Art + Auctions

AD Innovator Print All Over Me Hones Skills at the New Museum’s New Inc.

AD Innovator Print All Over Me joins the latest crop of creatives at New Inc.
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New Inc. members work out of office space in the New Museum–owned building next door.

Jesse and Meredith Finkelstein of AD Innovator Print All Over Me (PAOM) have a new office: a sunbathed second floor on the Bowery right next door to the SANAA-designed New Museum.

The brother-sister design duo, whose collaboration-based website allows people to apply their own patterns to a wide range of products, is one of 28 full-time creative teams who make up the freshman class of the museum’s New Inc. program. The initiative, which launched in September, provides work space, a well-connected network of mentors, and some cut-and-dried business advice for young innovators with creative promise.

“It’s a lot like being in school,” says Jesse, who applied for the program after seeing it listed in the New Museum’s e-blast. “We’ll be working, and then all of a sudden there’s a talk in the back with John Maeda.”

To New Inc. director Julia Kaganskiy, New York City’s soaring number of art and design graduates demanded a program that would channel young, creative ideas into buoyant businesses.

“Many [recent graduates] want to stay and build their business here but feel they don’t have proper training or skills to do so,” she explains. “There was a gap to be filled in supporting these different kinds of start-ups.”

But who makes the cut? Kaganskiy says it’s all about “cultural innovation.” The individuals and creative teams who were chosen are united by their emphasis on technology and their experimentation with never-before-used processes and techniques.

During the yearlong New Inc. program, participants spend their days batting around ideas with the other young creatives in their midst (PAOM is in talks with Sabine Seymour of Moondial, who is pioneering clothing that will sync to an iPhone and operates like a video game) and attending lectures by professionals such as Yancey Strickler from Kickstarter and curator Lauren Cornell. They receive monthly critiques from curatorial staff and, if the opportunity arises, a chance to insert themselves into whatever the New Museum is up to.

For PAOM, this has meant an ongoing collaboration with artist Chris Ofili, an opportunity Jesse calls “completely insane.” It started with a silk shift dress that they printed with one of his graphic drawings. The limited-edition piece was sold in the New Museum Store, and they even made a miniature version for Ofili’s daughter to wear to the opening of his New Museum retrospective. Now they are working on a Triennial capsule collection for the New Museum Store that will include print-covered furnishings and clothing (including the Ofili-designed dress), which will be showcased at New York’s upcoming Armory show.

“We spend so much of our time producing things that we don’t always have an opportunity to take stock of the cultural significance of what we’re doing,” Jesse says. “Now we’re in an environment with lots of smart people who can educate us about our own projects and help us think differently about PAOM.”

To see PAOM’s collection of over two million products, visit printallover.me

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