New York Design Scene(?) Field Report:

UPDATE—March 2008:
More than a year after this field report, Design Kompany’s own Dipika Kohli makes her gallery debut by “tagging” a wall with sharpie markers, in a style very much inspired by street arts.



Design Kompany’s Akira Morita just took a trip to New York City, and here shares some of the graffiti art he recorded on the mini camera every Japanese person has, the Canon IXY Digital 50.

My trip to New York ostensibly was to “research and get inspired” by the art and design the megalopolis offers, so a little bit of report is in order. Here’s an annotated sampling of the pictures I took while ambling around the surprisingly balmy winter days in New York. Enjoy!

Downtown street, New York, New York

This was in Downtown. Not sure which street, but really a beautiful work, isn’t it? Tactile texture that blends well with the background (faded graffiti on a dirty garage door). Like the collage-like distortions and contrasts, too. I had missed my flight back home that day and was just killing time, but this discovery made it worthwhile.

Signature.  Brooklyn, New York

Manhattan for the most part is dominated by advertisements and billboards. To see some good graffiti work, I had to go to Brooklyn. This one I found in Williamsburg–a great example of an old school tag.

Banksy?  Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York

Is this Banksy? It looks like it is to me, but I hadn’t seen this stencil before. Whoever’s done it, though, it’s nice work. Striking image, clever use of space.

PS1 exhibit, Queens

This is taken at PS1, MoMA’s Queens branch that is far more avant-garde and anti-establishment (well, relatively speaking) than the Manhattan museum. This installment’s on the staircase of the gigantic building. Reminded me of Jim Pollock’s album art covers.

Subway, New York

Getting anywhere in New York is so easy on the subway! I forgot which station I took this shot at, but I liked the humor of it.

Izakaya Kenka, St. Marks Pl., New York

This is a menu at this Japanese bar in St. Marks Place where I had a nice meal with friends. It’s called Kenka, but unless you can read Japanese, you won’t know that, for there’s absolutely nothing in English outside indicating the name of the place or that it is a restaurant. Despite (or, maybe because of) that, it’s chock full all the time with hip young NYU students. The cover pictured depicts a man’s heavily tatooed torso. Inside, you see lots of ukiyoe-inspired motifs. Very Rock and Roll, I say.

Graffiti Collaboration?  Brooklyn, New York

Some more graffiti. Some kind of collaboration going on here?

Cartoon Graffiti  Brooklyn, New York

There seems to be a trend toward comic book/cartoon influences these days. I wonder if it has to do with the mainsream-ization of Japanese pop culture?

Big Lips #1, Brooklyn, New York

Big lips.

More Big Lips.  Brooklyn, New York

More big lips.

Stenciled Ad.  Brooklyn, New York

Stencil used for commercial purposes. This is a rather timid example, but I saw a big wall advertisement for the E! network show done graffiti-style in a few places.

Uniqlo store, New York

Speaking of Japanese pop culture, Uniqlo, a low-cost fashion mega-chain from Japan, had just opened its first store Stateside in Soho, and you knew it anywhere you went in New York. They’d poured money into advertising. They handed out cute red-squared catalogues and published quite a nicely-designed free paper along with all the ads and billboards.

Barneys New York Window Display 2

As I’ve mentioned, Manhattan was so full of commercialism that I felt I was shopping in a huge mall. Of course, it was Christmas sales time. I enjoyed checking out some of the window displays, too (and checking out the newest iPod at the new Apple Store…). Barneys had Andy Warhol-themed windows.

Bergdorf Goodman Store Window

This one is from the Bergdorf Goodman store.

You Are Beautiful.  Brooklyn, New York

Good to see such a good installation of this great street-art movement in person, and it’s nice to see it still going strong. Such a simple concept, yet it never fails to make you smile. This was in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Pretending to be in Seattle.  Brooklyn, New York

I did miss the rain eventually, though. So this was a sign that I should go home to Seattle… That’s it! Hope you enjoyed the tour.

Stencil graffiti in Seattle Part II | Part I | Design Kompany teams up with stencil T-shirt artists

15 Responses to “New York Design Scene(?) Field Report:”


  1. Gravatar Icon 1 akira Jan 12th, 2007 at 1:28 pm

    OMG! I just found a how-to video of the exact same street art on the first picture. Very cool.

  2. Gravatar Icon 2 Maisie Jan 19th, 2007 at 3:40 am

    Looks like you had a good time in NY and thanks for the link to the how-to video.

  3. Gravatar Icon 3 Akira Jan 19th, 2007 at 11:03 am

    Hi Maisie! Thanks for the comments. Are you going to do one yourself, plastering Bampton? that’d be a hoot;)

  4. Gravatar Icon 4 jessica Mar 19th, 2007 at 5:38 pm

    what a great survey of urban beauty. it reminds me of how visually exciting nyc can be. very cool.

  5. Gravatar Icon 5 akira Mar 20th, 2007 at 10:13 am

    Hey thanks Jess! Glad you enjoyed it.

  6. Gravatar Icon 6 nancy Aug 14th, 2007 at 9:30 am

    3rd pic down is WK INTERACT. one of my fave artists

  7. Gravatar Icon 7 akira Aug 14th, 2007 at 12:53 pm

    Thanks for the info, Nancy! I just checked out WK’s work - amazing stuff. Wish I could see more of the stuff in real time/in person (like the show he had in Barcelona)!!

  8. Gravatar Icon 8 brian Nov 6th, 2007 at 5:47 pm

    that is nto banksy at all……its wk interact
    wkinteract.com

  9. Gravatar Icon 9 akira Nov 7th, 2007 at 10:45 am

    Thanks Brian! Nancy has pointed out the same thing above. Cool stuff.

  10. Gravatar Icon 10 aska Nov 30th, 2007 at 1:29 am

    wow~it makes me to thinking of that time when i was in NYC.i miss walked the streets….
    You really got very nice picture on design…

  11. Gravatar Icon 11 akira Nov 30th, 2007 at 12:23 pm

    Thanks Aska! It was exactly a year ago I took these pictures. I miss it too…

    I should do some Seattle street art post, though. There are some cool stuff going on here, too!

  12. Gravatar Icon 12 Donna @ Rent a Desk Jul 26th, 2009 at 11:04 pm

    I have just come across this site and blog and its just great, I love this work, as much as there are lots of people out there that don’t like graffiti if its graffiti like this, then its just amazing.

    I hope to visit again here, great blog.

  13. Gravatar Icon 13 Charles Leo Jul 30th, 2009 at 10:51 pm

    Wow - I really love some of these images. The photos are very colorful.

    I’m an architectural renderings artist. Some of my work can be viewed at:
    http://www.lunarstudio.com

    I’ve been looking through your website. If you ever need a hand on anything I’d be glad to help out.

  14. Gravatar Icon 14 Lauren Wang Aug 7th, 2009 at 2:53 pm
  15. Gravatar Icon 15 Myhammer Sep 21st, 2009 at 3:27 am

    This is a great example aof street art. Really liked it. It shows the efforts of the professionals behind this work.

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