Explore the heartbeat of New York,
Through the eyes of leading designers,
Envisioning Our Future City with a series of posters.
Walk uptown, downtown, cross the waterways,
Experience An Ode to NYC around every corner,
A poster collection expressing love for our city.
The 2021 Ode to NYC posters are available for sale exclusively at the Poster House Shop with proceeds going to Silicon Harlem, a nonprofit that works towards digital equity in the city, to redress many communities that had no internet access during the pandemic, affecting their access to healthcare and education.
An Ode to NYC 2021 is generously supported by the A&D Building, Artistic Tile, Caesarstone, Cosentino, Design Within Reach, Eventscape, Fabricut, Herman Miller, Kohler, Pindler, Room & Board, Sherle Wagner, The New York Design Center at 200 Lex, The Shade Store, and Tile Bar. Each of these partners showcased posters in their showrooms or retail locations.
NYC is the most beautiful City in the World. All the culture, community, diversity and grit are showcased by the different items, shapes and elements on the piece. We will come together, move forward and continue making our city beautiful!
Beautiful Future
Amaurys Grullon of Bronx Native
This is an homage of the iconic I❤️NY logo created by the legendary designer Milton Glaser. This illustration creates an infinite pattern of the logo, resulting in the message I❤️NY forever, hence the name I❤️NYF.
I ❤️ NYF
Debbie Millman of SVA
As the waters flood our city and force a new way of life, we have an opportunity to grow and evolve - to create new ways of living at the tops of our skyline that are not only for the few - but for everyone.
A New City in the Sky
Elizabeth Von Lehe of HDR
On behalf of the American Society of Interior Designers
Food Sovereignty is Power. Inspired by the late great Fanny Lou Hammer and the Black Panther Free Breakfast program. We’re not new to this we’re true to this. Mutual aid is the wave.
Black Power Kitchen
Ghetto Gastro with New Studio
Black spaces were historically born out of the need to create safe places of refuge for Black people. We are living in an era where Black spaces are under attack socially, economically and culturally. Gentrification, in particular, is one urban force that is systematically erasing cherished Black assets, displacing honored Black leaders and wiping out Black culture - all critical adhesives to the tapestry of Black neighborhoods. Today and for our future city Black spaces will continue to be necessary social infrastructure for the cultural, social and economic development of Black communities.
Black Spaces Matter
Ifeoma Ebo; Principal of Creative Urban Alchemy and Founding member of the BlackSpace Urbanist Collective
When I think about the future of New York City, I think that, no matter how the city develops itself or how difficult it is to live there, new people will always be willing to come to this unique place on Earth to get their dreams realized. More than their monumental highlights, New York City is the place where everything happens, and everyone meets looking for something that they can only obtain here.
The Future of New York is Made of Dreamers
Ignacio Serrano Perez of Milton Glaser Inc
"Home" is a detail of Julian Alexander's SUPREMACY: WHO PROTECTS ME FROM YOU? installation that went up in Brooklyn in the summer of 2020. The work was defaced and restored by opponents and supporters of its original message. The word home was added in Morse code to give context to the polarity that exists in our cities, country, and world. The original work evolved into a living dialogue. This piece was created to continue the conversation.
Home
Julian Alexander of Slang Inc
On behalf of AIGA NY
Colorful, Vibrant, Dynamic - this is the definition of NYC. Even through the global pandemic, NYC has not lost its colors. Indeed, individuals have once again come together to build a new future.
Our NYC
Karim Rashid
We use what we have -recycling materials that have inherent beauty like cardboard. We are strong but also distressed, worn out, stitched together again and again with care and love. We take care of our city with patience and find love and beauty in simple things, in moments, as the patterns reveal themselves everywhere, everyday. We have this to keep us together…To stay strong. Even when everything gets stripped away, we still have love and we have the basic elements to survive.
Stitched Together
Liz Collins
During covid, I loved loved loved walking in New York without traffic. Why not always?
Without Traffic
Paula Scher of Pentagram
The streets of New York—and the life they supercharge—when at their best inspire color and beat. Post-pandemic we can double down, we can make this city, our city, less about your car. The grid is magic, as much Mondrian’s muse as A Rapper’s Delight, it is a boogie to be.
It's Not Your Car... But It Is Your Boogie
Practice for Architecture and Urbanism
Cities are dynamic, ever-changing places. Changing populations, environments, economies and cultures have always shaped New York City, but past narratives or influences of place are not always visible or understood. New Harlem 2050 acknowledges the origins of Black culture and its pervasive influence (black ivy) on the culture of the city (and the world), and amplifies the projections for how ethno-diversity and climate adaptation will transform the shape and culture of the city. Taking a view of the city from Harlem looking south, the founding of Harlem as a place in 1660, juxtaposed against the tight confinement of Black people in Harlem in 1923, is meant to reorient our knowledge of place when viewed from a different cultural perspective. Emanating from Harlem, through the streets of Manhattan, are the contributions of Black cultural language and Black creatives that have shaped, and now can be found throughout New York – from 125th Street to Fifth Avenue to Wall Street and beyond – celebrated, undervalued, appropriated and commodified. Also radiating from the genesis of American Black culture are the data predictions for how racial demographics shifts that will transform New York City into a majority/minority city, and the accelerating pace of climate change and its effect on the city’s urban edge. New Harlem 2050 implores New Yorkers to embrace a future city with an alternative ecological footprint and just multi-racial aesthetic commons.
New Harlem 2050
Toni L. Griffin of Urban American City with Sienna Scarff
There is no definitive New York City. The city's buildings, environs and people have shifted continuously over the hundreds of years of its existence. We therefore see memory as a very powerful expression of NYC. An individual citizen's memories of their city—whether idealized or factual—is both a testament to a time that has gone, and a reference for a future that is not yet in view. As citizens and planners map out what our future city will look like, no doubt their individual histories will guide them on this journey. Our poster maintains that Future and Memory are therefore in a constant state of negotiation, inseparable and constantly influencing one another.
FUTURE MEMORY
Triboro
On behalf of AIGA NY
Sponsor Showroom Collaborations
An evening walk through New York City these days is a truly one-of-a-kind experience. Windows aglow as far as the eye can see and the streets buzzing with activity, we are proud to see our city spring back to life. This is our inspiration for the 2021 poster — our Ode to NYC.
Welcome Back NYC
The Shade Store
Sponsored
Our NYC Love is set in stone
Cosentino NYC Love
Cosentino
Sponsored
NYCxDESIGN's city-wide exhibition, An Ode to NYC, returned in October 2021 for its second edition to re-connect people to the heartbeat of New York City's design scene. In light of the impact of the pandemic on the city’s streets, people, and culture, the 2021 theme of “Our Future City” reflects new beginnings. NYCxDESIGN tapped into the expansive design ecosystem of the city, partnering with a host of showrooms, cultural institutions, and cutting-edge design businesses to showcase the original works, as well as appointing a new crop of talented designers who were tasked with painting a vision of tomorrow with one-of-a-kind poster designs. Thanks to this spirit of collaboration and participation across the design sector, An Ode to NYC reached thousands of New Yorkers, channeling the city’s unique capacity to support our community through design. Click here to explore the inaugural 2020 Ode to NYC collection.
The 2021 collection of posters were on view in window front locations across showrooms, studios, retailers, restaurants, and cultural venues. They were also showcased digitally on the expansive screens installed at The Oculus at Westfield World Trade Center, Fulton Center, and on-board the NYC Ferry’s fleet. Click here to explore a map of all Ode to NYC display locations.
SHOWROOMS
The Architects and Designers Building
150 E. 58th St.
Monday to Friday: 9am–5pm
Artistic Tile
31 W. 21st St.
Monday to Friday: 10am–6pm
Saturday: 10am–5pm
Caesarstone at 7Haus
232 Madison Ave.
Caesarstone at Cesar NYC Kitchens
50 W. 23rd St.
Monday to Friday: 10am–5pm
Saturday: 11am–5pm
Caesarstone at Swift Studios
1239 Broadway, 13th Fl.
Monday to Friday: 9am–5pm
Cosentino
150 E. 58th St., Ste. 399
Monday to Friday: 9am–5pm
Design Within Reach
110 Greene St.
Monday to Saturday: 10am–6pm
Sunday: 12pm–6pm
Fabricut
979 Third Ave., Ste. 915
Monday to Friday: 9am–5pm
Herman Miller
20 Hudson Yards
Monday to Saturday: 10am–6pm
Sunday: 12pm–6pm
Kohler Experience Center
6 W. 22nd St.
Monday to Friday: 10am–6pm
Saturday: 12pm–3pm
New York Design Center
200 Lexington Ave.
Monday to Sunday: 8:30am–5pm
Pindler
200 Lexington Ave., Ste.615
Monday to Sunday: 8:30am–5pm
Room & Board
236 W. 18th St.
Monday to Saturday: 11am–7pm
Sunday: 11am–6pm
Sherle Wagner
699 Madison Ave., 4th Fl.
Appt. required, Monday to Friday: 9am–5pm
The Shade Store SoHo
77 Wooster St.
Monday to Friday: 10am–6pm
Saturday: 11am–6pm
Sunday: 12pm–5pm
The Shade Store Midtown East
225 E. 59th St.
Monday to Friday: 10am–6pm
Saturday: 11am–6pm
Sunday: 12pm–5pm
Tile Bar
45 W. 21st St.
Monday to Thursday: 9am–5pm
Friday: 9am–2pm
Juniper
1 Crosby St., 2nd Fl.
RETAIL
atmos USA
203 W. 125th St.
Canal Street Market
265 Canal St.
Harlem Haberdashery
245 Lenox Ave.
Housing Works Bookstore
126 Crosby St.
Magpie
488 Amsterdam Ave.
Studio Zung
41 Grand St.
HOTELS AND RESTAURANTS
Adoro Lei
287 Hudson St.
Harlem Shake
100 W. 124th St.
La Bonne Soupe
48 W. 55th St.
MOJO Mousse Bar
177 E. 100th St.
Settepani
196 Lenox Ave.
Sushi Sen-nin
30 E. 33rd St.
DIGITAL DISPLAYS
NYC Ferry
Westfield World Trade Center
185 Greenwich St.
CULTURAL INSTITUTIONS
Heath Gallery
24 W. 120th St.
Mama Foundation for the Arts
149 W. 126th St.
SHOWROOMS
Eventscape
5-25 46th Ave., Long Island City, Queens
Monday to Friday: 7am–5pm
The Shade Store DUMBO
73 Front St.
Brooklyn
Monday to Friday: 10am–6pm
Saturday: 11am–6pm
Sunday: 12pm–5pm
RETAIL
Astoria Bookshop
31-29 31st St., Astoria, Queens
Awesome Brooklyn
617 Flatbush Ave., Brooklyn
Bronx Native
127 Lincoln Ave., The Bronx
Brooklyn Blooms
1113 Fulton St., Brooklyn
Brooklyn Blooms Flagship
433 Nostrand Ave., Brooklyn
Brooklyn Circus
150 Nevins St., Brooklyn
Collier West
377A Atlantic Ave., Brooklyn
Collyer's Mansion
179 Atlantic Ave., Brooklyn
Da Spot
445 Albee Square W., Brooklyn
Housing Works Thrift Shop
266 5th Ave., Brooklyn
IC Store by WantedDesign
268 36th St., Brooklyn
Lockwood Home & Gift
32-15 33rd St., Astoria, Queens
M Collection
79 Front St., Brooklyn
Michele Varian
400 Atlantic Ave., Brooklyn
Mud Australia
402 Atlantic Ave., Brooklyn
The Primary Essentials
372 Atlantic Ave., Brooklyn
Van Der Most Modern
159 Troutman St., Brooklyn
HOTELS AND RESTAURANTS
Bronx Brewery
856 E. 136th St., The Bronx
Brooklyn Tea
524 Nostrand Ave., Brooklyn
Queens Bully
113-30 Queens Blvd., Forest Hills, Queens
The Boogie Down Grind
868 Hunts Point Ave., The Bronx
STUDIOS
BrickHouse Ceramic Art Center
10-34 44th Dr., Long Island City, Queens
Clay and Kiln
861 Castleton Ave., Staten Island
MakerSpace
450 Front St., Unit B, Staten Island
The Potter's Wheel
102-33 83rd Ave., Kew Gardens, Queens
UrbanGlass
647 Fulton St., Brooklyn
DIGITAL DISPLAYS
NYC Ferry
CULTURAL INSTITUTIONS
Bronx River Art Center
1087 E. Tremont Ave., The Bronx
Historic Richmond Town
441 Clarke Ave., Staten Island
Onderdonk House
1820 Flushing Ave., Ridgewood, Queens
Snug Harbor Cultural Center
1000 Richmond Terrace, Staten Island
Textile Arts Center
505 Carroll St., Brooklyn