Mike Teixeira, board president of Art-Speak (Portsmouth’s cultural commission), saw a point of weakness in the port city once known for tall ships and whales. “We were frustrated that public art seems to take so long to get done for public property like parks and municipal property and the light bulb went on,” says Teixeira. “We could fast track getting art in the city to reflect the real spirit of what’s going on here if we started getting property owners directly engaged.” So they did just that, creating a Craigslist-like website for muralists to connect with business owners in need of art.

The Wilder | Dylan Haigh

This is how it works. First the building owner selects the indoor or outdoor wall that they want to upgrade. Once they’ve decided budget, dimensions, and timeframe, they post their wall on StreetCanvas. Artists can peruse the entries and when they find one that piques their interest, they can submit their ideas for the wall. The building owner selects their favorite submission and gets in touch with the artist directly to start the work.

The Wilder | Dylan Haigh

Since StreetCanvas got its start in June 2017, three murals have been finished. Artist Dylan Haigh, a creative director (among other things) living in Portsmouth, gives StreetCanvas high praise… “I didn’t consider (street art) as something I could really do around here until this year and when StreetCanvas went up,” he says. “Ever since I watched the page like a hawk just waiting for the right wall.” The right wall manifested in the form of The Wilder, a new restaurant within walking distance of Haigh’s home. The idea of having a giant piece of his own art in his neighborhood was too exciting to pass up. “I had the benefit of knowing the folks who own the business. They had been familiar with what I do and they liked the general aesthetic so they told me to go nuts,” he says.

“A city like Portsmouth can get frozen in time,” says Teixeira. The port city is known for its historical elements but that’s no reason to get entrenched in the past. There are troves of artists from newer generations and StreetCanvas was created to give them a voice and protect Portsmouth from falling to the wayside. Why not integrate new art with the more traditional pieces that already live on the walls of Portsmouth?

Live Artfully Chalk Mural | Brian Cartier

While the StreetCanvas initiative has received overwhelmingly positive feedback from the community, not every exchange between artist and business owner has been strife-free. “Some business owners and property owners came to the table with very specific ideas and unrealistic expectations and it has been an amazing learning curve of how to figure out how to mediate that kind of stuff,” says Teixeira. The nature of StreetCanvas encourages business owners who may not be particularly art-minded to think figuratively and step into the perspective of the artist to see how the process works on their end.

StreetCanvas is still young, but Teixeira has high expectations for its future. “I hope that this takes off, and it’s a place where business owners and artists can connect and create a bunch of cool financial opportunities for artists to get work on a regular basis for what they do.”

Mike Teixeira, president of Art-Speak
Portsmouth, New Hampshire
Website
Facebook
Instagram

Top image: Portwalk Transformer Fence Mural | Susan Bartlett Rice

The post Painting Portsmouth appeared first on Take Magazine.

Joshua Jenkins is one of the creatives behind Hartford menswear label demuerte, which was featured in Take’s October/November 2017 issue. Here’s a bit more about Jenkins and how he got started that we didn’t have room for in print.

Take: How did demuerte begin?
Joshua Jenkins: The brand was conceived in 2014. A friend of mine from college, Kevin, approached me with the idea of starting a brand at a time when I felt creatively starved. I always had creative tendencies but never had a focus. I took the opportunity with his encouragement to look further into attention to detail as well as conceptualizing things a little bit bigger than at first glance. From there we recruited a small team. One of the first people we brought on board was Ky Spence, now one of our managing partners and production director. He had very basic skills with sewing and showed me the ropes. We taught each other and sourced people from our community that had more experience with cut-and-sew and garment production. We launched our first production in fall of 2015.

Photo Courtesy of demuerte

T:Where did the name demuerte come from?
JJ: When you take the translation, it’s “of death.” Death is generally something that comes with negative connotations, but it’s also something that everyone will experience. The idea of mortality connects us and makes us all human. Ultimately, choosing it as the name of the brand calls on the wearer to seek a deeper interpretation rather than the initial negative response they get from it.

T: What is the brand’s role in streetwear? What drives the aesthetic of demuerte?
JJ: Streetwear hasn’t really been our immediate goal on a design level. It’s something that more naturally has been identified with our work just by how easy it is to relate with what people wear on a daily basis. In a lot of ways we would like to be identified on more of a menswear level. Initially when we started, a couple of the first samples I did for the conception of “de” was taking button-ups and reconstructing the collars and adding denim accents to them. Originally we asked ourselves, “How can menswear tie in with streetwear?” and “How can menswear be an everyday thing instead of something that’s just considered business casual or for special occasions?” We wanted to offer something you can comfortably wear and still have some sort of identity with how you decide to style it.

The concept of streetwear is very interesting to me. The market is very competitive but there isn’t a large amount that separates one garment from the next. In that way there’s not a lot of risk in streetwear. We’re trying to tackle that in how we integrate certain themes into our silhouettes or proportion in details, whether collars or pockets. By applying that to a black and white canvas is helpful in terms of identifying the different features of a garment as opposed to those elements being overshadowed by very loud or vibrant color ways. But it’s not to say that we don’t have interest in that in the future… we just have a lot more we want to present on a design level, for now.

Photo Courtesy of demuerte

Photo Courtesy of demuerte

T: Is the DIY fashion movement part of your design concept?
JJ: Definitely. I feel like I’m a student in this industry and I would say the same of our co-designer, Ky. Lately, I realized I’d like to make clothes that attract an audience who can make their own distinctions about style, who can ask themselves, “What is this supposed to mean?”—in terms of what our garments represent and how that translates to the world around them. The DIY aspect applies to how these everyday garments can be worn and how they can fit and how that can reflect the identity of the person who’s wearing them.

T: Who are your customers?
JJ: The range is limitless. One of my favorite clients is a gentleman named Thomas Foran. He’s a Hartford native with a youthful spirit and he has a very monochrome aesthetic, strictly black, and our work attracts him greatly. More recently I’ve been approached by a younger generation within the Hartford art scene that conveyed their interest and appreciation of what we’re trying to do. It’s great to have a combination of the styles within these generations, to see these worlds collide but still make sense with one another, just like streetwear and menswear. At this point I can’t see myself narrowing the demographic of who de belongs to because, getting back to the origins of where we started this, we are all so connected by the things that make us human.

We’ve always tried to make concepts that could be androgynous. We used to get a lot of inquiries like, “When are you going to make a women’s line?” and my response is always, “Well, you’re looking at it.” Depending on what look you’re going for, I’m sure you could find a way to style our garments to make them work for you as an individual.

Photo Courtesy of demuerte

T: How do you see demuerte evolving?
JJ: We would like to continue reaching a large audience with our concepts. I always hope that anyone who’s taking interest in our design is someone who reflects on, “How does this concept apply to me?” In that way, I imagine developing close relationships with stockists who have regard for that question. We also plan on extending our reach on an international level as well as different mediums with design. We’ve worked with different photographers and stylists from different parts of the world and want to keep that going.

T: What about the fall/winter 2017 line?
JJ: In the past few seasons we’ve taken a microscope on fashion concepts from the ’50s-’80s and looking at their societal and cultural significance. Last year our collection stemmed from a blue color aesthetic and how that applies to post-baby boomers, work ethic, and figuring out careers—what Dickies modeled after.

For fall/winter this year, we’ve taken a closer look at the 1950s. We want to bring an adolescence feel—taking common trends from different social groups of that era and connecting them with other styles. Take a varsity jacket for instance. How can that symbolic item be manipulated to represent something different than at its conception? Clothes and styles are all mixed up nowadays and items that used to carry stereotypes, like “the jock wearing a varsity jacket,” have lost their significance. You can’t point out the type of person this individual is just based on their attire. We’re working on trousers, a staple in a menswear, and wondering how that looks on a jock, typically wearing a pair of 501s and a varsity jacket.

Photo Courtesy of demuerte

T:What items or fabrics will be in the fall winter line?
JJ: We have an overcoat in the works. We want to continue to run off our concepts of staple pieces. Ky typically takes the reigns in overseeing the initial sampling phasing while our friend Vilinda McGregor plays a key role in pattern-making and design consulting. We’re looking to do a variation of the trousers with denim, as well as some accessories. We’re also exploring luggage, duffle bags, and most recently developed “the carrie.” It’s essentially a shoulder bag with an industrial look and feel.

We had the privilege of connecting with Jacob Long, the director at American Woolen fabric manufacturer based in Stafford Springs, Connecticut. They’ve been very helpful in our aim to improve the quality of our garments. We recently picked up some of their high grade wool that we’re incorporating for the overcoat and varsity jacket concepts. I think their product fits perfect with the allude approach we’re taking towards the ’50s and standard of fits from that period.

Joshua Jenkins–co-founder, demuerte
Hartford, Connecticut
Website
Facebook
Instagram

Top photo courtesy of Joshua Jenkins

The post Take Q&A: Joshua Jenkins—demuerte Co-founder appeared first on Take Magazine.

One of the bleak but unifying characteristics of all humankind is that everyone eventually dies. Less bleak, but just as universal—we all wear clothing. Joshua Jenkins, cofounder and creative director of De Muerte in Hartford, Connecticut, aims to look past the surface of negativity surrounding our shared fate and channel that ideology into refined garment design. This is how the brand’s unconventional, existential name was born.

De Muerte was conceived in 2014, when brand cofounder Kevin Dumont approached Jenkins while the two were studying at Eastern Connecticut State University and Jenkins was feeling “creatively starved.” Months later, in the fall of 2015, their first line of minimalist clothing came out. The reconstructed collars, refined-but-approachable silhouettes, hand-sewn pockets, and double-take denim accents in De Muerte’s launch became the foundation of the brand’s DIY aesthetic.

0232 Concept L/s shirt, $80. Photo by Joshua Jenkins

While considered “menswear,” De Muerte’s monochromatic styling works equally well for men and women. “From the beginning, we’ve always tried to make concepts that could come across as androgynous,” explains Jenkins. “We used to get a lot of inquiries like, ‘When are you going to make a women’s line?’ and my response was always, ‘Well, you’re looking at it.’”

This fall, De Muerte’s small team of New England natives will release a new line of garments inspired by fashion staples from the ’40s and ’50s, liberating them from their cultural context. Imagine a varsity letterman jacket paired with pleated trousers to form an unexpected, but harmonious, union. Monochrome junkies, art school kids, and jock-nerd hybrids: we think you’ll find these statement-making basics, well, to die for.

De Muerte
Hartford, Connecticut
Website
Instagram
Tumblr

Top image: 0243, the “Robert” suit, in wool suiting from American Woolen Company, $725.  Photo by Joshua Jenkins

The post To Die For appeared first on Take Magazine.

No matter your trade, Port City Makerspace in downtown Portsmouth has the resources and community atmosphere that make it a perfect incubator for creating, fixing, and tinkering. Whether you’re a seasoned veteran in your discipline or are looking to pick up a hobby, Port City Makerspace is “where we turn sticks into sawdust for the sake of art,” as their woodworking homepage candidly puts it. Break out the elbow grease and slap on a pair of closed-toe shoes you don’t mind getting covered with random debris, and go make something.

“The Makerspace was founded by Zak Robinson, Ross Beane, and Clint Crosbie in 2012. They heard the idea of a ‘shared workspace’ and thought about doing one for a long time,” says Alex Nunn, general manager of Port City Makerspace. “The rest is history.” PCM is a member- and volunteer-driven space with a friendly atmosphere. “Today there is only one regular staff member, and lots of members and volunteers that help run things. We have also grown in size, both member-wise and actual space. We have approximately 8,000 square feet of space.”

Photo courtesy of Port City Makerspace

No prior skills or prerequisites are needed to become a member at PCM except for a determined attitude and an openness to meeting good folks from diverse disciplines. This is not a hack-it-up, make-it-up situation—their philosophy is that it’s important to know how to use tools and they’ll help you get to that point safely and effectively. Seeing that the Apocalypse has never seemed more imminent than it does now, that standpoint is easy to agree with.

While Port City Makerspace is a great place to pursue personal projects or take woodworking classes, members have also been involved in more large-scale operations. “We have helped with community projects like the Prescott Park Green Room, and hosted open workspace days for costume-building for the Halloween Parade. Members have also built some amazing things; an interactive sandbox for Bewick Academy, humanoid sculptures for the Dover Children’s Museum, and a few tiny houses on trailers,” says Nunn.

Photo courtesy of Port City Makerspace

“I’ve lived in the seacoast area most of my life, and despite having moved around a lot in my younger days, it feels like home regardless of where I am in the area. The historical and natural appearance of everything is lovely, and makes life seem peaceful—and once you meet someone, you see them around a lot as though the whole state is a small town,” says Nunn. A community-oriented area such as Portsmouth is the ideal place for people to gather from varying areas of expertise into a breeding place of collaboration and learning, and Port City Makerspace seeks to be that hub. If there’s one thing we know about innovation in technology—it grows at an exponential rate.

So, summon upon your inner jewelry maker and craft that line of industrial bolo ties you’ve been fantasizing about, or make a modest but brag-worthy foot stool for the living room. Learn how to code or visit the 3D printing lab and make a memorial of your favorite deceased pop star. Explore microcontrollers and CNC routing with Alex Nunn. Come to repair your bicycle—hell, come to repair your car! The possibilities are limitless.

Port City Makerspace
Portsmouth, New Hampshire
Website
Facebook
Twitter

Top photo courtesy Port City Makerspace

The post Turning Sticks Into Sawdust For The Sake Of Art appeared first on Take Magazine.

It may be chilly in Bridgeport, Connecticut, this time of year, but at The Bananaland it always feels like a tropical getaway. This banana-themed marketing and design agency in Connecticut’s Park City will give your small business a makeover and have way too much fun doing it. The team of “specialist concierges”—Marcella Kovac, the outspoken civic-involvement advocate; Laurie Kovac, the cat-loving photography enthusiast; and Jordan Rabidou, the coding homesteader—are not only incredibly talented at what they do, but they’re also some of the most passionate people you’ll ever meet. The affection they have for their stomping grounds emanates through how they do business. They’ll curate your brand to perfection taking your vision and goals and sprinkling their own ideas and expertise into the mix, banana style.

Marcella Kovac

Laurie Kovac

Jordan Rabidou

The seven-year-old vacation of a company was founded on the notion that good design is born from crazy ideas. Their impeccable work and service has made for very happy clients, in turn filling a niche in the up-and-coming city. The Bananaland provides branding, website design, a strong social media presence, and everything in between. “We have so much fun in what we’re doing. We don’t want to be taken too seriously and we don’t want this to be like ‘work work,’” says Jordan. How can you have a bad time working in an office with pineapple wallpaper, tropical plants, and assorted banana paraphernalia strewn about?! It goes without saying, seasonal depression is not a thing here.

The magic of The Bananaland lies in the three co-owners’ unshakeable passion for the city they live in. Disclaimer: If you don’t want to be persuaded to move to Bridgeport, don’t talk to them. “Marcella and I moved here nine years ago, and we saw so much potential in the city,” says Jordan. “There’s so much rich diversity, and an art scene that’s coming out from underground and flourishing, and we are just so happy to be a part of it,” Marcella adds. Their love for their city is infectious and so well-spoken, making them the unofficial marketing department of Bridgeport.

This is why starting one badass company wasn’t enough. Four years ago, Marcella and Jordan founded B:Hive Bridgeport, a place where local business owners, freelancers, and creatives can go to foster positive energy, enthusiasm, and an infallible sense of community in a co-workspace. “Collaborating with other people and creatives is what we’re all about,” Marcella declares. The cleverly casual atmosphere of B:Hive allows for friendly connections, business growth, potlucks—nothing fuels entrepreneurship like home-cooked goodies, that’s a fact—and serves as a catalyst for a reinvention of the city. “We try to act as a partner to the city and try to show everyone how wonderful it is. Our goal is to change the stigma around Bridgeport and show how cool it is if you look below the surface,” says Jordan.

Not a small business or instagram model seeking to expertly curate your aesthetic? No problem, The Bananaland doors are always open and Marcella, Jordan, and Laurie would love to meet you! Grab your boarding pass, The Bananaland is going to take you on your dream vacation—and you don’t even have to leave New England.

The Bananaland – marketing and design company
Bridgeport, Connecticut
Website
Facebook

All photography by Victoria Gloria Photography

The post Heading to the Bananaland appeared first on Take Magazine.