About James Simon

James is a Senior Designer for Design Works International and an Instructor at Parsons Fashion and the New York School of Design. An artist all his life with a Bachelor's Degree of Fine Arts from The Herron School of Art, Indiana University at Indianapolis. He has lived in New York City since 1987 and got his start in the Fashion Industry by doing hand painted prints for Nicole Miller.

New Art from the Next Generation

At Design Works International, we believe that ultimately it all begins with the artist and their talents. Computers are simply the next generation of tools which extend the brush and paint or pencil and paper.

With the focus of our society on technology and social media, it’s nice to see the younger generation still involving themselves in the creation of art using traditional media. NYC is home to some amazing places to see and experience art and here are some great stories about a few up-and-comers who inspire us.

We hope that more kids will show us their wonderful creations and maybe they will be the next generation of designers here at Design Works International.

Click images to read the original stories.

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Eighteen years old and exhibiting at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. You go girl!

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Some lucky New York City public school students are getting the chance to see their works of art among the lights of Times Square. 23 student artworks are going up on two giant digital billboards between 43rd and 44th streets. A three-minute video will play hourly. It runs through Oct. 23.

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7 years old and a member of the Brooklyn Collective!

 

NYC as a Backdrop for Beauty

 

When you live and work in this city, you often forget how beautiful it is. I love being able to stumble upon moments like this one. The beautiful NY Public Library as a backdrop for art.

It made me wonder… what is on showcase? Is the dancer helping the photographer with her portfolio? Is the photographer helping dancer with HER portfolio? Is the garment the dancer is wearing the focus? It didn’t really matter to me, I was lucky enough to find beauty this morning in our fair city.NYCbeauty

 

Nancy’s Traveling Trends

We’re very excited about Nancy’s expanding relationship with HGTV. Along with being the HGTV HOME Design Director she now has a feature at HGTV.com. She is always traveling the world in search on the latest in trend and color and now she has a gallery of her images to go along with her Instagram feeds. We recommend you bookmark this page as well as follow her on Instagram.

Here is a taste of what you can see in her travels… follow the link to see much more.

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And here is a sampling from the Design Works International Instagram.

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Fusion Fashion 2015 – Patterns & Substrates

I was honored to be asked by one of my fashion students from Parsons to attend the yearly Fusion Fashion Show. Each year this show is organized to spotlight top up and coming fashion designers from the two most prestigious fashion schools in the country. You can go to their site and view all of the work and find out more of the show. All work shown here is property of the designer.

I found it incredibly inspiring to see all the hard work and creativity that went into the looks each of the designer’s looks. It’s interesting to see things that we talk about at Design Works in the creative minds of those who will represent design in the future…

We love print and pattern here and it is alive and well with some wonderful examples by these new designers.

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photos ©2015 James Simon

It takes a great deal of skill & creativity to use such diverse materials and substrates. The mixing of the different fabrics and textures adds great feel to each of the pieces.

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photos ©2015 James Simon

And a special shout-out to Rhea Goyal from Parsons. She invited me to the show and I’m proud to say that she is one of my students. I see great things from her in class and was wowed by what she showed me here.

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photos ©2015 James Simon

I’d say the future of fashion and design is in pretty good hands.

Keith Haring

We lost a wonderful artist 25 years ago today. His style and approach to art has inspired artists and designers in all different genres. Here we see how he used his style to create allover prints for interiors as well as textiles. Though his style looks playful and fun, he often included strong messages as evidenced in the mural “Crack is Wack” which he did in 1986. that mural is still there and NYC has renamed the park “Crack is Wack Playground.”

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