New York

New York, New York.

Illustrator and designer Remko Heemskerk has created a series of prints dedicated to New York City. The style is reminiscent of 20th century travel posters and poster art created by the WPA in the 1930’s and 40’s. Flattened and stylized with just enough detail. Limited, but bright color pallets that keep the images vibrant and fun. The series shows the wide range of architectural style prevalent in the city, some iconic others commonplace, all of them making up the whole of the city. The prints are available for purchase in a variety of sizes at inPrint if you are so inclined.

Paris / New York / Split Screen.

MATEL has taken a creative and effective way to capture two of the greatest cities in the world, Paris and New York. The video below was shot on his Canon 5D Mk III and edited together in a split screen format to show the similarities and differences of these two modern metropolises. Using realtime and time-lapse sequences MATEL stitches the two cities together with images that merge, intersect, and juxtapose each other. I couldn’t find any information on the editing and post processing techniques used to finish the film. I’m thinking it was pretty straight forward since it was all shot on the same camera and edited by one individual. Once a gain a simple yet powerful and creative idea beats special effects and heavy post processing. Enjoy.

The Iconic NYC Transit Authority Graphics Standards Manual Reissued.

By the mid 1960’s the New York subway way finding system was a visual mess. It was a mix of signage and styles with no apparent order to any of it. In 1967, the New York City Transit Authority asked designers Massimo Vignelli and Bob Noorda to design a uniform identity and way finding system for the subway that would give riders a sense of direction that was easy to follow and use.

Completed 3 years later in 1970, was the NYC Transit Authority Graphics Standards Manual. This was the way finding system bible that became the face of the subway and is still in use today. Vignelli and Noorda gave us everything from color-coded route discs and line routes to the modernist sans-serif typeface ( the original font was Standard Medium, later switched to Helvetica) This design bible was distributed to designers, sign makers, and anyone else who needed help in designing, styling, and building a piece of the subway’s identity.

This iconic piece of work became a design classic in it’s own right, known to pretty much anyone that has studied or practiced design in the last 40 plus years. The manual was never intended for public distribution or consumption. Over the years as the NYC Transit Authority Graphics Standards Manual was updated and revised to meet changing needs and habits, fewer and fewer of the original copies remained. Many of the original copies found their way to a landfill or were lost in locked closets and cabinets within the many NYC Transit Authority offices.

A few years ago, two designers for Pentagram’s New York office, Hamish Smyth and Jesse Reed, found a single copy. Knowing the importance of what they had they digitized the manual, and now they’re reprinting it with the blessing of the MTA for a very limited time. For the next thirty days, you can purchase a copy of the 1970 NYC Transit Authority Graphics Standards Manual on Kickstarter. Pretty cool, and yes I’ll be buying one.

Paul Trillo’s “Living Moments – Lumia Arc of Wonder”.

To promote the camera in the new Nokia-Microsoft Lumia phone, filmmaker Paul Trillo constructed a custom arc that held 50 Lumia 1020 phones. The phones were controlled by an app running on the new Microsoft Surface Pro tablet that was able to fire all the phones at the exact same time. this allowed Trillo’s team to then composite all of the images into a single film. The film showcases the New York street scene with a unique perspective that turns over repeatedly through the duration of the short. Below is is the finished film, plus the behind the scenes reel which gives additional insight into the process and vision behind “Living Moments”. Once again, the making of is in many ways more fascinating than the final film for me.