10/27/11 - GHOST SIGNS OF NEW YORK : PART II
10/18/11 - MATT MACHINE - CUSTOM BIKE BUILDER
10/17/11 - FIELD RESEARCH: BROOKLYN NAVAL YARD
Pieces of American history can be found tucked away all over New York. Recently we visited the Brooklyn Navy Yard for a tour of the site.
Purchased by federal authorities in 1801, the Brooklyn Navy Yard became an active U.S. Navy Shipyard five years later in 1806. Its offices, store-houses and barracks were originally constructed of handmade bricks, and the yard’s oldest structure (located in Vinegar Hill) was designed by Charles Bulfinch, the architect of the United States Capital in Washington, D.C. At its peak, during World War II, the yard employed 70,000 people, 24 hours a day. Although it looks battered and abandoned, more recently the Navy yard has become an area of private manufacturing and commercial activity and now has over 200 tenants with more than 3,500 employees. It still carries the spirit of the history it has housed and is worth the trip to really get a sense of all that has happened there.
10/12/11 - TAYLOR SUPPLY CO. CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS (AND ALL AROUND GOOD DUDES).
Possibly the most exciting element of the Taylor brand so far has been the experience of meeting and working with talented people along the way. Around the launch of the brand we connected with Kevin Devine and Brian Mackin who have been helping us with the imagery in our look books and website since. Without the contribution of their conceptual thinking and superior design ability, the result of our spring 2011 look book, fall 2011 look book, our first website, and our newly launched fall 2011 website never would have been as polished and crisp as they are.
Brian and Kevin are long time veterans of the design world whose abilities have been acquired through combined decades of experience. Their strong artistic sensibility shows through in all the skillfully crafted art they create. We’d like to take a minute thank them for the work they’ve executed while collaborating with us. We look forward to working with them on new projects to come and can’t wait to see the ideas they bring as Taylor Supply grows.
(Kevin and Brian are pictured above and contributed the pictures to this post)
10/11/11 - STEEL SIGNS ALONG THE GOWANUS
Operating the headquarters of Taylor Supply in the heart of the Gowanus part of Brooklyn offers us a view into the past industries that once existed here. It connects us with the mentality of manufacturing that existed in the time we hope to revisit when creating our products. A site that is a reminder of this and that always catches our eye are the steel scaffold type signs along 2nd and 3rd avenue. Although rusting away, and the neon lights no longer functioning, there is something striking about each of them. They represent an era of true pride in production. We hope they last a lot longer.