The banners were turned into totebags by Urban Samaritan

Every year the Union Square Partnership installs new banners for the winter/holiday season to promote the district surrounding Union Square Park. Worldstudio works with the USP throughout the year on a wide variety of materials from event collateral for Summer in the Square and Harvest in the Square to promotional coupon books to email campaigns.

For the past several years when the winter banners are taken down, instead of being disposed of, they are repurposed into totebags and given away at the following years’ annual USP holiday party. The bags are made by Urban Samaritan, a local nonprofit that uses the proceeds from the up-cycled products to support homeless and in-need citizens in New York.

The bright colors and large typographic messages from the 2010 banners made eye-catching totebags that we are proud to carry!

Union Square Partnership 2010 holiday banner designs

On Thursday, September 22nd, over 1,200 foodies attended the 16th annual Harvest in the Square. Featuring more than 50 restaurants and 40 wineries, Union Square Partnership raised $326,000 to benefit Union Square Park.

This was the second year Worldstudio developed the theme and did the event graphics for Harvest in the Square. The approach for 2011 drew inspiration from vintage fruit crate labels. The illustrator, Jon Lund, was hired to help realize our vision of the park pavillion as an iconic monument with apples representing New York, and the local food and grapes, representing the wine. With these elements in hand we designed everything from lightpole banners, postcards, invitations and email campaigns to promote the event and tshirts, signage in the event tent and actual crate labels for the day of festivities.

We were flattered to receive several beaming emails from our clients after the event, “Thanks for coming up with such a great concept, I wanted to make use of the Pavilion in a meaningful way and your concept was beyond what I had hoped for.” / “I hope your ears were ringing because guests were raving to me about the graphic design work this year.”

It was a great event and we were happy to help make Harvest in the Square such a success for the second year in a row!

The identity is built from a suite of icons that form the four main areas the program addresses: Healthy Homes, Water, Energy and Recycling.

Enterprise is a leading provider of the development capital and expertise it takes to create decent, affordable homes and rebuild communities. Their Green Communities‘ initiatives provides funds and expertise to enable developers to build and rehabilitate homes that are healthier, more energy efficient and better for the environment – without compromising affordability. Enterprise is the nationwide leader in the area of green affordable housing and has made it a mandate that nearly all of their homes will comply to green standards by 2015.

To initiate the project Worldstudio developed a “Green & Healthy” umbrella brand with applications for manuals, PowerPoint presentations, training materials and collateral. In addition, Worldstudio is offering strategic planning and content development for various aspects of this comprehensive program. The goal is to make affordable housing not only healthy and green but to engender a sustainable sense of community among the developers, management staff and residents.

Manuals and training materials are aimed at developers, staff and residents.

PowerPoint presentations are used in workshops for developers, staff and residents.

left: Posters in a number of languages engage residents to participate in an energy study. right: The Green Leader Icon, a symbol for an initiative initially conceived by students in Worldstudio's Impact! Design for Social Change program. The Be A Green Leader initiative engages residents in green and healthy workshops and engenders a sense of community within the building.

Worldstudio has been working with the Steinway Astoria Partnership on a new branding and messaging program including naming, logotype, stationery system, lightpole banners, bus shelter poster and most recently a custom website with robust content-management system.

Steinway Street – located in the eclectic community of Astoria, Queens has been a vibrant center of shopping for over 100 years. The street is named after the famed piano maker who still builds world-class instruments in the neighborhood. Often referred to as “The World’s Longest Department Store,” Steinway Street is currently home to 300 retailers – from old-fashioned mom-and-pop stores to regional chains.

Astoria is a thriving neighborhood and retains much of its old-New York flavor – a mix of immigrant families and recent “hipsters” who have settled in the area to avoid paying Manhattan real estate prices.

Worldstudio created a cohesive identity program to establish a presence for the business improvement district that manages Steinway Street and promotes the district as one of the more vibrant shopping areas in Queens.

Worldstudio developed a logotype reminiscent of the vernacular retail signage from the mid-20th century. The tagline “Something for Everyone” is supported in a streetscape campaign with whimsical illustrations by noted illustrator Laurie Rosenwald. The goal was to develop a visual language which made reference to the past while looking forward to the future.

Steinway totebag

Steinway lightpole banner

Steinway bus shelter poster campaign

Steinway website

Summer in the Square is the Union Square’s nine-week free entertainment program. The series, attended by thousands of families, area employees, shoppers, students and tourists, includes dynamic music and dance performances, exciting children’s programming and outdoor fitness classes.

left: Summer in the Square postcard. right: Event photo by James Worrell.

On Tuesday, September 21st, over 1,200 attendees converged on Union Square Park for the 15th annual Harvest in the Square. This year’s celebration of community and cuisine sold out in advance for the first time in event history! Featuring 60 restaurants, and 24 wineries and breweries, Union Square Partnership raised $290,000 to benefit Union Square Park.

top left: Harvest in the Square postcard. top right: Harvest in the Square credential badges. bottom left: The food and wine tasting fundraiser in Union Square Park. bottom right: Harvest in the Square anniversary logotype. Event photos by Kate Eisemann and James Worrell.

In addition to working on socially minded projects, Worldstudio executes traditional design work such as this whimsical identity for a new chain of Mexican restaurants opening in Munich, Germany in the fall of 2010. The Milagros brand captures the spirit of fresh and authentic Mexican cuisine. Worldstudio consulted on all aspects of the restaurant; from naming, logo development, business cards and packaging to concepts for the interior and furnishings.

In Spanish, milagro literally means miracle or surprise but milagro also refers to an ancient aspect of Hispanic folk culture wherein small religious charms of different shapes are offered to a saint as a reminder of a petitioner’s particular need. A popular milagro – in the shape of a heart – was adopted for the logo. This was combined with additional brand elements inspired by the Mexican folk art of papercutting. Papel picado designs are commonly cut from stacks of tissue paper using a guide and small chisels to create colorful banners.

Worldstudio worked with illustrator Hugh D’Andrade to create the flaming heart milagro logo for the restaurant as well as the custom logotype and a set of milagros symbols. Hugh also created illustrations for papel picado lampshades and ceramic floor tiles using the heart motif.

Milagros logo and temporary tattoo

Milagros symbols illustrated by Hugh D'Andrade

Milagros diecut business cards

Milagros t-shirt and chef's coat, hat and scarf

Milagros paper bags

Milagros salsa packaging

sketch of the restaurant by the interior design team

Worldstudio’s multifaceted capabilities are on display in a project with our longstanding client, the Fashion Center Business Improvement District. In addition to branding, collateral and environmental graphics, Worldstudio was instrumental in soliciting sponsors and funding for the Fashion Center’s new public art initiative, Sidewalk Catwalk.

This outdoor exhibition features over thirty mannequins creatively “dressed” by some of New York City’s top fashion designers, such as, Tommy Hilfiger, Betsey Johnson, Donna Karan, Isabel Toledo and Diane von Furstenberg. The mannequins are currently on display up and down Broadway from Times Square to Herald Square (through September 3, 2010).

Sidewalk Catwalk includes an educational component featuring mannequins dressed by fashion design students from FIT and Parsons. And, to support the next generation of artists and designers, the mannequins will be auctioned to raise money for Materials for the Arts, the largest supplier of free arts materials to New York City public schools.

Sidewalk Catwalk has already garnered media attention from The New York Times, New York Magazine, Vanity Fair, NBC, ABC, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Crain’s New York Business, Huffington Post, NY Daily News, AM New York and Women’s Wear Daily.

Sidewalk Catwalk brochure cover & t-shirt

During the opening event in Herald Square, Kenneth Cole is seen amidst the media frenzy and Tommy Hifliger's dramatic mannequin is unveiled to the public

Sidewalk Catwalk banner & plaque

from left to right Jerry Scupp and Barbara Randall from the Fashion Center BID pose with Norma Kamali's mannequin and Fern Mallis, who chaired Sidewalk Catwalk / Nanette Lepore's mannequin wears flowers that glow in the dark / The mannequins are popular with tourists as well as fashionistas

In 2007 Worldstudio designed a logo for the new Times Square Alliance’s event taking place a few days before the start of the new year. Each year Good Riddance Day has grown in popularity as people worldwide embrace the notion of documenting then destroying bad memories or artifacts from the previous year and looking forward to the future. As quoted on CNN.com Lori Raimondo, Vice President of Marketing for the Times Square Alliance, hopes that Good Riddance Day will one day become a national holiday. Watch a short video from the event on BBC News.

Worldstudio is delighted to announce that the 2010 Design Ignites Change mentoring initiative will be developed and implemented in partnership with The Designers Accord, a global coalition of designers, educators and business leaders working together to create positive environmental and social impact.

The brief or challenge will be created to address the project theme of sustainability and be multidisciplinary and multicultural, engaging a wide variety of design disciplines from around the world. This initiative is the first of its kind, unique in scope and scale around the issue of sustainability.

The project will tap into an army of creatives ready to actively focus on the complex environmental and social issues facing our world today while mentoring undeserved high school students through the design process.

To learn more about involving your school or students in Design Ignites Change, contact Mark Randall. For more information on program sponsorship, contact Andréa Pellegrino.

Current pride flag and new flag designs by Nina Mettler (middle) and Tom Koken (right).

The rainbow flag was designed in 1978 for a gay parade in San Francisco and over the last 30 years it has become the global symbol for gay pride. If the flag were designed in 2009, how would it look? Kurt Andersen of Studio 360 invited Worldstudio (as well as listeners) to come up with a 21st-century pride flag.

Studio 360 recorded the entire design process from a brainstorming session to interviewing people on the street to the final design presentation for their weekly radio show. Click below to listen to Kurt Andersen interview Mark Randall as they discuss the project and new flag designs, from modifications on the existing rainbow to DIY concepts.

See a slideshow of Worldstudio’s flag concepts or download the full PDF presentation. Over 3,000 people voted online for their favorite new pride flag design. The white flag with gradient rainbow ring was the clear winner. Isaac Mizrahi chose the winning listener submission, an American flag with only six stars representing the states that currently allow gay marriage.

The flag redesign project was written about on The Daily Heller, Core77 and in Design Week magazine. While there has been some criticism about trying to replace a historic symbol of the gay community, almost all recognize the exercise as valuable and relevant to reflect on culture and the progress of the gay movement.

For more information on this project and Worldstudio, contact Andréa Pellegrino.