Creative Direction/Design/Project Management/Event Management
Once upon a time, NYC Parks’ standard playground design included animal sculptures, much to the delight of the city’s children. Today, the sculptures are no longer part of the agency’s standard, but instead of eliminating them from our parks entirely, we saw an opportunity: why not create a new space that would honor their decades of dedicated civil service?
For this creative reuse project, I worked with public engagement coordinator Jennifer Graeff to lead the development of a new retirement home in Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens for six worn but beloved animal sculptures, which had been stored in various Parks facilities across the city after their removal from playgrounds.
Working closely with Parks’ operations, capital, horticulture, and Queens borough teams over several years, we selected the site, vetted the concept with the community, developed architectural plans, and coordinated the installation of benches, accessible paths, plantings, signage, and, of course, the elephant, aardvark, frog, camel, and two dolphins.
Fittingly, we held a retirement party for our esteemed colleagues to commemorate this new phase of life, complete with party hats, gold watches, and an enormous sheet cake. We wish the animals all the best as they enjoy a well-deserved rest, and hope that the New Yorkers who grew up with them will spend time in this beautiful new space, sharing memories with their dear old friends.
The Home for Retired Playground Animals was named one of the Top Reasons to Love New York Right Now in their December 4-17, 2023 issue!
Press
New York Magazine
Creative Direction/Project Management
NYC Parks was approached by the Poetry Society of America with the idea of expanding the reach of poetry to public spaces in New York City. We were excited to encourage parkgoers to pause, contemplate, and see their everyday spots in a new light. Thus, Park Poems was born.
Graphic designer Ralph Emrick and I collaborated with Parks’ operations teams to identify appropriate locations for the poems to live (one in each borough), then worked with the Poetry Society to select poems that would enhance the space. We then developed site-responsive designs for five poems, unveiling them in April 2023 to align with National Poetry Month.
And of course, we couldn’t pass up the chance to create our own Parks-specific magnetic poetry sets, which included the obvious (tree, bench, bicycle) and the less so (sploot—look it up)!
PRESS:
Art Direction/Design/Project Management/Copywriting
Fort Tryon is a complex and special place — it offers jaw-dropping views of the Hudson, winding pathways that let you forget you’re in the city, and the last vestiges of the historic Billings estate, not to mention the Cloisters. In an effort to give more personality to the park (spoiler alert: it’s sassy and bilingual) and add surprise and delight to the visitor experience, public engagement coordinator Jennifer Graeff and I worked with the park administrator and local parkgoers to better understand Fort Tryon — how it’s used, what corners of it are often overlooked, and what secrets it might share, given the chance. We then drafted, produced, and installed signs throughout the park that invited parkgoers to see this space with fresh eyes and engage with it in a new way.
Once the signs were installed, we were thrilled to watch as visitors captured their own moments with each one and shared them on social media.
PRESS:
CBS
Our amazing installation team at work!
Being interviewed by the inimitable Roger Clark on NY1!
Art Direction/Design/Project Management/Copywriting/Onsite Installation and Painting
NYC Parks operates more than 50 free public pools across the city, many of which hadn't been upgraded in decades. In an effort to breathe new life into these spaces and improve the poolgoing experience for New Yorkers, Parks’ Cool Pools project reimagined 16 intermediate-size pools as urban resorts: our design team, operations crew, and architects lowered fences, incorporated new furniture and plantings, and introduced a more vibrant, welcoming aesthetic throughout. The agency also introduced new on-deck programming, including free fitness classes and games.
On the design side, graphic designer Stephanie Venegas and I developed a visual identity and language that focused on beating the heat—on a 90-degree day in New York City, “you’re getting cooler” is a welcome message, in this case flanked by popsicles, polar bears, and other similarly chilly imagery. We then took this kit of parts and applied it to each pool deck via paint and banners. In addition to the pool decks themselves, we also created the requisite Cool Pools marketing materials and giveaways, including hand fans, totes, staff uniforms, and local advertising.
Once the project was in motion, we found that pool attendance had increased at the new sites over the previous year. But the more important feedback was anecdotal: Folks in Staten Island had started referring to West Brighton Pool as "the resort," and visitors were asking how much it cost to get into Douglass and Degraw Pool in Brooklyn—the highest praise of all for a free public amenity.
PRESS:
a triumphant pose after several days of taping and painting staircase letters
Art Direction/Design
Following an unprecedented influx of deer from New Jersey to Staten Island, the City of New York established Wildlife NYC to raise awareness of and encourage coexistence with animals across the five boroughs. The multi-agency project included developing a website where New Yorkers can report wildlife sightings, along with hosting hundreds of educational workshops. The city also began the process of vasectomizing deer in order to reduce their proliferation in Staten Island.
To support these efforts, our design team (including graphic designers Ava Chong and Stephanie Venegas) developed a visual identity for the project as well as writing and designing an out-of-home media campaign that likened wildlife to human New Yorkers: We're all self-sufficient and well-equipped to find our own brunch, our own transportation, and our own homes, however tiny. Through this lens, we also spread more specific messages: don’t feed animals, check for ticks, slow down to avoid deer collisions, and consider deer-resistant plantings to avoid landscaping headaches.
Ultimately, the ad campaigns generated 669,186,800 media
impressions, and the WildlifeNYC website received 51,132 page views, reaching over 18,000 visitors.
Design/Project Management
For the past several years, NYC Parks has been overhauling its signage across the city, streamlining content and design as well as reducing sign clutter at each property. The goal: Make parks more visually welcoming and professional, and create greater clarity around their rules and hours. Internally, we’ve also developed a robust system that ensures we know which signs are posted in which parks and how to replace them efficiently.
Working with a team that included legal, parks enforcement, operations, marketing, and our in-house sign shop, I've developed a design system for all sign types, including consolidated rules, warnings, wayfinding, and interpretive signage.
The focus here is as much on content as design. Each facility type—a barbecue area, boat launch, or dog run, for example—has its own set of rules, which we’ve reviewed in exacting detail, then translated into 12 different languages. The permutations are seemingly endless, but ensuring the signs are customized for the spaces and communities they serve is well worth the effort. We also regularly manage incoming requests from individual parks for specific one-off signs, as each space’s needs and challenges are unique.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, signage became even more critical, as Parks needed to relay ever-changing information about safety and closures during a tumultuous time. This involved developing and posting signs at our beaches, playgrounds, and basketball courts, in addition to designing a 6-foot-long sign to clearly indicate the distance park users should keep from one another.
Art Direction/Design/Event Management
What better way to mark the 50th anniversary of public art in NYC Parks than a celebration inspired by art "happenings" of the '60s? The daylong festival in Central Park featured a sculpture garden, performances, workshops, and installations, including a raucous assembly of Sing for Hope pianos and a polar-bear-as-life-drawing activity (my personal favorite). I developed the branding and collateral for the event, including printed materials, digital advertisements, wayfinding, and merchandise, using an archival “happening” image and bold stacked type as the focus.
Art Direction/Design/Event Management
Stumble onto Street Games in Thomas Jefferson Park in Harlem and you'll find a new generation discovering classic stoop-ready pastimes—stickball, skully, and double dutch among them. The Disney-sponsored festival takes place every spring, with the goal of getting kids outside, connecting the community to NYC Parks’ resources, and preserving New York City traditions. I developed the event branding, which highlighted the individual activities and used a black-and-white photo approach to add a vintage touch.
Copywriting, Project Management, Design
When I started doing design work for NYC Parks, our visual brand standards were solidly established. However, it wasn't quite as clear what we sounded like as an agency—an equally crucial part of our identity. To remedy this, I convened the top communicators across the organization to share the different types of messages they created, and together, we examined the through lines: What did we sound like naturally? Who were we on our best day? What pitfalls did we come across when we spoke and wrote?
NYC Parks' Voice and Tone Guidelines were born from this initial meeting, which was followed by a year of ongoing conversations with a smaller working group that hammered out the finer details: basic writing guidelines, countless examples of our voice in action, and an exacting style guide that set the record straight on many a verbal stumbling block.
We designed the guidelines, created a set of illustrations to accompany them, and developed an interactive workshop to introduce the guidelines to the broader agency, which has now become part of Parks' standard training curriculum.
Art Direction, Design, Illustration, Copy Editing
One Day Magazine, which is issued four times a year to TFA alumni, focuses on issues of educational equity—including topics like diversity, measuring teacher success, and the complexity of charter networks.
For each issue, I worked closely with two editors on every detail of the book: discussing the content, hammering out the best ways to visualize each story, sourcing, hiring, and art directing illustrators and photographers from across the country—and, of course, designing, writing headlines, and copy editing every page.
Art direction of Alex Nabaum's illustration, which showcases the ongoing challenge of evaluating teachers.
Readers had the opportunity to ask Teach For America founder Wendy Kopp their most burning questions on the eve of the organization's 20th anniversary. Photo by J.C. Bourcart.
Art direction for a series of profiles of the winners of Teach For America's Alumni Awards for excellence in teaching. Photos by Noah Rabinowitz.
Design for a story detailing the tenuous relationship between a much-beloved but failing New Orleans school and a new charter that began sharing its space after Hurricane Katrina; the grid of images showcased its vibrant history.
Illustration for a story about dwindling resources for arts education programs.
Illustration for a story about the ongoing evolution of Teach For America's diversity training program.
Illustration introducing a series of profiles of education-reform advocates.
Illustration for a story that compiled predictions about the future of education legislation.
Art Direction/Design/Illustration/Copy Editing/Writing
I spent several years developing editorial designs for the Concord Monitor in Concord, N.H., focusing specifically on the weekend and entertainment sections. Samples include features on new cocktail recipes, an upcoming appearance by zombie maestro George Romero, a playful reaction to a local uproar over grinding at high school dances, and a compilation of less-than-romantic Valentine’s Day tales.
A selection of illustrations using found objects, cut paper, and hand-drawn elements.
Spot illustration for a story that compiled predictions about the future of education legislation. (One Day Magazine)
For a story about the ongoing evolution of Teach For America's diversity training program. (One Day magazine)
For a series of profiles of education-reform advocates. (One Day magazine)
For a story about dwindling resources for arts education programs. (One Day magazine)
One of a series of anti-bullying posters for classroom use, distributed to teachers through Teach For America's partnership with The Trevor Project.
