Electronic-indie musician Chet Faker put in a short live performance set of his beautiful songs at our NYC agency’s offices. <3
Monthly Archives: March 2014
Baby Face Street Art in NYC
This wheat-paste street art (or “wheatie”) of a super cute, larger-than-life baby face by artist “Mactrukk” has been popping up around New York City lately, including at a spot on the famous graffiti-covered former bank building owned and inhabited by photographer Jay Maisel at the corner on Spring Street and the Bowery in the Lower East Side, as pictured below.
New York Street Art … “Smoke Trees”
This stenciled “Smoke Trees” wheat-pasted street art poster in the Lower East Side of New York City has a graphical, lo-fi propaganda feel. The bear iconography and message harkens to Smoky the Bear and public service ad campaigns to create awareness about forest fire prevention. The message here is subversive and explicit, though unclear. The colors are beautiful and and make for a striking visual on the side of the general clutter of the graffiti- and street art-bombed Jay Maisel Building at the corner of Spring Street and the Bowery.
Cute Japanese Toy Cars at Our NYC HQ
We dug up this small collection of Japanese toy cars manufactured by Tomica. Among these are miniatures of a classic Japanese soba and ramen noodle truck, a Yamazaki bread company delivery truck, a taxi, and an unmarked police car. The models were designed in the 1990s based on real-life car makes such as the ubiquitous Toyota Crown Majesta and Toyota Cedric sedans, which are popular in Japan but virtually unknown in the U.S. The doors open on some of these toy cars, which we imagine makes these a little more fun to play with if you’re kid. Though designed by a Japanese toymaker in Japan, the toys were actually manufactured in China.
Funny … “This is a Generic Brand Video”
This short video titled “This is a Generic Brand Video” was created entirely from stock video to go with the words of Kendra Eash’s clever and funny McSweeney’s Internet Tendency piece of the same title. It’s an amusing, masterful break down of advertising semiotics and visual style.
This Is a Generic Brand Video from Dissolve on Vimeo.
Artist Creates Awesome Geometric Paintings with Discarded Cigarette Pack Boxes
Santa Cruz, California-based artist Robert Larson creates awesome abstract geometric-patterns on his large canvases using pieces of discarded Malboro cigarette pack boxes he has scavenged as his material. His artwork pictured below was recently exhibited at Volta NYC 2014 in New York City. There’s a good interview on Eyebuzz from a few years a go in which Larson explains how his idea for using cigarette packs as material came to him as he was exploring urban, industrial landscapes and looking for old, distressed metal and wood.
In NYC … Artist Exhibits Reproduction of Trayvon Martin’s Hoodie
“Tough Love,” an exhibition of recent work by Chilean artist Sebastian Errazuriz, is currently on show at the Storefront for Art & Architecture in New York City. The show features some provocative artwork by Errazuriz that riffs on recent and current events. Among the work on show is “Portrait of US,” pictured here, which is a pair of reproductions of Travyon Martin’s bloodied, bullet-punctured hoodie and sweater encased as presented evidence during the trial of George Zimmerman in 2013.
Mural by Korean Artist Yoon Hyup at Rag & Bone NYC
Korean artist Yoon Hyup recently had a mural on the wall at the Rag & Bone Jean flagship store in Nolita, in downtown New York City. Rag & Bone has devoted the wall on the Elizabeth Street-side of its shop to showcasing art, with artists putting up new work every two or three weeks. Love it.
Wild Postings of Fashion Blogger ASVOF
We stumbled upon these street-artsy wild posting images of Paris-based American fashion blogger and journalist Diane Pernet on Crosby Street in SoHo, in New York City. The posters include the hashtag #asvofnyc, suggesting her recent presence in New York for fashion week or another event perhaps (?). Pernet’s website A Shaded View of Fashion, or ASVOF is among the style world’s most influential blogs.
Life and Death Fire Extinguishers by Artist Sebastian Errazuriz
In Los Angeles … “Honor” Stone at Fred Segal, Santa Monica
The entrance to the sprawling, edgy-hip fashionista mecca that is the Fred Segal store complex in Santa Monica, in Los Angeles, has a artsy set of stones embedded in the pavement leading to the front doors from the parking lot. Each of the stones has a word carved into it in beautiful serif-font lettering. Pictured here is a stone with the word “Honor” and our Van’s covered feet.
On the Scene … At Propellor Coffee in Greenpoint, Brooklyn
We recently popped by Propellor Coffee in Greenpoint, Brooklyn on one of those interminable snowy days during this year’s remarkably harsh winter in New York City. This cafe is a solid, local ‘third-wave” coffee joint with much more generous space than many of the miniscule espresso bars that these days seem to be opening up every five seconds in NYC. The atmosphere is warm, mild, friendly, unobtrusive amid a decor of spare 1960s- and ’70s-era vintage furniture and walls filled with thematic, similarly aged and well-preserved photography of airplanes and airlines, in keeping with the spirit of the cafe’s name. The usual retinue of cafe punters are here, the laptop brigades and freelance designer/scriptwriter/fashion blogger types, and the local hipster coffee nerds. It’s a wonderful place to while away an hour or two on a lazy Saturday afternoon nursing a hot latte while reading an actual printed newspaper copy of the New York Times, checking your Instagram, and staying warm.
Street Art … “Curb Your Ego” Sign in Brooklyn
“Curb Your Ego” strikes this stretch of wall in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. It’s a cheeky piece of street art playing on the usual visual grammar of municipal street signage, and it never fails to amuse, especially when placed near an art gallery. 🙂
New York Street Art … Charlie Chaplin Stencil in Brooklyn
Sublime stencil street art image of the legendary Hollywood actor Charlie Chaplin on a wall near Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Broken-Heart Macaron at Cafe Grumpy
Super delicious macarons at Cafe Grumpy, an espresso bar and cafe in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, including the one pictured here with a cute broken heart graphic printed on it. Yummy! Pop-cultural reference: This Cafe Grumpy is used as the location set for the Cafe Grumpy that appears in Lena Dunham’s hit HBO television series Girls.
Fresh “LUDO” Mural at Rag & Bone Jean New York
Street Art … Skeleton Portrait of Fashion Editor Diana Vreeland by Bradley Theodore
Recent street art painting by Bradley Theodore depicting legendary Vogue magazine editor Diana Vreeland. The artwork is on Lafayette Street between Prince and Spring streets in SoHo, in downtown New York City. Theodore’s street art images are portraits of iconic figures from the fashion world rendered as colorful, grotesque skeletons. He’s done paintings of Anna Wintour, Karl Lagerfeld, and Terry Richardson. We love it.
Design … The “Killing Yourself to Live” Book Jacket
