reactions

International publisher Taschen has just released “Guidelines for Online Success – The Dos and Don’ts of the Internet from the best interactive agencies around the world.”

MSLK has been included in this amazingly thorough survey of websites for the one we’d designed for M Studio.

To be included in a Taschen title is an honor, as their books are always a visual treat. Even better is that we’re in the company of many well-respected agencies from around the world, among many sites I’d admired over the years.

Read More

I love great editorial design. One of things I am especially drawn to is when publications hire a typographer/designer to enhance their headings and do something definitively different  for an issue. Granted the typography in this week’s New York Magazine is not the most legible face, but I do love it!

Sheri, Co-Founder of MSLK, discusses the concept behind Urban Tumbleweeds, an eco-art installation created out of 2,663 plastic bags.

“Urban Tumbleweeds”
Current TV, TV feature
August 26, 2008

Is it possible to be obvious and clever at the same time?

I would have answered “no” before I’d seen this great ad. It’s so effective that it stopped me — and I couldn’t possibly care less about football if I tried. And believe me, I’ve tried.

Read More

This September 25-28th I’ll be attending the HOW magazine’s Mind Your Own Business Conference in Austin, Texas. While I am there I, along with my colleague and Spark VP, Christina Hagopian, will be hosting a Spark Roundtable on Proposal Strategies and Pricing.

Read More

A few weeks ago, Katie and I rode our bikes out to Coney Island with some friends. As many of you know, this is the last summer Coney Island will exist as we know it. At the end of the summer, much of Astroland will be torn down to make way for condominiums. We went to get a last glimpse of an era, but also to see a public art project, in which several artists were given the opportunity to repaint merchant signage. Each artist was assigned to a different merchant and given stylistic freedom to interpret the signage. Organized by former street artist ESPO, this was an opportunity to bring back the spirit of individuality that had eroded over the years as old signs were replaced with cheaper standards. The result of the project is a beautiful mix of styles that celebrates the distinctive nature of Coney Island. See more photos after the jump.

Read More

This past week I attended the Directions textile show at the suggestion of one of my friends from Fashion News Workshop. This particular friend thought I would enjoy Directions because they have a whole new division dedicated to sustainability. While I found this part of the show exciting—I especially love the rubber made from recycled tires—what shocked me most was the entire purpose of the show was to inspire fashion designers on new fabric patterns and emerging trends in fashion design.

Read More

This past weekend a few friends and I (including our new intern Kirsty from England) went to check out the Os Gemeos (pronounced “ose zhe’-mee-ose”) show entitled “Too Far Too Close” at Deitch Gallery. Unfortunately Saturday was the last day of the show, but I wanted to post some of the images that my friend Sean took because the small detail and intricate stencil work was really great and made the show. I wasn’t sure that the overall aesthetic of these Brazilian Artists is exactly my taste, but the show was impressive — not only because of the scale and abundance of work, but for the two brothers’ ability to maintain their distinct style without it feeling repetitive or overdone. All and all, it was a fun show with sound effects and camera’s rigged into the larger installations.

We followed up the gallery show by going to to the IFC’s screening of the documentary Beautiful Losers about at DIY art collective from the 1990s (who is still largely working). The movie has been a long time coming, but was well worth the wait. It was amazing, go see it!!

Read More

I just realized that somehow one very important topic/thread of how we spend our time outside of the studio has been missing from this blog…Spark

Over 5 years ago, when Ellen was a young lass, fresh off the bus from design school, she and I decided on a lark to check out a cocktail party a friend of a friend was hosting at someone else’s home/studio. The impetus for the drinks? Get together and talk about being a graphic designer.

Little did I know then how much these drinks around the corner would change my life.

Read More

Most New Yorkers get our news from our beloved local news station, NY1. What it lacks in slickness compared to network news, it more than makes up for in depth and breadth with a focus on local events and happenings.

Our call for plastic bag donations for our 2663 Urban Tumbleweeds project got the attention of Stephanie Simon, NY1′s arts reporter, and she came out to our studio the other day to interview Sheri and I as we prepare to pack everything off to Burning Man.

Amazingly, the two-minute segment has been on a continual feed throughout the weekend. The best part is that the underlying message of our piece (reduce, reuse, recycle) has reached so many New Yorkers.

Click the image above to watch the video, or read a transcript of the segment here.