There’s no shortage of inspiration when you live in a city that celebrates beauty and revels the grotesque. Today’s highlight captures the natural colors around town that can be used as a source of inspiration.  From Vutera’s speakeasy neon lighting in Williamsburg, Brooklyn to this glass mosaic on New York City’s newest elevated park, The Highline, summer’s color combos are just as vibrant in nature as they are in city dwelling.

This wall in Brooklyn speaks  to several months of messaging.  Once symbolic of a crumbling part of town, imagery such as this now serves as marketing inspiration for retailers such as Barneys and Urban Outfitters.  Veering away from the grunge factor, this doorbell and name plate from San Francisco’s Russian Hill district, is both an amusing display of typography and a beautiful [...]

Windows are symbolic of many things.  For the poetic bunch, they emote hope and a one way ticket to the soul.  For the voyeuristic crowd, each window reveals a hidden story emerging at sunset.   In recent months, window patterns have been popping up throughout textile and home categories. UK designer James Nash conveys this through his t-shirt graphic entitled House, where type and structure become one.  Illustrating a curious overview of an apartment building at dusk, fellow Brit, Peter Jensen brilliantly merges upscale fashion with the banalities of daily life.

During a trending trip to Silverlake, I encountered a playful wall of Monsieura lollipop creepers along Hollywood Blvd.  This is a personal term I coined for these lanky, top-heavy, shoe-wearing graffiti characters.  At first glance these illustrations are quite mischievious, with their eerily toothy smiles and asymmetrical eyeballs.  The only neutralizing features are the energetic legs and accompanying footwear.  A parralleling and more commercial take on these long-legged strollers appears splashed across a whateverittakes bag at Urban Outfitters.  Another example of art imitating life.