Samurai in New York \\ EXHIBITION DESIGN
On view at the Museum of the City of New York, Samurai in New York celebrates the exchange of ideas between two cultures when a delegation of samurai came from Japan to visit America in 1860. PS was hired to develop branding materials and environmental graphics that would reflect the character and spirit of this historical event. Inspired by this dialogue between the 2 cultures, PS created a red band and black band wrap the perimeter of the exhibit, at points overlapping and passing through each other. The original objects are available for intimate viewing through a series of Japanese inspired tables and screens. Each object or series of objects are contained in vitrines of varying heights, mounted on the tables in a simple, direct presentation intended to contrast the more ornate architecture of the museum itself. The New York Times hails Samurai as one of those "exhibitions at the Museum of the City of New York that delivers more than you'd expect. In this case it offers a fascinating look at how different societies responded to 19-century stirrings of globalization."
ELENI'S NEW YORK \\ RETAIL SIGNAGE
When Eleni was looking to clarify the retail experience for their Chelsea Market and the Upper East Side customer, she reached out to PS to develop their exterior and interior signage. PS extended the branding while clarifying unique purchasing opportunities (create your own cookie and cupcakes) that were not easily accessible to the consumer. PS continues to work with Eleni on merchandising and seasonal signage.
NNY6: THE CITY WE IMAGINED, THE CITY WE MADE \\ EXHIBITION DESIGN
When the Architectural League of New York hired PS and Moorhead & Moorhead to design an exhibit which examines development in New York City over the past decade, there were two major challenges: an undetermined location and the need to tell a complicated story with a limited budget. To address the first a flexible display system of cardboard panels was developed to organize the two main elements of the exhibit: a timeline documenting the events of the past ten years, and a collection of 1,000 photographs taken by a volunteer corps of architects. The panel's radius edges and basic plywood clips allowed it to be configured on-site once a location was found. To reduce cost, final graphic content for the show was generated in-house by the client, the Architectural League of New York, formatted on a series of pre-designed templates and printed in-house. A color coded system of paper was developed to allow the viewer to intuitively absorb shifts in development patterns over the 10 year period covered in the timeline. PS also developed a website to provide more a in-depth understanding of the changes during that period. The exhibition ran for two months in a storefront in Soho as well as Governor's Island and attracted urban planners, city officials and interested citizens.
Charles Addams' New York \\ EXHIBITION DESIGN
The challenge in branding an artist's exhibition is to capture the essence of the artist in the identity, marketing material and exhibition design. PS met this challenge in the Charles Addams' New York exhibition by celebrating his signature macabre characters, twisted situations, and distorted re-imaginings of the cityscape through an innovative use of custom wallpaper featuring this work. The viewer is encouraged to enter the exhibit by a wall size poster of a hand beckoning you into the space. This playful, mischevious spirit of the work is reflected in the space. As visitors turn corners and walk through doors they are surprised by large scale vinyl characters from the illustrations that seem to jump out of the drawings and onto the wall. The New York Times praised the exhibition as in keeping with Charles Addams and his ability to make the "illicit an enchanting, almost whimsical aspect of daily life".
CONTEXT\CONTRAST \\ EXHIBITION DESIGN
The exhibit Context\Contrast, at the Center for Architecture, examines new architecture in historic districts from 1967-2009. PS collaborated with architecture and industrial design firm, Moorhead & Moorhead, to develop the exhibition design. Playing off the main theme of the show, Context\Contrast, the exhibition design was organized around the principle of layering-one image or piece of content (context) overlaying another image or piece of content (contrast). This concept started into the logo and was further developed with the print material and exhibition graphics.
ANIMAL ESTATES \\ EXHIBITION DESIGN
Animal Estates, an on-going collaboration with artist and architect Fritz Haeg, is a traveling exhibition that creates model dwellings for animals in the urban landscape. The work has been exhibited in various museums and institutions such as the Whitney Biennial, SF Moma, Casco Office of Art and Design in Utrecht. Working closely with the artist, PS developed the graphic system that gives an identity and environment to each of the animal clients and individual city where the projects occur.
VERT \\ STORE DISPLAY AND INTERIOR DESIGN
With a vision for what Vert could be, the store's owner contacted PS to help her turn this dream into a reality. The work began by researching the retail landscape of Los Angeles, crafting a strategic positioning/mission, logo and brand voice for the store and ultimately ended in a collaboration between the architects and PS on various aspects of the interior design of the store itself.
ECOTONES \\ EXHIBITION DESIGN
Commissioned by the Center for Architecture and curated by landscape architect Tricia Martin, ECOTONES examines transition zones between adjacent ecosystems. Based on the theme of transitional spaces, PS developed the logo, signage and environmental graphics reinforcing this idea. PS collaborated with architecture firm Moorhead & Moorhead on all aspects of the exhibition.
EUDORA WELTY \\ EXHIBITION DESIGN
This exhibit of Eudora Welty's photographs, at the Museum of the City of New York, captures America in the depths of the Great Depression, while revealing the compassion and sensitivity that became hallmarks of her writing. PS developed the graphic identity, exhibition design and the print material that accompanied the exhibit.