I Heart NYC

Gorgeous - I will never get tired of NYC time lapse



Also - love the song - "Rivers and Roads" by The Head and the Heart

New York Time Lapse

I love this city :) and this spectacular time lapse series by Josh Owens

Mindrelic - Manhattan in motion from Mindrelic on Vimeo.

Everynone

Absolutely stunning!! These videos are by Everynone, an amazing filmmaking team based in NYC with Will Hoffman, Daniel Mercandante and Julius Metoyer III.

Symmetry from Everynone on Vimeo.

WORDS from Everynone on Vimeo.

Stunning

Simple. Beautiful. Stunning.

This is like perfection to my OCD, organization and mapping obsessed design brain.










I love the differences between the right side layout of these two cities. The New York City grid I love (and appreciate daily) becomes so very straightforward and dull when you restructure it like this, where the intricacies of the Paris city plan become far more evident and endearing. Its hard to find much evidence of any right angles at all.











These and many other maps were designed by Armelle Caron, a French artist and designer. The series is entitled Anagrammes graphiques de plans de villes and includes seven cities - Berlin, Istanbul, New York, Tamarac, Paris, Le Havre & Montpellier. Also check out some of his other work.

Meet Steve Duncan

Urban explorer extraordinaire

He climbs bridges, explores sewers and sneaks down subway tunnels to discover beautiful places all over New York City (and tons of other cities) He takes amazing pictures of all the places he goes like these below. They are all available for purchase on his site undercity.org



















































Here is a video of some of his New York exploring with videography Andrew Wonder. He goes to the Old City Hall Station, the first subway stop in NYC, into the sewer, the Lincoln Tunnel and CLIMBS the Williamsburg Bridge. Its amazing...you should watch it :)

UNDERCITY from Andrew Wonder on Vimeo.

Dispersed Memorial

Check out this amazing project by some past professors of mine.

On 1/11 Dispersed Memorial Announces its Vision to Honor 9/11 Victims

Asheville, North Carolina - Jan 11, 2011 -- A project to honor the lives of 9/11 victims, Dispersed Memorial, is setting its goals for the 10th and 11th anniversaries of the tragedy. Thousands of glass plates, inscribed with written dedications to victims and an outline of the missing Twin Towers, will populate New York City in locations where the towers were onc

e visible. The memorials will create a dispersed constellation of markers throughout the city that will connect the stories of loved ones and materialize a collective memory.

Each glass plate outline of the Twin Towers will correspond to the memory of the city’s skyline in varying locations. At night, the markers will light up one by one as an echo to the candles that were lit for the lives of victims in the days following 9/11, and will illuminate the inscriptions of stories, letters, poems and names that honor each victim. The memorial allows each contributor to choose the location of the glass plates where they wish to honor victims.

Dispersed Memorial was conceptualized in 2001 by Martha Skinner and Doug Hecker of fieldoffice, an interdisciplinary practice which challenges the distinctions between architecture, urbanism, and art. Their design response was related to their firm’s focus on the temporal quality of social responses to tragedy. Co-founder Martha Skinner explained, “As a former resident of New York City, I felt like I needed to be there, to be part of people coming together to deal with the situation, to heal, a

nd to share something in common.” In anticipation of the 10th and 11th anniversaries of the event, fieldoffice has expanded the team to work with individuals ranging from urban planners, university professors, artists and architecture students, and is inviting additional collaborators.

By collecting and installing the stories behind the lives of 9/11 victims, Dispersed Memorial explores concepts of dispersed memory as a continual presence in a city and how that memory can connect people. “There is a sacredness within the fabric of the city. It is about the memory of the Twin Towers as an orienting device, and entire lives, and the losses that affected so many people,” Skinner said.

For more information about the project team and collaborative opportunities, visit the Dispersed Memorial website: http://www.dispersed-memorial.net/

Contact:

Martha Skinner

Co-founder of Dispersed Memorial

864-650-8570

skinnermartha@gmail.com

http://www.dispersed-memorial.net/

Class Critique and Lecture with Liad Baniel

Liad Baniel, of Liad Baniel Studio, visited my Digital Design class last week to help critique our early stage Marketing Videos for our products. He first gave a lecture on marketing and advertising in general. It was a great lecture and I naturally took copious notes. Some of my favorite points he hit on were:
- Marketing and advertising is about finding a point of CONNECTION with your viewer
- The holy grail of design is to get your viewer to experience something they will never forget
- Visual communication is the face of any company, product, idea, concept, etc
- Putting a poster out into the world is like a first date. Play by the rules - you know what people are attracted to, but you can't be boring

He also pulled up a few projects he thought were really successful at grabbing an audience's attention, in very different ways. The first two images are print advertising by Marc Atlan Design, Inc (a new favorite design studio of mine!). They are both for Commes des Garcon - one for nail polish and one for perfume. The ads are approached in two VASTLY different ways, which I love. Baniel hit on that something to always remember - an advertising campaign does not all have to look the same. For the nail polish, the bold use of color and scale are great. A sense of drama is created. For the perfume, a more intimate product, you feel like the bottles are hugging - a time when you're most likely to smell someone's perfume.

The second project here that Baniel discussed is Wolff Olins' branding for the New Museum in New York City. The branding is variable based on the content the museum needs to include and serves as an active graphic device. I love variable logos and I think this is really successful - it even picks up on the stacked architectural elements of the building itself.

Follow Up - Sukkah City Union Square

About two months ago I posted about Sukkah City - an international competition to re-imagine the sukkah held in New York City's Union Square. I was excited to see the 15 designs that were chosen from the hundreds of entries and they certainly did not disappoint. While there were some pretty big discrepancies between some of the design proposals and the actual realizations, others were spot-on and all were fascinating to see in 3D form. Of the 15 chosen, 13 actually made it to Union Square for the event to be voted on by the public.

The event was held over two days and I got to attend on a BEAUTIFUL Monday afternoon. Union Square was absolutely PACKED! There were students, tourists, New Yorkers, designers and more all enjoying the sukkahs. The winner after voting was Fractured Bubble, which remained in Union Square for the week.

My personal favorites were Sukkah of Signs by Ron Rael & Virginia San Fratello using signs purchased from homeless people and Gathering by Dale Suttle, So Sugita, and Ginna Nguyen which had beautiful, sweeping lines and excellent craftsmanship.

To see the sukkahs, click on the image for a large view or check them out on my Flickr page.

Sukkah City in Union Square 9/19 & 9/20

Sukkah City: NYC 2010 comes to Union Square this weekend! This international competition drew entries from all over world with 15 winners being selected to be constructed in Union Square. The 15 re-imagined sukkahs will be voted on by New Yorkers and the winner will remain in Union Square for Sukkot festival.

These 15 winners include designs using all sorts of materials, techniques and concepts. One of my favorites is one that is constructed from a single string...that will be very interesting to see in real life and see if it is structurally sound.

These sukkahs will be in Union Square from dawn to dusk Sunday and Monday so make sure you don't miss it. For more info on Sukkah City, check out the website will all the winners and also every competition entry...there are some pretty hysterical ones.

Barcelona's Subway Upgrade

Drassanes Subway Station - Barcelona

Soooooooo bummed this wasn't finished when I lived there!! I suppose it was under construction while we were there. Can you imagine if NYC started doing this to subways stops over a period of time. If Herzog & deMeuron redid the Times Square Station and Zaha Hadid got her hands on Union Square Station. Contemporary architecture at this daily scale would make taking the subway so much better!

Seen on The Cool Hunter in this article.