresh, original style.
Bally Produce Logo on Truck, Little Italy/Chinatown, NYC
We spotted this truck on a block in downtown New York City where Chinatown and Little Italy converge, overlapping each over to create a an weird, intermingling sino-italian cultural landscape of dim-sum palaces and trattorias. In any event, we just thought the logo on this truck for "Bally Produce Corp." was a really cool piece of graphic design and brand/identity, especially in the way it incorporates Chinese pictograms.
Cow Parade was a major public art event to visit several foreign and U.S. cities, including New York City, in the early 2000's. The project entailed the placement of hundreds or thousands of often brightly painted life-size models of cows, each decorated by an artist. This cow was placed in the front garden area of a converted East Village townhouse apartment building.
New York City-based Kaws is an art star of the global street art and graf worlds. His work can be found in massive white-wall gallery exhbitions and on the street, as is the case of this black and green sticker, which looks like Kaws' take on the Michelin Man character-logo. There are books devoted to his work in several languages, and Kaws has a cult following in here and in Japan.
Moss is an example of high-end contemporary design at the retail level. The store, on Greene St., in SoHo, is a temple to clever, expensive and beautiful furniture, household goods and decorative objects. All of it for sale. We love the Moss logo and the store's window displays, which change frequently and are worthy of a semi-regular walk-by to check out the latest. At Moss, you'll find a $300.00 pair of silver chopsticks. And someone will buy them. We like to think of Moss as a design museum, but one in which you can buy the object exhbited.
A wheat-paste graphic of a badminton shuttlecock (that's "birdie" in American English) in downtown NYC, somewhere on a wall amid the luxury lofts and apartments of Nolita and Soho. THe graphic is a poster for the "Badassminton" event in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.
Pink paste-up of former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell in lower Manhattan. A couple of random notes about Powell. As this paste-up states, Powell is from the Bronx and he is a Brooklyn College grad, so in a sense he's originally a New Yorker. His son, Michael, was recently chairman of the FCC. Like many Executive branch administration officials, Colin Powell has been the target of much criticism with regards to the country's foreign policy, etc., as the message in this poster demonstrates. Question: does a paste-up on like this affect a building's property value in a real estate market like that of downtown Manhattan, which is very expensive to begin with and where the prices of lofts, condos and aprtments are currently soaring?
Sushi Ahoy! - Maritime Hotel Building, Chelsea, NYC 02
Sushi Ahoy! - Maritime Hotel Building, Chelsea, NYC 02
A shot of the lower and ground levels of the Maritime Hotel in Chelsea where the wave of chic gentrification continues to turn warehouses into multi-million-dollar condos and apartments. This hot piece of Manhattan real estate serves not only as a fashionable boutique hotel, but is also home to Megu, an upscale, buzz-worthy Japanese restaurant.
Sushi Ahoy! - Maritime Hotel Building, Chelsea, NYC 01
The Maritime Hotel in Chelsea has only been around for 39 years, but it already has a storied history. The 12-floor building is now a fashionable boutique hotel and office building catering to the rich and fabulous and celebrity-crowned peeps who haunt the Meatpacking District, West Village and Cheslea. The structure is now one of the hottest pieces of real estate on the west side of lower Manhattan, where the wave of chic gentrification continues, a process that has turned meat warehouses into multi-million-dollar condos and apartments. As an example of the second wave of "international style" architecture popular in the 1960's, the Maritime Hotel has a distinct look. Designed by architect Albert C. Ledner, the structure's obvious and most eclectic feature is the grid of porthole windows, which, like the building's name, hints at its past. When the building was opened in 1966, it housed the National Maritime Union and was home to sailors. Now, in addition to serving as a jet-set hotel, the tower has one of the most recent buzz restaurants of New York City, the upscale Japanese sushi palace called Megu.
Our favorite piece of graphica from the recent Honolulu series is this example of signage and graphic design at Honolulu International Airport. The standard internationally recognized iconography for Restroom, or Men's Room, has been dressed up with local Hawaiian flavor. Not only has a Polynesian decorative graphic been used in the treatment, but a classic aloha shirt and the Hawaiian word for men, "Kane," have been added. Very cool, if a little kitschy.
We love the style of this building. The Waikiki Galleria Building in Honolulu is an impressive piece of real estate. The architectural design is a fusion of Polynesia and post-modernism. The result of these combined influences is a glass office tower in the international style with a lattice structure or exosleleton reminiscent of Hawaiian or tropical aesthetic motifs.
We came across this abandoned barn along the the King Kamehameha Highway (or "The Kam," as locals say) outside the Honolulu suburbs on the eastern shore of Oahu. On the side of the barn is an old, faded mural of Hawaiian imagery. Even in its weathered condition, the mural retains a certain beauty. We can only imagine how vibrant its colors were when the painting was fresh and new a long time ago.
Honolulu Graphica 06 - Royal Hawaiian Logo-Seal Design
The famous Sheraton Royal Hawaiian hotel on Waikiki Beach, in Honolulu, is a classic, old-school luxury hotel. Its official logo is its venerable seal, pictured above. As design, it builds on the classic imagery and design conventions of both Western and Hawaiian nobility, and in doing suggests a degree of "class" and hence luxury in much the same way that many other products (tobacco packaging especially comes to mind) have used the same types of design motifs to lend a greater versimilitude of quality and appeal to social aspirations of target consumers.
Honolulu Graphica 05 - Royal Hawaiian, That Pink Hotel
The most famous hotel in Honolulu, or for that matter Hawaii and all the Pacific, the Sheraton Royal Hawaiian is certainly one of the world's most famous hotels and an icon of beach-resort luxury. Dubbed the Pink Palace of the Pacific for the striking color of its exterior, the Royal Hawaiian sits on one of the most expensive pieces of real estate on Oahu and is still a benchmark in the ever-crowded field of toney Waikiki accomodations, be they apartments, condos or beachfront rooms. The architecture itself appears to be an amalgam of Spanish colonial and art deco. The building complex and ground bear a resemblance to another well-known pink hotel -- the Beverly Hills Hotel, in Los Angeles.
This LV store in the Waikiki condos and resorts district, in Honolulu, has an achitectural design influenced by what looks like, at first glance, a fusion of Asian, Polynesian and Western styles.
This hotel and condo tower in the central Waikiki resort district, in Honolulu, looks like a classic piece of 1960's or 1970's beach-tourist architecture. The feature of this building is the curved UFO-like structure atop the skyscraper. Usually, this type of round, glass-sided architectural crown is a restaurant and bar that offers panoramic views.
Snapped this shot of a huge, long mural of a tiger stripe motif on the exterior of a high school east of downtown Honolulu. The design treatment fits well with the Oahu environment, and, we speculate, the mural echoes the design of the school's colors and athletic uniforms, especially since the the mural is adjacent to the sports field.
We found this sticker on Ludlow Street in the Lower East Side about a week ago and couldn't resist pulling out our Nikon camera and snapping it for the record. The colors are harsh and even harsher as a combination. Pink and yellow scream attention and echo the spiky hair and crazed eyes of the super punk drawn on the sticker.
Delancey Street Station is one of the busier subway train junctions in New York City. Its location in the downtown hipster haven of the Lower East Side makes it the jumping off point for commuters going back and forth between Manhattan and Brooklyn. The F Line and J,M and Z lines pass through the station, which sits under the intersection of Delancey and Essex streets. Recent renovations have brought artistic renewal to the station. Giant mosaics of fish and other sea creatures cover the walls on the Brooklyn-bound F Line platform. Pictured above are a pair of fish that we like.
East Broadway Paints, LES 02East Broadway Paints, LES 02
The signage is starting to fade atop this paint store on Essex St. off East Broadway in New York City, but its colors still offer a bright touch to an otherwise gray block of Lower East Side lofts, tenements and warehouses.
Another shot of a paint store front-signage on a Lower East Side block of lofts, tenements and warehouses in New York. This second shot has some added color courtesy of the passersby whose clothing seems to match the color palette of the sign.
The East Village in New York City could just as handily be called "Little Tokyo" or "Japan Town" given the extraordinary number of Japanese restaurants, sushi bars and supermarkets, as well as Japanese owned-and-operated hair salons, vintage clothing shops and other establishments (from record stores to toy stores) opened and run by expats from Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya who now call New York City home. With the glut of sushi bars comes specialization, such as this Japanese fast-food chain restaurant, Teriyaki Boy, on East 10th St. The exterior design of the storefront and signage is eye-catching and demonstrates a successful use of logo-graphics and lighting elements to create an alluring storefront.
A clever, "designy" (but not too designy) typographic treatment as logo for local eatery/catering company Snackbar on the side of it's catering van. A glance at the logo -- the brand -- itself already makes us think that Snackbar's food is reliably prepared and delivered. As to the taste of the food ... well ...
Here we've got the work of several street artists and writers, including that of a couple of the underground's brightest stars - Shepard Fairey and Swoon. Here's the breakdown: The black-and-white motorcycle cop paste-up holding the Andre the Giant icon is the work of Shephard Fairey (of Obey / Giant Has a Posse, Swindle Magazine, etc.). The wheat-paste paper cut-out of the man on the bicycle is by Brooklyn artist Swoon. Underneath are some wheate-paste cut outs and tags of several other artists and writers. Nice to all this work serendepitously aggregated in one location in downtown Manhattan.
We don't know who the artist is behind this sticker of a dripping paint brush, which can be interpreted as an ironic, cheeky comment on the nature art itself, given that painting is the medium most associated with the idea of art. The person who created this sticker could have been thinking precisely that, or, maybe, they just thought that a sticker of a paint brush would be "like, cool." Whatever. Sticker art is a whole other medium (or sub-genre, if you will) of illicit street art. Putting up stickers is also a lot easier to do covertly compared the more visible and time-consuming effort required to put up wheat-paste posters and paint graf tags. As the authorities, especially in New York City, become more vigilant in the war on graf, stickers may become a more popular means of expression.
Downtown NYC Graf - "Gucci" by Claw on Clinton St., LES
Every time we see an up by Claw, it's a little different from every one we've seen before. The colors are different, the pattern is different and there's always a different number, word or phrase embdeed within the claw itself. It is that three-toe claw that is the only constant in his body of work. Pictured above is one of our favorites, the Gucci Claw, which you can find on the west side of Clinton St. between Houston and Stanton streets in the Lower East Side of New York City.
A view from the mezzanine inside the AOL Time Warner Building looking out through the huge glass front onto Columbus Circle in Manhattan. Across the roundabout, at 2 Columbus Circle, is a white skyscraper that is an important piece of 1960's-era architecture, The New York Cultural Center Building. Originally it was an art museum -- or, rather, a very large gallery -- called the Huntington Hartford Gallery of Modern Art, an institution born by the heir to the great A&P Supermarket fortune. Built from 1964-65, this singular skyscraper was designed by architects Edward Durell Stone and Associates expressly for the purpose of housing a world-class art collection. It has been vacant for years and is in serious need of repair and renovation despite the structure being recognized as an architectural gem. Fortunately, in 2004 the building was designated as an "endangered building" by the National Trust and is now the focus of efforts by architecture preservationists to protect the design from being altered in the future.
Another shot that shows the wall of coffee lids designed by architects Lewis Tsurumaki Lewisat at Ini Ani Espresso Bar in New York City. Here we see mirror slivers embeded in the wall to break up the pattern and to add depth and reflected light to the space.
Detail image of innovative interior decor feature at Ini Ani Espresso Bar in New York City. The wall pattern is made from impressions of plastic coffee cup lids in plaster. The cafe interior was developed by the NYC architects Lewis Tsurumaki Lewis.
One of our favorite cafes in the Lower East Side is Ini Ani Espresso Bar on Stanton St. The small cafe has an exquisite interior designed and built by a local architecture firm called Lewis Tsurumaki Lewis. The architects made an innovative use of materials to decorate the walls and create a gentle acoustics and comfortable --if cozy -- environment. This sets Ini Ani Espresso Bar apart as a chill place to sip lattes and mochachinos while whiling away a Sunday afternoon with the New York Times. The most memorable interior feature is a plaster wall surface with a pattern of circular impressions, each circle created from a unique plastic coffee cup lid.
In New York City, if you're engaged in any kind of construction, whether putting up a new luxury condo or renovating a factory to make way for loft apartments or buidling a new restaurant interior, you'll need city work permits for construction and these permits must be posted in public view on the front of the building or site, as in the picture above. Sometimes, there are multiple renovation or construction projects happening within a single apartment building, which leads to a glut of paperwork and permits.
We like how the purple of the No. 7 Line circle/graphic symbol on the New York City subway system works well with the silvery stainless steel finish of the subway car itself. The number of arts projects and the amount of graphic design that has gone into decoration and visual communication within the subway system is impressive, diverse and first-class (even if subway service itself isn't) and could easily fill a large museum.
This series of numbered panes on the side of a Water St. office building is a clock. As a piece of architecture, it is intriging and looks more like a work of post-modern art than a serious, practical -- if novel -- way of keeping time. The historic Wall Street financial district of New York City is home to many examples of large-scale corporate-sponsored public art, most in the form of sculptural pieces in the foyers and plazas in front of office buildings.
Corporate Cathedral of Banking - Citibank Building in Queens
When you see the high-rise Citibank Building in Long Island City, Queens, it looks clearly out of place among the renovated turn-of-the-century industrial buildings (now lofts) and low-rise brick tenement buildings and clap-board townhouses, as if the glass office tower had wandered away from the massive cluster of skyscrapers just across the the East River in Manhattan. Citibank was a real estate pioneer by putting up a towering corporate cathedral in this part of Queens. It was a move encouraged by a larger economic strategy for New York City. Long Island City is being primed as an alternative to Jersey City as a destination by companies in Wall Street and Midtown to set up back-office operations. Rents and costs are lower in these places compared to in Manhattan.
SSUR Plus is a select shop and exclusive, niche brand (along the lines of A Bathing Ape or Alife) of hip-hop-inspired casual clothing -- hoodies, tees, jeans and gear. The store attracts hipster tourists from as far away as Tokyo and Stockholm. Its front window is the bomb! The Bruce Lee image etched into frosted glass and the electronic ticker at top is a stunner. Check it out on Spring St. in NoLIta.
Popular purveyor of smart, classic handbags and accessories, Kate Spade has a massive and always busy store in the heart of the Soho lofts-and-shops district in New York. Even at a time when there's construction work or renovations being done and scaffolding surrounds the landmarked cast-iron loft building where the store lives, Kate Spade manages to add some color to a drab situation. Here the apparati is covered with a Kate Spade pattern one might find in a design for a bag, wallet, shoe or belt. The vivid colors of the graphic pattern replace the usual store signs, which are sedate and hidden by the scaffolding, and double as billboard advertising.
The glass-Plexi staircase at the center of the Apple Store, Soho, which we think is still one of the best Apple Store spaces of all we've seen. (And we've seen quite of few of them actually.) The home of the iPod and other istuff is located in a former US Post Office building in the main shopping district of SoHo, just around the corner and down the street from other premium and "cool" retailers like A Bathing Ape Busy Work Shop and the Kid Robot. The staircase -- an architectural and interior classic -- has been replicated in various forms at Apple stores around the world and inspired many copies by archictects in private residences and corporate spaces alike.
Real estate is an obsession for most New Yorkers. Even those not actively in the land development game -- most of us -- or even those not in some way invested in property seem to be conversant in the the current goings-on of New York City real estate, especially its more high-profile and symbolic architectual monuments. Which leads us to another obsession -- the more high-brow and massively visbile idea of architecture and its politics and economics in a place like NYC. Pictured above, is one such piece of architecture and real estate. The buildings known as 171 and 173 Perry Street are almost identical twin towers with "raw" luxury residential lofts inside. They were designed by the influential architect Richard Meier, whose reputation rests mostly on a portfolio of other beautiful, contemporary designs that involve a lot of glass and white space. At any rate, these lofts condos, which are in the semi-industrial far West Village facing the Hudson River, have had a lot media coverage in part because of the A-list celebrities that have bought in to the property before its development was even completed. The apartments, naturally, offer tenants stunning views and are something to view in and of themselves and sell for several millions of dollars each.
We love the bold, yet weathered, exterior of this car body shop in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. It certainly gets your attention and tells you what they're about with vivid, effecive simplicity: collision work. And it does it with a simple aesthetic -- but an aesthetic nonetheless. Check out the combination of crimson and gold paint and the bold, all-caps typography. When you get in an car accident you might have more important things to worry about than the condition of your car or the exterior colors of an auto body shop's garage--you should probably try to figure out first whether you need medical attention or the use of a good car accident or injury attorney.
Street Art Ups in NoLIta: Bäst, Blue Monster + Kinky Sticker
Several layers of Krylon ups on this NoLIta building have been cannibalized by several more layers of wheat-pasted street art and promotional graphica. Here's the breakdown: the star here is the set of grenade images by the well-known Brooklyn street artist Bäst, whose work is partly covered by an anonymously authored blue monster cut-out and a cellophane promotional sticker for the Monterrey, Mexico alt-indie band Kinky. At the edges are the margins of a number of works by several artists who we can't identify. We once saw three guys quickly and surreptitiously (though very surreptitiously because we saw them) putting up posters at this very spot very late one night and the only thing we could ID of them was that one of them wore Bapesta sneakers and the other two wore Puma kicks. All three wore baggie hoodies. Hmm.
Contextual shot of DUMBO, Brooklyn street art on a renovated factory building that now has multi-million dollar condos and lofts apartments. See next entry for more detailed view of the art and notes.
Found this beautiful pastel-colored and wheat-pasted banner artwork in DUMBO, Brooklyn on the sealed brick archway of a renovated factory building. The neigborhood attracts street art and artists, but is scarcely affordable to most creative types now that the former industrial area has been fully gentrified and filled with multi-million dollar condos, duplex penthouse apartments and gargantuan, airy lofts that have -- as the real estate brokers like to say -- stunning city views. There's a West Elm furniture store in DUMBO now, which tells you everything about where this nabe is going in the minds of the city's aspirational and overly status-conscious real estate peeps. While the loft apartments keep coming, let's hope the street art does, too.
If you look closely you can see the Paris-based artist Invader's signature "space invader" mosaic (inspired by the classic videogame of the same name) on the facade above this bookstore in Santa Monica. (For a detailed view scroll below.) This location is in a highly visible area filled with shoppers and tourists and surrounded by trendy stores like the Adidas Store, Puma, the Apple Store, Urban Outfitters, J. Crew and so on.
Well-known in the global street art underground, the French artist who goes by the name Invader has left his mark on Third Street in Santa Monica with his iconic mini-mosaic (above) of the "alien" from the classic arcade videogame Space Invader. The name has a double meaning--it not only references the artwork and its source, but is also a reminder that technically, without permission, even putting up aesthetically pleasing little tiled artworks is vandalism and as such makes this artist an "invader" of space, be it private or public.
Los Angeles Graphica 05: "Locals Only" Surfer Graf, Topanga Beach Bench
There's not much graf or street art in the beach hoods of SoCal. But this combo of surfer messages on a concrete bench at Topanga Canyon Beach, near Malibu, caught our eye. The "locals only" scratched into the bench is a warning from local surfers that outsiders are not welcome at this surf spot. Then there's the "818" illustrated scrawl, written in what looks like blue Sharpie. The number 818 is the area code of The Valley, the nearby suburban sprawl of LA, from where every summer weekend millions of people descend on the beaches of Malibu, Zuma and Topanga, (as opposed to the beaches of South Bay, where most city-dwelling Angelenos go). If you're a surfer from 818, local surfers hate you. Food fight, anyone?
Los Angeles Graphica 04: The Grove Movie Theater Architecture + Exterior
We revisit The Grove shopping complex in Los Angeles. There we find this example of retro-faux Hollywood art-deco architecture mixed with contemporary, urban shopping-center chic: the The Grove movie theater. We've got really mixed feelings about this sort of thing, but to its credit the facade is an attempt to incorporate historic LA arhictectural cues. This multiplex is across the (fake) street from the Apple Computer Store, so you can check your email and surf the Net for free before seeing a movie or after your movie ends. And, of course, you can look at Apple iPods, G5s, digital cameras, iMacs, etc. In fact, we noticed a lot of theater-goers flooding into the Apple Store after a movie let out, so there's an interesting economic and geographic symbiosis going on here.
Los Angeles Graphica 03: Von Dutch Store Facade + Logo, Santa Monica
In the previous post, we mentioned the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica. Many of the stores here are the same big branded chains you can find in any shopping mall in the US, or for that matter in any major industrialized city around the developed world--Starbucks, Banana Republic, Barnes & Noble, etc. One shop we're surpised to see here, however, is the Von Dutch clothing/lifestyle store pictured here. Von Dutch is a name that has been around for decades, but as a name purely resurrected as licensed fashion label for t-shirts, etc., its life has been very short and very recent. Von Dutch can be partially credited for the trucker hat trend of the past three years (a trend which seems to be finally, gradually fading out). Von Dutch didn't start the trucker hat trend, but some style-conscious marketing genius quickly cottoned on to it early and commercially exploited it under the Von Dutch label. In doing so helped push the trucker hat fashion past the tipping point and into big-grid Mall-of-America mass popularity.
Billi Kid collabo with Question Josh (?JOSH).
Ivan Corsa Photo
Photo gear: Canon PowerShot SD 630 ELPH digital camera
On the iPod: Mando Diao - "Before Rock ad Roll"
Kicks on our feet: Vans "Plaid" Slip-ons
Ivan Corsa Photo
Photo gear: Canon PowerShot SD 630 ELPH digital camera
On the iPod: Mando Diao - "Before Rock ad Roll"
Kicks on our feet: Vans "Plaid" Slip-ons
Ivan Corsa Photo
Photo gear: Canon PowerShot SD 630 ELPH digital camera
On the iPod: Mando Diao - "Before Rock ad Roll"
Kicks on our feet: Vans "Plaid" Slip-ons
