The latest SVA holiday gift guide includes apparel, accessories, key chains, collectible toys, and more.
The holidays are upon us, and you may still be looking for something a little less ordinary to give to a friend, coworker, or loved one. Below are some recent and noteworthy projects from graduates of the School of Visual Arts, ranging from apparel to collectibles to home goods.
Happy holidays from SVA!
The Met x Sprayground
Backpacks, duffles, and handbags
In August, The Met Store, a gift shop supporting the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, announced a collaboration with Sprayground, the popular backpack and luggage brand created by alumnus David Ben-David (BFA 2005 Graphic Design).
The Met x Sprayground line comprises 17 bags based on works in the museum’s collection, including paintings, sculptures, and armor. Each bag comes with a QR code linking to more information about the related artwork; several incorporate Sprayground’s signature “shark mouth” design.
Forest Feast x Great Honour Goods
Double-sided wrapping paper, $48 per 10 sheets
The Forest Feast, originally a series of seasonal produce–focused cookbooks written, illustrated, and photographed by Erin Gleeson (MFA 2007 Photography, Video, and Related Media), has expanded into a lifestyle brand, with products like cheese boards, clothes, and tablecloths. This year Gleeson rolled out her latest offering: a set of five double-sided floral wrapping papers, with two sheets per pattern, produced in collaboration with Great Honour Goods, a printed-goods company that, like Forest Feast, is based in—and inspired by—rural Northern California.
Rubber Bones
Rash guards, apparel, prints, and stickers
rubberbonesrashguards.com / @rubberbonesrashguards
Inspired by how her own jujitsu practice helped to fuel her creativity, in 2020 illustrator and graphic designer Maria Schweitzer (MFA 2021 Visual Narrative) launched Rubber Bones, a line of rash guards, apparel, and related products, via a successful Kickstarter campaign. The brand’s designs and graphics are all created by Schweitzer, and reflect her many interests: comics, horror, science fiction, and, of course, the martial art itself.
Along with its publicly available merchandise, sold through its website, Rubber Bones partnered with Google earlier this year to create a line of rash guards and sweats exclusively for the company’s employees that incorporated the search-engine giant’s logo and signature colors.
Vinyl Wrap
Vinyl Print Production/ Installation: Print/ Design/ Application
Paint Protection Film (PPF)
Print Coat Wrap It
Vinyl-wrap, printed-graphic, and paint-protection-film services
3480 Hampton Road, Oceanside, New York
bjsvision.myportfolio.com / @printcoatwrapit
B.J. Johnson (BFA 2006 Illustration) was still an SVA student when he joined Marvel Comics: first as a creative services intern, then as a production designer in the bullpen, where he first worked with large-format printers. He went on to production work with print companies, and eventually got into event and retail graphics, printing and installing vinyl texts and designs at stores, pop-ups, and exhibitions for brands like Agnes B. and Vans, and for the Moniker and Hamptons art fairs.
In 2020, Johnson established Print Coat Wrap It on Long Island. In addition to continuing his environmental-design work, Print Coat Wrap It prints and installs custom vinyl and paint-protection-film (PPF) wraps for commercial and personal vehicles, everything from delivery vans to luxury SUVs and sports cars, and is one of the few shops in the area certified to install STEK protective products. Johnson and his team create text or illustrations, patterns, and more subtle effects like fades, tints, and satin or matte finishes. The price for a full-car job starts at around $3,500 and can go up to as much as $14,000 for high-end projects.
“We can achieve effects you can’t get—or would cost an exorbitant amount—with paint, which is also much harder and more expensive to reverse,” he says. Plus, in addition to being removable, vinyl and PPF wraps help protect a car’s exterior from scratches and dings.
Holding Space
Gallery, gift shop, and community space
Kingston, New York
www.holdingspace.place / @holdingspace.place
Early in the COVID pandemic, Bridget Badore (BFA 2013 Photography) moved from Brooklyn back to her upstate New York hometown to help care for an ailing family member. She continued to commute to the city for her work as a freelance photographer for outlets like The Wall Street Journal and The New Yorker. But then a car accident during her travels left Badore shaken and concussed, unable to work in front of a computer or look through a camera viewfinder for any extended period of time.
Contemplating a longer-term plan and change of pace, Badore opened Holding Space, a gallery, gift shop, and gathering hub in Kingston, New York, last December. Designed as “an accessible space for artists of all types,” she says, the store hosts exhibitions and artists in residence, collage- and rug-making workshops, and group critiques, support meetings, and other community-building events. It also sells zines, prints, stickers, pins, magnets, and more.
Holding Space left its original home, in Kingston’s Rondout–West Strand Historic Waterfront District, earlier this year. To keep tabs on its virtual and pop-up programming while Badore finds a new location, check out the store’s website or Instagram for the latest information—and online shopping.
Heath Wagoner Artisanal Cutlery and Objets d’Art
Metalworks, from $80
Butter knives, cocktail spoons, pinky rings, sculptures inspired by opened sardine tins—these items and more, all handmade in sterling silver, copper and brass, are made to order by metalsmith Heath Wagoner (MFA 2015 Products of Design) in his Brooklyn studio.
Wagoner’s designs, which strike a balance between being rustic and refined, have been featured in T: The New York Times Style Magazine and Lampoon, an Italian magazine on art and culture. Pieces may be ordered through his website or bought at a selection of design-forward home-goods stores in the U.S. and abroad.
MoMA Sliding Perpetual Calendar
Desktop or wall calendar, $48
For nearly 10 years, MFA Products of Design has partnered with the MoMA Design Store, the retail operation of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Students of the program conceive, pitch and develop innovative items that aim to bring joy, efficiency and elegance to users’ daily lives.
Giancarlo Cipri (MFA 2023 Products of Design) created the latest product of that collaboration: a “perpetual” calendar, through which the day of week, month and date are all displayed with indicators that can be moved along their respective paths. Cipri’s calendar stands a foot tall, is made of recycled acrylic and is designed to be either hung on the wall or displayed on a table or desktop.
Crainiacs
Collectible trading cards
This past summer, Ira Friedman left his position as vice president of licensing at Topps, where he had spent decades managing the legacy and continuation of the trading-card company’s properties, most notably the cult-classic Garbage Pail Kids. (The series, a gross-out riff on Cabbage Patch Kid dolls, was introduced in the 1980s and revived in 2003 and has extensive SVA connections. Cartoonists Art Spiegelman and Mark Newgarden (BFA 1982 Media Arts alumnus), former and current faculty, respectively, count among its co-creators; faculty member and artist Brad Kahlhamer was an art director for the brand in its heyday; and illustrator Joe Simko (BFA 1999 Cartooning) has created more than 500 cards for the brand since 2009.
This past October, Simko and Friedman announced a new collaboration, Craniacs—a fictional world in which two fantastical civilizations, one from the distant past and the other from the future, are compelled to coexist. Both societies consist of the cheerful grotesques Simko is known for, rendered in what he calls his “happy horror” style.
Simko and Friedman’s plan is to build out the Craniacs universe through a variety of products and platforms. For now, kids, comics fans and collectors can seek out the brand’s limited-edition trading cards, sold in select stores online and nationwide (check the Craniacs website for a full list of stockists).
Panisa Objects
Geo Stacking Coasters, $30 | Geo Pattern Dominoes, $46 | 2-in-1 Chess and Checkers Set $55 | Honeycomb Stacking Jewelry Boxes $48
Defined by their vivid colors, bold graphics, and playful geometries, Panisa Khunprasert’s (MFA 2016 Products of Design) four MoMA Design Store products make for perfect gifts. Her set of six silicone stacking coasters—a MoMA favorite—feature varying geometric faceted edges, while her Honeycomb Stacking Boxes are inspired by the natural geometry created by bees. If your giftee enjoys games, consider her geo-pattern dominoes, featuring compositions inspired by Cubist art and Abstract Modernism, or her fabulous dual-sided chess and checkers set.
MoMA De Stijl Tumbling Tower
Stacked tower game, $58
When MFA Products of Design students first meet to discuss the program’s collaboration with the MoMA Design Store, faculty member Sinclair Smith recommends against designing anything that relies on a too-familiar visual language, such as that of artist Piet Mondrian. But over spring break, a Jenga tower concept began to take shape in Monica Albornoz’s mind, and it felt like making a Mondrian painting come to life. The MoMA Design Store couldn’t agree more.
As the store website puts it, the Tumbling Tower “brings the aesthetics of the De Stijl movement—with its bright primary colors and geometric shapes—to life in 3D form. Think of it as an interactive Mondrian painting.”
MoMA roller coasters
Set of four drink coasters, $24
Hui Zheng’s (MFA 2020 Products of Design) set of four “roller coasters” features curvy indentations that provide grip while mimicking the classic maze game. As condensation forms on your beverage glass, it drips down into the coaster’s groove, creating water-droplet formations that double as the steel balls from the original game.
The colors of this set are a gradation of the color blue, evoking the different hues of water around the world. Hui was inspired by the preciousness and scarcity of water; the coaster game provides a way to contemplate and appreciate this vital, everyday resource.