Rich tapestry of East Village inspires Vault49’s graffiti art piece in Target’s latest New York store

Ideas led design agency Vault49 reveals a stunning and colourful graffiti mural within the latest Target store to open in New York, created and hand painted to celebrate the East Village community and its rich history, which includes a melting pot of punk rock music, anti-establishment movements and diverse cultures.

Target asked Vault49 to design and install the graffiti-inspired mural as a gift to its new neighbourhood because of the agency’s reputation as a home for some of the world’s most exciting and groundbreaking artists within their own right and the team was delighted to demonstrate its passion for art and craft by visiting the East Village store to create the mural on site.

The wall piece, which is 35 feet wide and ten feet tall, features bold and bright illustrations of roses, records and signs which document the area’s transformation into a centre for counter culture, punk rock, art and the Nuyorican literary movement, while Pierogi, a type of Eastern European dumpling, fly off the mural, reflecting the East Village’s history as a Russian and Ukrainian neighbourhood.

Alphabet City and the letters ABCD in the corners of the painting refer to an area in Manhattan that boasts the only roads on the island with single letter names. The team at Vault49 researched the area’s history to inspire the mural, which pops with Target’s brand colors of red, white and grey, with teal as an accent.

John Glasgow, Co-Founder and Executive Creative Director of Vault49, says: “At Vault49 we love to roll our sleeves up so we were delighted when Target asked us to create a piece that would celebrate an area we consider part of our local community – it’s not far from our office.

“The whole team went down to help create the mural on-site – it’s important for us all as artists, myself and co-founder Jonathan included, who both started out as street artists, to be able to step away from a computer and get our hands covered in paint sometimes. We have such talented artists working in our team and this gives them a real platform to showcase their talents.

“A graffiti style mural was the perfect fit for the area, which retains its anti-establishment vibe and has been a home to numerous famous rock stars. The area is covered with the most incredibly creative graffiti, so this just felt right.”

Whenever Target opens a new store, it finds artists to collaborate with and create a bespoke piece of art. A plaque thanking the team at Vault49 for their work to create the mural features in store.

Source: Vault49

  Art, Design, East Village, Graffiti, Marketing, New Store, New York, Retail, Target, USA, Vault49