MSLK Turns 14!

This month marks the beginning of MSLK’s 14th year of doing business. When I think about all the things that have happened during that time, I’m astounded. We’ve watched the rise of the internet and the burst of the .com bubble — and NYC rebuild itself from the darkest days of 9/11.  We’ve witnessed Apple simultaneously demonstrate the power design can bring to a brand while also making the tools used to create design accessible to anyone. We transitioned from Quark to InDesign. The humble telephone has morphed into an invaluable tool giving us real-time updates of everything imaginable, ensuring work never stops. We reveled in the transformation Flash brought to online experiences, and continue to transition as Steve Jobs’s personal vendetta brings Flash to its knees. Depending on who you ask, we’ve weathered at-least two recessions and watched the boom of design on a global scale.

I feel incredibly blessed to have made it this far. We couldn’t have done it without our amazing, trusting, and visionary clients who believe in us. Or the talented designers, developers, copywriters,  illustrators, marketers, photographers, printers, stylists, and other business consultants who have made our work come alive.

The first true MSLK project was a collaboration between Marc and I for an event called “Tastings,” a benefit for The Momentum Aids Project, an organization that provides food and support for people in New York City with AIDS. MSLK developed the branding for the event, the advertisements which ran in everything from The Voice, to The New York Times, as well as the programs and promotions on site. We even managed to rope-in our good friend, illustrator Aaron Meshon, for some wonderful pen + ink illustrations.

The event featured food from 32 of NYC’s top restaurants. Attendees could go around the event discovering restaurants, sampling key dishes, all while bidding on hand painted plates by local artists and other goods in a silent auction. As a recent transplant to NYC, I was excited to sample the Big Apple’s finest fare and enjoyed kibitzing with Fred Schneider of the B52s while we bid against each other in the auction.

After the event, Marc and I were smitten, being in business for ourselves was surely where we wanted to be and working together was destined to produce many more exciting adventures, and beautiful results. Fourteen years later, I still agree.