Noble Signs is a company founded with the intention of keeping the vernacular lettering styles of the New York City streetscape alive. As the co-owner and Creative Director, I have been using our branding, collateral, and signage as a testing ground for custom lettering and display typeface designs for the last decade.
Album and single artwork for
Curren$y, “Pilot Talk,” 2010
Bluroc Records/Def Jam Recordings
Art Direction, Illustration, and Graphic Design
Ace’s Pizza was conceived in 2019 and opened at the end of 2020. I was involved from its inception as the brand designer, developing the identity and collateral designs, including the signage which Noble Signs then produced. I tried to limit all typography in this project to block and modular alphabets. The unique up-shading on “Pizza” was influenced by an old painted tire shop sign near our Brooklyn studio.
My mom and her family are from the Bronx, and I grew up visiting my grandparents near Van Cortland Park. My maternal great-grandfather was a sign painter and cartoonist who immigrated to the Bronx from Poland. So I feel a deep connection to the area and there are a few spots I frequent when I am up there. One of my favorites is Joe's Italian Deli. I approached them last year about redesigning their storefront and signage. The project consisted of replacing their generic awning with hand-made, fabricated dimensional letter topsign, and a full storefront window treatment including completely hand-drawn lettering, drawn with grease pencils on the outside of the glass and painted in reverse on the inside in the traditional fashion.
We were approached by Callicoon Hills and the design studio Post Company to create the signage for their new boutique hotel. There was a large amount of wayfinding signage that had been laid out in a grotesk typeface, with references requesting the lettering artist to try to emulate the style of hand-painted 20th century camp and park ground signage. Because of the volume of pieces, instead of drawing each sign out individually I opted to create an original typeface based off of my block lettering, which was then used to lay out the production files for the project. I’ve developed two weights of this font and have continued to refine and re-use it on several projects since.
For our second semester of the Type@Cooper Extended program, our assignment was to create an original text typeface, with an intended purpose in mind. I chose to create a typeface for packaging of traditional food items. The typeface aims to fit within the story of the American immigrant experience, tracing the arc of Jewish families like my own who moved from the old country to the new world, and the collision of European ideals with American realities that awaited them when they arrived in New York City.
Still a work in progress, the translation contrast typeface currently has a full character set in one weight, including diacritics, Central European glyphs, currency and math symbols. In progress are bold and italic versions, as well as a set of Hebrew glyphs.
At the beginning of 2020 Harry’s Razors approached me to create print designs for their limited edition Veteran’s Day box, which ultimately became a virtual campaign as a result of supply chain issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic. I chose to take influence from classic showcard designs, specifically the layouts of H.C. Martin, to create an emotive but restrained look appropriate for the subject. The typography was completely drawn by hand with Speedball pens and a flat brush, scanned, and then vectorized to create the final art.
Edition of 60, 2018
7 Color Hand-pulled Screenprint with Split Fountain
Printed at Kingsland Printing, Brooklyn NY
In the spring of 2011, Dave Chang and I had the idea to offer high-quality, curated vintage clothing in an art gallery setting. After a couple months of preparation and sourcing, Local 172 was born. It was instantly received with open arms within the world of fashion and high society. The pop-ups ran weekly at the Dash Gallery in Tribeca with great success, and Dave and I were featured in Vogue, NY Times, and T Style Magazine for our efforts.
Design, Branding, and Illustration
Lower East Side fried chicken restaurant.
Logo, business card, website, and menu designs, as well as custom artwork for the interior of the space including an illustrated lightbox and handprinted curtains.
Art exhibition
Poppington Gallery, Lower East Side, 2015
Works in enamel paint and light
This was the first poster I was ever commissioned to work on (thanks Joe Ahearn), and I'm still proud of it. Years later, Future Islands remains a vital band that I'm still interested in and I hope to work with again. And it was at the Silent Barn selling these posters where I met Ariel Panero, founder of LAMC, who ended up connecting me with countless other musicians.
Edition of 50, 2018
Giclee Print
The sequel to the Pilot Talk I cover, this vector illustration depicts the Pilot's dream home, a suped-up 70's mansion with "vintage egg-chairs" hanging from the ceiling. Created with input from Curren$y, Ski Beatz, and the Senseis. I tried to pay homage to "Where's Waldo" and another great kid's book I had, the name of which I can't recall...
Curating this art show was an honor, considering the talent involved. Quality of Life featured artworks by Pixote, Sabio, Beau, Phil, Womp, Jim Joe, and Katsu, some of the best young street-artists in New York City. Our exhibit covered three stories and featured a robust collection of works on canvas, as well as an impressive installation by Katsu and Jim Joe. We handprinted a line of t-shirts to go along with the opening.
This high-concept album cover illustration was created in collaboration with Murs himself over many sessions at Ski Beatz' Greenpoint apartment. An alien race crashes into the ocean, evolving from fish to humanoids as the banks of the shore. Murs is a big supported of comic artists and he showed it with his appreciation for this cover.
Spectrum is the solo project of Sonic Boom, guitarist for the legendary outfit Spacemen 3. I designed these limited edition silkscreens for his 2009 show at Death By Audio, inspired by the pinups of Patrick Nagel.
Out of our love for classic New York signage, Mac Pohanka and I created Noble Signs.
Check out our website for more information.
LAMC was the brainchild of Ariel Panero, the late, great show promoter who made his indelible mark on the NYC underground music scene despite checking out way too early. These posters were the beginning of our working relatiionship, they are still some of my favorites. The razorblade print was 3 color with reflective vinyl on the blade.
RIP Ariel
Design, Branding, and Signage
Super Power, Brooklyn NY
www.noblesigns.com
To inaugurate the opening of the new Knitting Factory in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, we were commissioned to create these three color silkscreen posters for their very first show featuring Les Savy Fav. Hair is everywhere in this design which presents an interesting origin for the Knitting Factory logo.
Poppington is Damon Dash's downtown art gallery, located at 60 Orchard Street in the Lower East Side. I developed the brand identity including the logo and have curated 5 major exhibitions there. Poppington has been featured in Details Magazine, Complex Magazine, and The Daily News, and has collaborated with brands including Heineken, Adidas, Karmaloop, and Montana.
Bun came by the Dojo to share some tracks from his new album "Trill OG" for a select few DD172 family at Under 100. Adidas sponsored the event and hooked everybody up with free kicks. We hand-silkscreened these posters as a way to say thanks and gave them out to guests.
It was great sharing an office with Coodie and Chike of Creative Control. I designed this poster for them to commemorate all the awesome things they were involved with during their first year or so of existence. Featuring Jay Electronica, the Black Keys, the Cool Kids, McKenzie Eddy, Wiz Khalifa, Curren$y, Ski Beatz, Mos Def, Chanel Iman, and more.