This blog documents my Art & Design Crawl of New York City during the summer of 2015. I've visited places that interested me in the giant city. Each adventure taught me something new and reminded me how powerful art and design really is.

NYC instragram series:

MAIP Summer 2015

This whole summer was thanks to MAIP, which is Multicultural Advertising Internship Program. I am so humbled to have been chosen to participate in such a wonderful program. I was thrown into the advertising industry and met people that touched my life. There were many seminars that taught me more about advertising and myself at the same time. I worked on two campaigns through the summer and found myself in situations that tested me. I learned more about myself by being in a place I felt lost. I feel changed in the best of ways.  

Mast Brothers Chocolate August 1st, 2015

I love chocolate. When I found out that Mast Brothers Chocolate was here in Brooklyn and gave tours, I had to go. Mast Brothers is well known for its packaging among designers so learning about the actual chocolate itself was wonderful. They have two facilities in NY and the one that gave tours was minimally decorated and just enough space. In the tour they showed us the process of picking the perfect cacao beans, the machines that de-shell the beans, and the area the chocolate is created and stored.

What I really appreciated was the backstory of the Mast brothers. They did this as a hobby and turned it into a skill. The flavors they had were all so powerful and different from one another. Their process was defined and the overall brand was beautiful. This whole company was designed, every part of it. It was great to see design applied to chocolate. Design is in everything and is everywhere, it's great.

Fun links: Mast Brothers Website, Mast Brothers Instagram

Dark Days of Summer July 28th, 2015

There's so much art here in NYC. I saw a show listed and decided I needed to check at least one art show while I was here. It was at The Dardy Bar and was displaying art of K-nor and Edapt. The vibes were very chill and I met both artists who were very nice. I met a number of people here really, other artists and sticker enthusiasts. It reminded me of Austin and also made me want to start drawing and making stickers of my own. It was cool meeting different people all with their own style. It reminded why I love drawing so much, everyone has their own feel to whatever they make. Will def give myself time to draw more personal things when I get back to Texas.

Fun links: K-nor's Instagram, Edapt's Instagram

Drink and Doodle July 18th, 2015

Browsing through my Instagram feed I saw that one of the script artists I follow, Lauren Hom, was having a Drink and Doodle here in NYC! This girl is amazing at script and I've never attended an event like this so I figured why not. I brought my roommate to the bar and when we got there we were greeted with the warmest smile and hugs. Lauren and her friend Jessie were so inviting and brought a delightful conversation the whole time we were there. It was really cool to talk about life in general with fellow designers and also embrace how wonderful the Instagram community can be. I had such a good time I'm inspired to start something up similar back home in Texas.

Fun links: Lauren's Instagram, Jessie's Instagram, Lauren's website

IPG Media Lab July 16th, 2015

Part of my internship program is getting to tour sister IPG agencies. I've toured many agencies, but IPG Media Lab was such a different experience. Having done no research prior to visiting the lab I was so shocked to find out what this place was. This small space contained massive creativity and tech. It was amazing.

Our tour took us through different medias and problems clients are facing today. Second screen viewing, the slow death of cable tv, getting the attention span of millennials... It seemed like they had the answer for it all! And if they didn't have the answer they were pretty close to figuring it out. I was introduced to new and upcoming platforms and apps. Everything they had was so thought out for the future I felt super outdated just being there. 

This visit reminded me how we can't limit ourselves to what we have in front of us. We have to keep thinking about what's coming next and we have to keep finding new ways to reach the audience because times are always changing. It made me want to work there honestly. I'm going to remember this trip for all my future projects and tell myself to think bigger and think with the changing times.

Fun links: IPG Media Lab Website, IPG Media Lab Twitter

Huge Brews: Untappd July 14th, 2015

Tonight I attended a fun meetup hosted by the oh-so-cool agency Huge. Through a MAIP fellow I learned about this evening and how they would be discussing UX/UI while also serving beer. How could I resist. The set up was in their kitchen and was full brews and people all code curious. The presentation got under way and I learned about The Super Secret Beer Club at Huge and also the beginnings of the Untappd app and their journey of it's progression.

What I got away from this night was the love of the project always powers the final product and end goal. Both the Super Secret Beer Club and Untappd had a passion they wanted to further develop. They wanted to expand on something they loved and they knew other people loved. I learned this app with thousands of users is powered by two men who enjoy what they do. They avoid flashy ads because they know their users will have a bad experience if they had them... That's the kind of design I like to see.

It was nice to kick back with people so passionate about technology and well, beer. It's inspiring to see if you really love something and want to achieve a certain goal it is possible, you just have to have the right motives. Thank you Huge for having such a wonderful event.

Fun links: Huge website, Untappd App 

Cooper Hewitt Museum of Design July 2nd, 2015

Today I used my half day well by visiting the Cooper Hewitt Museum. It was everything I hoped for and more! To start off it was in an old and elegant house that had three floors and tons of rooms to explore. Secondly, they had a coat check for my hefty student backpack. And the third and coolest thing about this museum was their interactive pens! These pens you can walk around and use the stylus to design and explore on interactive tables, and you could use the other end to collect pieces you enjoyed from the museum to a personal virtual database. So. Cool.

This museum hit every aspect of design. It featured architect solving modern day questions and pushing boundaries of what we know, featured older works of design on different mediums like textiles, birdhouses, and chairs. It had areas of how designers use line, texture, pattern, mass, space, and other elements of design. There were pieces that dated in the early 1900s that looked like they belonged in the 2000s. 

Another great exhibit they had was 'How Posters Work' which was just amazing to see. It divided posters on their designs by style or era or what technique the artist used. It was a teaching exhibit but also a history lesson at the same time. It covered everything, and I just ate it up.

Fun links: Cooper Hewitt Website, Cooper Hewitt Instagram

Paul Rand: Everything Is Design June 27th, 2015

The Museum of New York had an exhibit on display that featured the great Paul Rand. It was loaded with his work and was beautifully laid out. I was very impressed with the gallery as it was set up perfectly so you could browse each section of his life and see his work progress through the years. There were even quotes on the side of every display column that made you feel his presence. The exhibit lets you learn about his childhood, his schooling experiences, his first steps in advertising, his book designs and then his more known corporate design.

My favorite part of the gallery was all his corporate packaging designs. They showed the brand books he presented to clients and then showed how the logo he made could work across multiple platforms. His designs were so elegant and they look modern still to this day. It was inspiring to see all the made and get a glimpse of how he thought about design as an art. The gallery makes me want to continue and grow as a designer, and it reminded me I may not be the best now but it takes a while to become great.

Fun links: Exhibit page

Bowne Printers June 21st, 2015

Today my eyes were set on Bowne Printers, a print shop that is part of the South Street Seaport Museum. What's cool about this place is they do custom prints and they do it old school. When entering this shop I was greeted with tons of beautiful print pieces laid out ready for purchase. I talked to the worker and asked if I could go behind the sales desk to see all the tiny type letters they had. His name was Aly and I told him what I knew about hand set type and he told me some stuff back. I found a press I was unfamiliar with and he was nice enough to show me how it worked by printing my name! He used an old font that dated way back, past the 1900s. I got to see him select the letters through their mountain high drawers full of letters, get the letters set and secure, saw him pick some ink and put down some paper with perfect placement, and then he let me do the actual printing part. It was like getting a little touch of history. I found some small pieces I had to buy and left knowing I'd come back to buy more this summer.

Fun links: Bowne Printers website. Bowne Printers instagram.

Colossal Media June 18th, 2015

A friend of mine showed me these mural painters stationed in NYC called Colossal Media. They are walldogs that have done work all around the world and their skills are scary good. I contacted them to see if I could visit or get a tour and my timing must have been good because they told me to come to their upcoming BBQ at their Sky High location. The Thursday came my friend and I showed up to a massive facility full of art wonder. It was like a giant garage but with fun pasted on every square inch. I met an apprentice named Ramon and made him give me a tour of the place. They had all the equipment. Ladders and sky lifts for height reach, reliable trucks that had thousands of miles on them, a paint mixing space, storage for all said paints, a room dedicated to tools for the trade, and even a chill rooftop spot to get away from the world. This place was amazing and the atmosphere was the best part. I met the VP, Paul, and told him thanks for the invite and left with great memories. 

Fun links: Colossal Media website. Colossal Media instagram.

Icy Signs June 6th, 2015

To kick off my Art & Design Crawl I decided to visit the oh so cool Icy Signs shop. It's a small space but there's so much inside. Drawers of all the prints produced, walls full with posters, cans stacked with paint and all the type in the world. When I walked in it was empty with one worker sitting behind a computer. His name was Andy and after telling him my background he was nice enough to talk about his. I got tons of stories from him and he even showed me some of his personal work he did. As you can imagine every poster they had for sale was gorgeous. Being on a low budget I got some stickers as a small souvenir and told myself I had to come back for the big items before I left NYC. It was definitely a good first stop.

Fun links: Icy Signs website. Icy Signs instagram. Andy's instagram.