Throwback: Street Flair

Somewhere in the early 90's for a Gay Pride charity event, a parking lot in the west village was turned into a carnival, filled with sponsors and other frivolities. Geoff was asked to create a cohesive and festive visual experience, and each booth was given a three panel painted backdrop. Geoff donated his services to design and paint each backdrop designed to reflect a sponsor or street fair game (like a duck pond). Ready, Set, Paint! (Deliver and Install...)

Them Bones

Mr. Bones is getting a celebrity makeover — 13 in fact — and it’s all for good causes.
Kiehl’s iconic mascot, in stores across the world, got the head-to-toe overhauls for the store’s new charity drive.
The Daily News got an exclusive sneak peek of the tarted-up skeletons, which will be unveiled Wednesday night — and on display for the public starting June 2.
Among the stars helping with Mr. Bones’ new looks are funnyman Zach Galifianakis and “Top Chef” queen Padma Lakshmi. Under its charity arm, Kiehl’s Gives, the East Village skin-care brand is donating $200,000 to causes chosen by the famous names.  --NY Daily News

To help with the launch party at Gold Bar of this national campaign, GHS was hired to design and produce the custom made bases to hold the unique skeleton sculptures and in the photo below, install the event, including the black on black graphic in the frames. We were also responsible for the crating and shipping of the skeletons across the US.

Here's a closer look at a few of the actual 'celeb designed skeletons.

Bailey House Door Chandelier

Once again, Bailey House came knocking on the door at Geoff Howell Studio to transform the Lexington Avenue Armory for their annual benefit gala. This year's theme was 'Give me shelter' with the importance of having one's own private door being the deciding factor. Considering the soaring space of the armory, a multicolored mobile of over 150 life-sized paper doors and 200 glittering keys was created, held aloft with hundreds of giant weather balloons. The installation was over a 100 feet high and 70 feet wide. In addition to the center-spectacle, Geoff also designed the layout of the entire event from 400 running feet of orange and white walls, many risers and platforms, all creating a welcoming environment and an ideal background for the auction items and festivities. 

A  complete timelapse video will be posted soon following the setup, event and its breakdown over the course of three days.

In The Press!

 BIZBASH

What's the EFFEN DIFFA?

 EFFEN vodka generously sponsored both a booth and a bar for the prestigious Dining by Design, put together by DIFFA. Working in conjunction with the fabulous Tracy Reese, Geoff was asked to design and produce both the booth and the bar. The booth was 10 x 10 feet and 8 feet high and spoke to the modernity of EFFEN and Tracy's love of pattern and texture as well as including a natural element informs a lot of her pattern design. Geoff designed and created four large crimped, folded, crumpled and bent metal wall sculptures that were originally used as the backdrop for her fashion show this past Fashion Week at Lincoln Center.  The sculptures were made with brass copper galvanized steel and aluminum and were set in large silver-leafed frames. Additional walls, completely silver-leafed separated the backlit sculpted panels and sat on a floor of brushed aluminum that was laid in  absket-weave pattern. Sitting on top was a custom made round table and hanging light fixture. The stemware was generously donated by Stueben Glass.

The EFFEN vodka bar spoke completely to their brand's aesthetic with a a central tower in brushed silver with a niche for highlighting their bottle, and back lit logo panel. Everything else was in sleek high gloss black. The front bar itself was faced in brushed aluminum and down lit from under the lip of the front bar top.

For those of you who'd like to know more about the charitable works that DIFFA organizes to help those fighting AIDS (read the descriptions below, pulled from the DIFFA website):

DIFFA: Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS is one of the country’s largest supporters of direct care for people living with HIV/AIDS and preventive education for those at risk. Merging care and commerce, supporters of DIFFA come from all fields of fine design and the visual arts, including: architecture, fashion design, interior design, photography and consumer product design.
With fundraising efforts bolstered by strategic partnerships and unique events showcasing innovation and creativity, DIFFA has mobilized the immense resources of the design communities and granted over $38 million to hundreds of AIDS service organizations nationwide.


DINING BY DESIGN brings together internationally celebrated designers and local talent to create three dimensional dining installations that awe, inspire, and delight. These extraordinary dining environments—from the lavish and romantic to the outrageous and whimsical—set the stage for five days of fun and fundraising.

Bailey House charity event

Celebrating their 23rd year of existence as a NY institution dedicated to providing housing to people and families with HIV/AIDS,  Bailey House felt that it was the perfect time to emphasize their roots and theme the party around NYC itself. With only a shoestring budget, Geoff came up with a clever and soaring design that takes advantage of the 130 foot ceiling of the Lexington Ave Armory at 26th street using long sheets of black spray painted white paper featuring NYC skyscrapers and other iconic imagery, held aloft by 225 36-inch black helium-filled weather balloons that disappeared into the dark recesses of the ceiling...

(And a note from Geoff Howell:  I would like to thank all the wonderful people that worked so hard and gave so much of themselves to make this event a great success for Bailey House.
the GHS team expended tremendous effort and dedication to the cause, the lighting was greatly discounted (New City Video & Staging, Inc.),  and the whole A/V and lighting team did an extraordinary job making the most of a small budget! )

Geoff's original sketch of the design

The Lexington Ave armory just before the installation began.

The Silent auction items were showed in 40 by 40 feet square pavilions that you can see going up in this photo. Anchoring the center of the space was the large bar.

Meanwhile, a few days before Geoff and his team rented an industrial space in Ridgewood big and long enough to paint line drawings of the skyscapers, the tallest (the Empire State Building of course!) being 75 feet long/high. In keeping with the street-tested medium of graffiti, Geoff chose to sketch out the buildings in spray paint.

Here you can see the 'elevations' in progress where some of the paper panels have already been lifted up by the balloons while others are patiently waiting their turn to fly.

The design of this building was loosely based on Edward Hopper's painting "Early Sunday Morning" now on view at the Whitney Museum of American Art.

The first panel of a skyscraper goes up!

A nod to the fact that the greatest amount of silent auction items are works of art, one of the pavilions was inspired by the art district in Chelsea featuring a High-Line Park facade, a giant billboard simply stating ART and an interpretation of the Chelsea Hotel sign.

Looking up at the tallest group of skyscrapers you can see the balloons above.

In this shot you can see the reflection of  light from the 100 monofilament lines between the balloons and the buildings

One of the pavilions highlight the fashion items up for auction. Rootstein generously donated the use of their sexiest mannequins for the central display of the pavilion. In this photo during installation, the 'models' nakedly await their chic ensembles.

During the installation of the Step and Repeat, one of the GHS crew members makes sure to keep the backdrop clean and wrinkle free, also becoming his own celebrity moment.

TV personality Sherri Shepherd photographed in the traditional manner in front of the Step and Repeat. She was one of the many stars that came out to help the event to sparkle.

One of two artists seen here making impromptu portraits of the event's guests.

The event is full swing!

Geoff's soaring design catches the attention of the press!

BIZBASH

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