Design Sprints

Ongoing

Design Sprints: Fall 2024

Design Sprints is Van Alen Institute’s newest community-led design program. Over eight weeks, a five-team cohort comprising community leaders and design professionals collaborate on short-term solutions and tools to meet immediate neighborhood needs. Working across New York City, each of our Fall 2024 community organizations has a unique approach to using public spaces to create more interconnected neighborhoods. In collaboration with their design partners, they’ll develop visual identities, wayfinding systems, and advocacy campaigns that support their mission and goals.

Operating along Queens’ 34th Avenue between 69th St and Junction Blvd,  34th Street Open Streets Coalition facilitates an outdoor community center and micro mobility corridor along 26 blocks in Jackson Heights. Together with WXY Architecture + Urban Design, they’ll create design interventions that further activate the open street, including gateways at the main entrances and mile-markers for joggers and pedestrians.

Gotham Park is the nonprofit grassroots organization reopening, revitalizing and reactivating the forgotten spaces under the Manhattan side of the iconic Brooklyn Bridge. Together with Pentagram and Shawn Scott, they’ll create a comprehensive rebrand of the organization to be applied to its digital presence and merchandise. Pentagram will also conduct preliminary work on a new wayfinding system for the park.

James Baldwin Outdoor Learning Center‘s mission is to strive for inquiry and project-based solutions at the juncture of food, environmental justice, and social justice. Together with BD Feliz, they’ll build upon their existing branding and website to better reflect the organization’s rich history and advance its programs, such as its market, garden, and edible forest.

Red Hook Farms is a youth-centered urban agriculture and food justice program operating one of Brooklyn’s largest farms. Together with Studio Loutsis, they’ll design a comprehensive wayfinding and signage system for their two farms, allowing local residents and volunteers alike to more easily engage with and navigate the farms.

Street Vendor Project (SVP) at the Urban Justice Center is a membership-based organization of over 2,900 members who are working together to create a vendors’ movement for permanent change. Together with ThoughtMatter, they’ll develop their design identity and drive public awareness of their mission, visions, and goals. Starting with a unified brand toolkit for the organization, they will apply the branding across a set of strategic communication touchpoints that uplift street vendors in New York City.