New York - The Big Apple; The Capital of the World; The City that Never Sleeps, Gotham, The Empire City. Known by these or by any other names, New York City simply buzzes. And buzzes, it sure does well, with yellow taxi cabs, fashion, movies, the arts and lives seeking new lives with the mantra to reach for the stars, and find themselves in the process, in this city.

"You come to New York to find the ambiance that will evoke your best. You do not necessarily know precisely what that might be, but you come to New York to discover it." - Dr. James Hillman

Truly, New York is the city of dreams and freedom, filled with the freedom to dream, with Lady Liberty, a beloved monument, and a constant symbol of freedom to the world, holding up her torch and welcoming visitors, immigrants, and returning Americans traveling by ship with the inscription:

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed,
sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles.

From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome;
her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips.

"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore."

"Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

This diversity of welcoming freedom is evident; with its mark in the arts and design field, the political point of view, and the mixture of them both, where art and design meets and melds together seamlessly with politics.

Creative Buzz

The New York chapter of the American Institute of Graphic Arts, also known as AIGA, which was founded in 1914 and has since been a professional organization for design, is the focal point where both practicing professionals in the industry as well as students can come together and attend workshops and events that inspire and allow for better appreciation of design, as well as individual growth in the design field.

Helmed by the eminently respected Richard Grefe, the New York chapter of AIGA is one of the most influential chapters in the country.

New York is also home to the world-renowned Pentagram design studio, which has offices in London, San Fancisco, Austin and Berlin, providing design services covering a wide cross-disciplinary spectrum of the design field that includes graphics, identiy, architecture, interiors, and products since 1979. Currently, Pentagram's New York office has 7 partners that include James Biber, Michael Bierut, Paula Scher, Michael Gericke, Abbot Millar, Luke Hayman and Lisa Strausfeld.

New York based award organisations for the creative industry number many, including the One Club, the Clios, the Lucies, New York Festivals , the Webbys and the Art Directors Club - all of which recognize and celebrate the excellence in the creative industry for as long as modern history can remember.

With various different categories setting new heights for creative excellence every year, the local creative scene can only be pushed to greater heights as the years go by.

Museums

The Big Apple is rich in its museum culture, but the Metropolitan Museum of the Arts is possibly its most famous.

With a permanent collection containing more than two million works of art, divided into nineteen curatorial departments, the Metropolitan Museum of the Arts houses art works from Africa, Columbia, Egypt, just to name drop a few; as well as, instruments, music playing, furniture, paintings and jewelry.

The large, grandiose building is located on the eastern edge of Central Park, another icon of New York - along what is affectionately known as the "Museum Mile".

Nearer downtown is the more eclectic but wildly popular Museum of Modern of Art, located between the fifth and sixth avenues, priding itself on placing emphasis on developing, exhibiting and collecting important modernist art collections, and hence identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world.

Its successors spring far and many, but the New York version of MoMA is widely believed to be its most extensive and popular museum still.

One recent exhibition that was held to great critical acclaim by the MoMA in 2008 was entitled “Design and the Elastic Mind”.

An exhibition that dealt with the issues and the relationship between design and science, it featured objects, projects and concepts from the minds of designers, scientist and brought visitors a view of what it would be like fusing the minds of geniuses and the possible future, toying with the notion of the pragmatic and the provocative.

This particular exhibition was well received by both the general public and creative industry alike, and has been touted as one of the most significant design exhibitions in recent memory.

Of noteworthy mention also is the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, which holds the distinct honor of being the only museum in the United States with a sole focus on collections of design.

Aside from presenting permanent collections and travelling exhibitions, the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum also presents the annual National Design Awards, which covers seven official design fields such as: Architecture Design, Communications Design, Fashion Design, Interior Design, Interaction Design, Landscape Design as well as Product Design.

Ultimately, the aim for the annual Natioanl Design Awards is to celebrate and promote the achievements of innovative designs from different fields, which ties in perfectly with what the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum is all about.

Fashion Runway

Project Runway was fashion's answer to the frenzy string of reality shows being churned out relentlessly in recent years.

One commonly featured location within the hugely popular series fronted by Heidi Klum and Tim Gunn was Parson's New School for Design in New York - the very school that has paved the road for huge movers and shakers in the fashion world.

With a glamorous list that includes Donna Karan, Tom Ford, Doo-Ri Chung and Marc Jacobs, just to name a few in the world of fashion, it is no wonder Parson's New School for Design is one of the most sought-after New York fashion and design school for promising younger designers.

There is certainly no shortage of contenders all vying to be next in line for a start to a runway shaking career in the extremely fast-paced world of fashion where as Heidi Klum would say, “one day you're in, and the next, you're out"!
Of course, Parson's New School for Design in New York didn't establish its reputation based on fashion alone, as clearly seen within the whole pool of talents who have made an impact in the creative world, like Joel Schumacher, Rob Zombie, Brian Wood, Steven Miesel and Stewart Shining, covering the fields of movie making, graphic illustration and photography.

Design + Political View + Art - Heralding in the Future

While the world was busy congratulating newly-minted US President Barack Obama, the art and design world was having a field day with the long, rewarding journey that culminated in Obama being sworn in to the presidency - led by its natural leader, New York.

A shining example of this can be seen in aspects of design firm, Drainage Ditch's Andrew Sloat and his short film inspired by the Polling Place Photo Project, which was staged in partnership with The New York Times and AIGA, as a medium to visualize democracy in action with photographs by citizens engaged with voting at the polls.

Another good example of New York's rising role as the leader of Obama-influenced creativity can be seen when Danziger Projects' Can & Did, Graphics, Art, and Photography from the Obama Campaign, working Lance Wyman, looks at the numerous and varied examples of the inspired visual work that have appeared during the 2008 US presidential elections.

Throughout the whole campaign period, any casual Web observer will note how online political banner ads played a major role in the landscape of the virtual online world.

Some of them bore the official logos and graphic identities of the major campaigns, while others cobbled typography of web-marketing firms and pushed a political stand, movement and statement with graphics and media connectivity.

With optimism and hope being two very positive traits carrying over from the campaign/election afterglow and infiltrating into mainstream creative consciousness, one can only watch with bated breath to see how creative trends pick up from there - and remember, you saw it all here first in New York.


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TRAVEL ALBUM: DESIGN CITY publishes the essential photography subjects of a city. As they say, architecture landmarks denote the progressing development of a city. Design in each and every city speaks in different languages and dances to different cultures. A lot of cities are growing in the design realm but no one would know about this development but the travelers and the locals themselves. Only. The exciting quirks and electrifying eccentricity of Everyday Product, Design Schools, Designers, Resources, Hotels/Buildings, Design Studios/Personalities, Local Galleries, Museums, etc, are found in both secret and obvious places of the city.

We miss out on these simple things during travel or simply during our busy lifestyle in our own city. So the next time you travel, think of TRAVEL ALBUM: DESIGN CITY.


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