The Fruit Belt Mural Project is a design based beautification movement to create a series of large-scale community driven public artworks, using creative thinking as a strategy to provide socially engaged art to transform a neighborhood that has been overtaken by blight and disinvestment.
The Fruit Belt project model is an example of affective co-design as a way to catalyze change, build social capital, and create hope with a creative environment that is more than aesthetic.
Rochester Police officers brush-up on their painting.
The Rochester Rhinos soccer team shows support for the Fruit Belt Project.
"True beauty emanates from a selfless heart" -Cristina Munoz
One little lone supporter of the project.
POST NOTES inspired by the community.
Be Happy & Dream. Words of a neighborhood resident.
Over 200 volunteers came out in support of the Fruit Belt Project's Big Paint-Out.
Words to Live By is a positive impact social awareness campaign designed to inspire individual growth. An arsenal of carefully considered, vivid typographical public murals use community-based graphic design to spur advocacy.
Quote-inspired graphic art serves as a subtle prompt to community engagement, leaving behind not only deliverable design products, but also communities that feel empowered through clear communication, imagination action.
JUST PLAY is part of a Michael Jordan quote,"Just play. Have fun. Enjoy the game" for a neighborhood playground.
"Think good and it will be good."
This design draws on the Jewish tradition to spread a universal and uplifting message to the entire community. This Chassidic mantra is translated from the Yiddish of Rabbi Menachem Mendel, and is of great meaning to the Yaras family. It is a charge to think positively about life, and thus, to reap the rewards of positive thinking.
READ These four large letters R E A D were used to to express the importance of reading.
GROW is a three dimensional mural representing community growth in the city's market district.
WANT NOT is part two of an area mural dedicated to the idea sustainability and recycling.
"Empower with faith, hope, and trust and keep reaching for those stars". Quote provided by Dazzle School of Visual & Performing Arts Executive Director . Dazzle's mission is to provide arts-with-education programs and training to those with developmental disabilities, intellectual disabilities, and mental health issues.
B the Change. This typographical mural draws from words of Mahatma Gandhi. "Be the change you wish to see in the world,"
Quote-inspired graphic art serves as a subtle prompt to community engagement, leaving behind not only deliverable design products, but also communities that feel empowered through clear communication, imagination action.
IT’S ABOUT WHAT WE CAN DO TOGETHER
Rarely is there a single answer to a seemingly complex question. Hashing out concepts and ideas with others makes the process more inclusive-which means more creativity across the board. We routinely partner with local stakeholders in socially oriented design work, to ensure that concepts and solutions are practical yet imaginative, culturally appropriate, scalable, and impactful. Communal creativity is about exploring, collaborating, and pushing boundaries of comfort -that needs not happen alone.
Photo credit: James Bogue
Community design projects are founded on the idea that community participation is essential for the design decision-making process.
One-on-one meetings with neighborhood, community, political, and business representatives; evening social events; and morning educational/networking events often support community engagement exercises.
DUNWOODĒ brings together artists, youth, and community organizations through our creative design model to use art as a tool to link personal expression to community activism for social change.
Our public art projects strive to beautify neighborhoods, visually transform public space; engage participates in societal and personal transformation.
The mission is to give expression to ideas and perspectives that are underrepresented in the public dialogue.
One of the best ways we have found to inspire creativity on a project is encouraging everyone to realize that anything is possible.
This has become a question we ask every one of our clients before we get started, “If nothing were off the table, what’d be your dream?” We help people see that nothing is crazy, so sharing their most offbeat wishes is in their best interest. We work together to find your best solution. It is amazing to see how approaching a problem from this perspective opens the mind of extraordinary people.
Photo credit: Greg Hollar
Sustainability and product design were the driving forces behind: Fruit Belt Seltzer.
Fruit belt seltzer was a product we designed understanding the resources of the neighborhood. Working with College Club Beverage we created a zero calorie sugar free seltzer.
The result: A beverage made for building. The seltzer brought new attention to the neighborhood with sales and cocktails crafted with the seltzer throughout the City of Rochester. The Fruit Belt Seltzer was a community empowerment tool for neighborhood branding, health awareness, and local vitality.
Strive to be different. If people tell you there isn’t space for an idea, service, or product, create your own category. Have the courage to step out from the crowd.
Taking a creative chance is a great opportunity to stand out and to present your brand as a leader, not a follower satisfied with the status quo.
"I'm definitely a risk taker, at the same time, I do my homework and understand the importance of implementation and follow through. Hell—you can’t just toss out a bunch of ideas without seeing the full process of a project and what the end should feel or look like." Creativity is not doing things the way they’ve been done before.
Photo credit: James Bogue
FOURWALLS Mission: to engage local, national, and international audiences with a personal understanding and enjoyment of contemporary art with an emphasis on emerging and mid career artists through exhibits, educational programs, art instruction, and youth outreach.
FOUR WALLS is committed to the process of innovation and diversity as an art and cultural source for the community.
“The future ain’t what it used to be.”- Yogi Berra.
In creative design, we are engaged not only in making things, but also in creating ideas, systems, actions, and experiences that shape our future. With a lot of hard work, a good sense of humor, and a little luck, we alter a dull moment to something unimaginable.
Our mission is never impossible. We commit to always doing what's best for the work — which means a willingness to challenge the ideas of others, to have our own ideas challenged, and to check assumptions and preconceived notions at the door.
Photo credit: Justin Michau
We understand we are not just planning an event; we are designing an original lifestyle.
Creating experiences never seen before is the challenge—and the thrill—continually producing creative, integrated designs that draw the audience in.
Our goal is to make the live experience one-of-a-kind and memorable.
The Next Green Season.
Urban innovation.
There is only one you so let’s make it personal. From a business card to a well-styled event our focus is on the genuine experience. We seek to create an authentic connection, an emotional attachment, and WOW factor that match you and company in meaningful ways.
Photo credit: James Bogue
Fashion focused design has become an inclusive and effective formula of bringing artistic expression and community connections together to create change.
Our role is creating the tailor-made visual identity and unique language for our client’s fashion events.
From the Ground: The Next Green Season Fashion Show celebrates fashion couture at its greenest.
From the Ground has woven together ecology, society, and culture to showcase, support, inspire and create innovative approaches to sustainably responsible fashion.
The Green Season’s position is to create economic and social impact in fashion through sustainable design and respect for the environment. This show takes an inventive step forward to reduce our carbon footprint one runway at a time.
The Next Green Season.
The Next Green Season.
FROM THE GROUND believes in a multifaceted approach to design and fashion in order to emphasize the concept of “urban innovation”; through education, social engagement, diverse ideas, and an eco-logically fashionable lifestyle.
This stylized production was inspired by the vivid imagery of the 1871 novel: Through the Looking Glass, written by literary artist Lewis Carroll (Alice in Wonderland).
FTG: Perspective of Time re-envisioned a parking garage into a Mad-Hatter’s visual “underland” with birdcages, feathered wings, mushrooms, butterflies, towering heels, and a center tea party table runway.
When you’re pushing boundaries through creative thinking, you’re bound to fail sometimes. That can be very uncomfortable and scary. Being a creative leader means showing how to get through those moments, recognizing being creative can be challenging but it’s not the end. Our approach is much more about the notion that the outcome is the unknown, except your level of fearless play so that you can actually get to really new places.
Photo credit: Justin Michau
