Design Practices: Visiting New York
NYC Design Agencies
Metropolis
Metropolis Magazine was experiencing some problems when we went to visit them. Apparently some of the information provided in one of the articles was incorrect and didn’t have information that was good to be cleared for press. We were told about the re-design of Metropolis Magazine by Paula Scher. The title of Metropolis was initially centered in the top of the magazine at a smaller size, on this huge magazine. Then was redesigned down to a better size for a couple reasons. It’s easier to sell off the shelves, easier to carry in a bag, cheaper to produce. The title was cropped off and is now stretched across the entire top of the magazine. Metropolis has 3 main executives making the large decisions in the magazine. These 3 also decide what to put on the cover of the magazine, which is usually chosen by what article is most important, or interesting. The cover is either done in-house or contracted out of house. Their studio is very small and cluttered, not at all what I expected from them. They have all of their magazines of the year lined up, and each release has a post-it, telling its amount of sales.
Carbone and Smolan
Our two presenters were Nina and Paul. Nina has worked at Carbone for about a year and half, while Paul has for about 5 years. Carbone is a great agency, because they don’t have one main focus, they work on museum set up, brand identities, to hospitality, the kinds of work is extensive. The owners are Ken and Leslie, for about 30 years now. Carbone has 20-25 employees currently working for them, but this amount fluctuates depending on the amount of work they have at one time. They showed us two projects they just got done working on, one being Bidawee, which is a non-profit animal shelter who was looking for a whole new brand identity. The other project was The W Downtown, which was also looking for brand, but also, bags, stationary, cards, all the items a hotel usually needs. Carbone worked in about teams of 2 or 3 depending on what kid of a project it is, and at one time working on about 3 projects at once. They also mentioned that CSA is re-branding themselves right now too.
AIGA
AIGA in New York was showing a theme of 50 years of 50 books. They had these books laid out on a table like they were serving people with information. On the table there was a place setting for each book. All of the books were unique in their own way. The actual building had a lot to offer, including a full library of books, and another gallery upstairs. They talked about what AIGA has to offer to students, and professionals in the work field.
NYC Play
Avenue Q
Avenue Q was a great play. At first I wasn’t sure because of the whole puppet thing. The actors were very entertaining and played good with each-other and the puppets they were impersonating. They used a lot of words that could be offensive to some, but the crowd seemed to like it. The play was about how after school, not everyone has a certain purpose in life, but everyone should learn how to give to others, and there fore achieve a certain satisfaction of giving not receiving all of the time.