Create! Don’t Hate, an initiative of Design Ignites Change, is taking place in cities all across the United States.

Six students from New York City’s High School of Art and Design are being given an opportunity that many designers only dream of – their designs will be featured on Clear Channel’s “Spectacolor HD” digital billboard in Times Square. The billboards were created as part of Create! Don’t Hate., a Design Ignites Change mentoring initiative. Professional designers from the mentoring program of the New York chapter of AIGA worked with students from the High School of Art and Design to create billboard designs addressing the theme of tolerance.

The final student designs address a wide variety of issues such as gay rights, racism and body image. Over the course of two months, the mentors led students through the design process – from brainstorming and sketching to producing the final designs on the computer. Twenty-two students participated, with six of the designs ultimately chosen for display in Times Square on prime advertising space made available through a partnership with Clear Channel Spectacolor.

The winning billboard designs will be unveiled on Spectacolor HD during a launch event at the corner of Broadway and 47th Street on July 6th starting at 10:15 am. The mentors, project coordinators and representatives from Worldstudio and Clear Channel Spectacolor, along with the general public, are invited to celebrate with the students and their families. Additionally, all twenty-two designs will be displayed in an exhibition at the AIGA National Design Center Gallery (164 Fifth Avenue, between 21st and 22nd Streets) through July 22nd.

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

Banner designs left to right by Number 17, David Slatoff, Carin Goldberg, Marian Bantjes, Paul Sahre & James Victore

The successful love banner campaign that debuted last February is coming to Times Square again just in time for Valentine’s Day. Worldstudio worked with the Times Square Alliance to create a public art project featuring fifteen unique banner designs by eleven reknowned graphic designers and illustrators: Marian Bantjes, Rodrigo Corral, John Fulbrook, Goodesign, Carin Goldberg, Number 17, Paul Sahre, David Slatoff, James Victore, Chip Wass and Worldstudio. Each banner utilizes the word “LOVE” in a strikingly different typographic treatment.

Visit the crossroads of the world during the month of February to see the banners in person or click here to view all the designs on the Times Square Alliance website.

Banner designs by Nina Mettler, Worldstudio

Banner design by Chip Wass