Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Pop Up Lost Weekend, NYC




New Design High School's Pop Up Shop closed this week after a very successful run at Lost Weekend, NYC coffee shop.  The shop featured student designed items including t-shirts, handbags, pillows, eye glass holders, hand made t-shirts and glassware.  Lower East Side hipsters and coffee lovers loved the gear and we are catching glimpses of the clothing all over the LES.  Congrats to all the students designers and the design department for all of the incredible work.  Deepest thanks to Rebecca Fitts from Pop Up Marketing who found the space as well as supported the Pop Up Marketing Team.  The marketing team was also supported by our Pencil Partners at Addiction Worldwide.  Operation Design and the Seward Park Alumni group for financially supporting the start up of the store.  We would also like to thank Urban Arts Partnership for their continued support.

More pop up shops are to follow in the upcoming months.  You can watch for them by following the New Design Pop Up Twitter page and Facebook page.

Maxine and Jorge



New Design High School Seniors' Maxine and Jorge in a scene from Are You Gonna Post That? from Urban Arts Partnerships Life Stories Ensemble.  Maxine and Jorge performed at UAP's Urban Arts Festival on Monday May 7th.  The Life Stories Ensemble, co-founded by the New Group and part of the Peapod Adobe Youth Voices Academy, performed to the public on April 29th at the Acorn Theater.  The one-act plays, written by professional playwrights, were developed from characters based on the people in the students lives.  This will be the last performance for Maxine and Jorge as they are both graduating in June.  Maxine has been accepted to Smith College and Jorge is headed to Laguardia Community College.  



Where the Wild Things Are


Julie's 10th Grade Design class visited PS 20, Ana Silver School, elementary school down the street to read Where the Wild Things Are to one of their 3rd grade classes.  The 3rd grade students will be writing their own wild thing stories and dropping them off to our 10th grade designers who will then create plush toys from their stories.  The Ana Silver students will be visiting New Design in a few weeks to pick up their gifts.  For most of our 10th grade students it is our first time working with a client, albeit a very small one. 



Rooftop Films and the New Design Pop Up Shop

photo via rooftopfilms.com

Rooftop Films has been showing films outdoors in some of the most stunning outdoor rooftop venues around NYC for the past 16 years. One of those rooftops is right here at New Design High School Rooftop for the last few years.  Rooftop Films returns this weekend with two programs that will surely help get you into that ‘summer’s coming three-day weekend mood.’ Friday’s Dark Toons line up features eleven short films programmed to deliver an night of “enjoyably evil animation.” They note, “this year’s filmmakers use just about every trick in the book to conjure up their visual magic.” The band Softspot opens the evening with their hauntingly meditative music.
Still from Kumare, previewing on our rooftop this weekend.

If full-length features are more your fancy, be one of the first in line on Saturday to see Indian-American filmmaker Virkam Gandhi’s SXSW-acclaimed satirical documentary, KumarĂ©, before its theatrical release.  The premise: a somewhat autobiographical story, (in 2010 Gandhi traveled to Phoenix and invented a spiritual workshop from scratch and ended up with actual followers) KumarĂ© recounts Gandhi’s experiences through the story of a man who impersonates a wise Indian Guru and builds a following in Arizona, only to have to reveal his true identity and unveil his greatest teaching of all.  Brooklyn-based torch-song singer Doe Paoro opens the show.  The roof at New Design is a truly unforgettable place to watch films.

The New Design Pop Up Shop will be open both nights selling New Design created goods and fashions.  

Saturday, May 05, 2012

Plain White Tee




iDESIGNERS, Vanessa Guzman and Anaya White modeling their group t-shirt designs. 

A group of New Design High School 10th graders enrolled in the iDesign program joined forces to design three original t-shirts for a company they've dubbed "Tru-Fit." The students are selling these shirts to New Design students, families and staff to help fund activities that keep them excited about and engaged in their education.

If you are interested in purchasing a tee, e-mail: sarahgluck@newdesignhigh.com  

Click here to see more photos of the Tru-Fit designs.