Design in Focus: NYC World Cup, Arsh Raziuddin in dialogue with 2026 NYC World Cup Czar Maya Handa

Okay, everybody. Hello. Hello. Thank you all so much for joining us this Sunday afternoon. Uh my name is Alexandra Hutkowski. I'm the curator of public programs here at the museum. And we're in for a fun one today. Thank you so much for being here. Um we are going to discuss how design operates at the scale of a city connecting audiences, communities and global attention in real time through the lens of the NYC World Cup campaign that I hope many of you have been able to encounter while you're out there walking around on your commute or digitally digitally through your devices. I know my favorite um I take the ferry to work and I see it on the ferry on the outside on the inside and it just really makes me happy. So to do so we're honored to have Arsh Razudin who is a creative director, designer and artist whose work spans publishing culture and public life with collaborators and clients including the New York Times, The Atlantic, Kai Nast, Nike, Bloomberg, A24 and Penguin Random House. Woo. >> [applause] >> most recently VP of global creative at Christy's. She previously served as art director of Sunday Opinion at the New York Times, contributed to the Atlantic's 2019 redesign, led Bonapetit's 2021 redesign, and of course directed the design of New York City's official FIFA World Cup 2026 campaign, which brings us here today. We're also joined by Maya Honda to my right who serves as mayor Zoran Mandani's World Cup ZAR responsible for carrying out the mayor's vision for an affordable, accessible, and joyful World Cup summer. She most recently managed the mayor's winning general election campaign and previously worked as a management consultant in international development and emergency response. Thank you for being here. [applause] We are going to jump into conversation. You'll see this is going to be looping on the back. You'll see many of the places and the design um going on behind us. Uh we'll talk for around like 45 minutes or so. At the end, we'll have time for Q&A. So, I hope you'll join us in that and uh do a little raffle, which you all should have a little ticket for. So, jumping right in. Arsh, tell us about the campaign, how it's going so far, how it started, the inspiration, etc. Let's just kick it off there. >> Thank you so much for the introduction and thanks everyone for joining and thank you Cooper Hewitt. Um, how we started, I know we talked about this and we'll probably talk about it further. It was much faster than I think anyone uh could imagine. Uh I had people come up to me like you must have been I mean even my close friends like how long were you NDA on this like I didn't know you were doing it and I think it truly like I can't even count there's not even two weeks that it happened within the design part of it and um I designed it by myself. uh Anish Bupati who is the creative director at uh city hall and was the designer of the campaign uh assisted me a bit and we like went back and forth but it was kind of me tunnel vision designing in the zone >> going crazy. Yeah. Um, and it started, um, I was approached by someone at city hall that they're thinking about doing a campaign specific for New York City. Um, which, you know, we were just discussing is rare. Uh, usually it's just the FIFA branding, but the mayor was interested in that and they wanted to just kind of see what could come about. Um, and I think like the prompt was vague, the brief was vague, but I had a sense of what the mayor liked in the city, what he wanted to see, the kind of energy behind it. Um, so there was a lot of just design thrown at the wall and not everything stuck. But, um, this did and and I think it did because it is the most obvious solution. And I think if you are familiar with my work, oftentimes it is the most obvious solution. And I think that's what makes design interesting that you can take something that is so so obvious that you like the best design to me is when it is so obvious that you're like why didn't this why has no one made this before or like why hasn't it been used in this context before? Um, so yeah, I mean I saw a soccer ball and I saw the big apple and >> Yeah. [laughter] >> And I think >> and even made up a word, right? >> The I did not coin that, but City Hall, the people on Maya's team um yeah, it became the Bappel and then that stuck too. But I think um I think I don't know if this is like a negative way to look at it, but to me design is like very iterative and it's Warholian and like you take something and make it into itself. And I think the execution is important. like this could have been executed in a bunch of ways that wouldn't have felt the same. But I think we nailed the execution as a team and you know everyone was involved and like that didn't look right or uh that feels off and we kind of worked together after the idea was there. >> And design-wise do you want to talk a little bit about more like the color or if there was inspiration like Olympics or you know how did you how did you get here? >> I [snorts] mean we looked at the World's Fair. Um, we looked at old Olympics. Um, my family is a big soccer family, so I've seen jerseys my whole life and I I'm familiar with, you know, the kind of printing and posters and signage and badges and um that comes with it. So, I went to the New York Public Library collection. I pulled a lot of folders. like there is an entire row, two rows in one um section of the collection of just signage of New York City streets. So, you know, if I go back to old iterations of the design, the type was completely different. Um but then again like when you think about designing for a city or something this large or even not knowing what the applications will be like you know I I tried a bunch of stuff and they're like okay Adobe or Google font only you know like we have to use things that everyone can use that limits you know >> accessibility. Yeah. >> Yeah. It limits like half of the people are on Canva, half are on Figma, half are on Photoshop. People are really scrappy and putting it. I mean, I'm I'm amazed by how many people are putting things together in city hall. Um, and I think the colors, you know, we I learned a lot um working with Mai's team and just, you know, New York City tourism was a big part of this because they have hosted so much of what you see around the city and u tourism has their own colors. So, I'm just trying to I was grasping straw a bit of like how do we make this happen and how do we make it fast? And the tourism office has like a really great pallet that relates back to the city. So, the green is the green from the subway green and the red is from the thank you bags and the yellow is from the taxis. Um the orange is the ferry and the blue is the coffee cup maybe. >> Oh, yeah. I think I'm like not right. I think so. Yeah. Um, so yeah, we were pulling I was just trying to figure out as how much I can bring from city hall itself. >> Yeah, that makes sense. Um, and kind of to both of you, so where is it showing up in the city? I know that, you know, we probably could all raise our who's is there anyone who has not seen the campaign out there that's successful. [laughter] Um, but tell us, you know, like some of the maybe some even anecdotal like uh stories like I the fairy the like uh banner flags >> Maya Maya has a treasure chest of >> so it's everywhere and one of the most important pieces was that it just really be clear that this was the city's World Cup campaign and so every single agency that we worked with every single outside partner um corporate sponsor you name it we said, "Here's the branding. Let's go." And a big piece of that was just, you know, we understand as an administration that, you know, we're doing things differently for the World Cup and differently overall. And we want people to really be aware and really draw that back to us. So, you know, the bus the bus um stops, the fairies, and we wanted to get creative, right? So, garbage trucks, like the sanitation trucks, um some of the typical stuff, the light pole banners, but the jerseys is a unique thing. Um, I'm trying to think where the other really creative pieces were. We did hand fans. >> The hand fans. There was scarves, um, pins, I think those, um, big events that the watch. >> Oh, yeah. The stages for like watch parties that we hosted. So, really everything. Whatever we could put the branding on, we did. Taxis have it on like a little sticker. Um, >> on video, >> I mean, on pennies for our like different programming. >> Um, yeah. >> I keep finding it places, too. I didn't know it existed. [laughter] Yes. >> Literally, I feel like every time I look up, I'm like, "Oh my god, there it is." And I have like a whole folder of photos that I was saving and I was like, "Okay, I got to just stop saving." >> I don't even know where this is. >> Pier, it might be pier 17 or pier one of the >> Looks like pier 17. Wow. It's so great. So, okay, Maya, turning over to you. You are the first ever NYC World Cupsar. Can Yes. [laughter] [applause] Can you just talk about like how does that happen? What was the conversation with the mayor? What is your role? Like I think we we understand the the ZAR name, but um like what get down to it. What is that? >> It's a great question. Um I also did not know what a World Cup ZAR was and I was not aware that I was in the running to be World Cupsar, but um I did manage the mayor's general election campaign and I think there are many elements of this that feel like a campaign, right? And part of a campaign is um as quickly as possible being able to uh generate momentum and also empower others to support you in generating the momentum. And so you know that was what we did on the campaign, right? We had a lot of things that were very devolved. We had our design and branding that was everywhere. We had our DIY merch um kind of these events that we had where you could go and screen print um things on your like different t-shirts. That actually is quite emblematic of the way we approached the campaign, which was how can we as quickly as possible and as um on message and as disciplinedly as possible empower people to um do all of this work together because it was a movement, right? And then separately from that, I met the mayor playing soccer like in 2021 and we are both huge Arsenal fans, huge soccer fans. Um, I do think I have a unique understanding of his vision and we've like really shared that love for the game and um the love for what the game is originally intended to be. >> Yeah. >> And so how it came about was, you know, after he won he was kind of like, [laughter] do you want to help make the World Cup first? >> Great. And and the answer was yes. And I think the other thing that really permeated the campaign was this sense that, you know, people mostly interact with city government in ways that are kind of disappointing, right? you get a ticket on your car or you are like trying to figure out what the heck your landlord is doing to you and so you're like calling 311 duty, correct? Jury duty, you know, you name it. Often it's unpleasant, right? And we really had this vision that we wanted the administration to also make people's lives better, not just in the really important and crucial ways of your groceries and your rent, but also in the ways of, you know, the sport that you love, the game that you love, providing you with more opportunities, making it more accessible. And so we felt like this isn't just a fun thing. This is also really important for the work of governing and the work of restoring trust in um city government in and of itself. And so that was the idea and then it was campaign speed all the way through. I don't think government has ever moved this fast maybe in the history of government. Um as Arsh said she was around the clock. It was you know we were like the mayor needs sketches in three days. Um the branding was obviously [laughter] crazy. I feel like I didn't even know how crazy of an ask that was. And she was like, "Sure." [laughter] >> It was it was crazy. >> Um but but the idea here was how can we bring that spirit of joy, the accessibility to working-class people um to everyone in the city in the face of frankly FIFA, you know, not really leading that charge. And so a lot of our um I I guess I'll say also one of the pieces that the mayor often talked about was like the kind of like retro World Cup um the designs where it's like a anthropomorphic fruit. I don't know if you like remembered seeing those but he loved that it was very like um fun and corny. >> It was Mexico like 82. >> Yes. Yes. Yes. And it was like an orange with like eyes, you know, and he loved that it was like delightful and and a little corny and fun. And so that I think permeated obviously some of the design pieces but also some of the work that we did, right? So the a thousand affordable tickets in a lottery. Um we did soccer streets. So you know uh New York City public schools had students who got to like do these street soccer fairs. Um we have a field in each burrow open 247 for pickup soccer because the idea is it's it's for everyone. It's fun. It's magical. And we're kind of supporting people being able to have those moments. I think the fairies also like the joy and delight of seeing one of the fairies come up. That's what it's really about. So, >> I was I was going to add [snorts] um we were also just discussing that I think the way it's been able to happen so fast is because there is a new world of who works in city hall. Um they are like in the zeitgeist. They are people we might know. Um I would have never known anyone in city hall government before. I don't know. I didn't know anything honestly about like the mayor, you know, like I knew the trolling parts of things, but not like truly about city government. And I think having that connection to people who actually work in government and that you can find a way to talk to someone, um, it's obviously the most diverse city hall we've probably seen. So, I think to even be able for someone to reach out to me to do this, it just wouldn't have happened um in another administration. >> Yeah. >> Oh, yeah. And and I think um that comes directly from the mayor and yeah, as our said, I never would have known anyone who worked in city hall, much less worked myself. Um but I think another piece of this was we were able to reach out to volunteers, some like DSA volunteers who helped take Arch's design and show that on a website, for example. Um, we had so many people who were excited to support and so we were able to move really fast. We were able to work with different agencies. They were incredible. EDC, NYC tourism, parks, DOT, everyone was able to adopt this branding very quickly. And I think like speaking with a lot of folks who had been in government for a long time, um, they were kind of like, yeah, we got into this to make people's lives better. And it's like such an incredible reminder of this breath of fresh air of oh this is what we came in to do things like to do and um you know we don't have an administration of no and we don't have necessarily those issues with corruption or a lack of direction and so people really came together in a pretty beautiful way inside and outside. Yeah, I was just going to say, you know, at Cooper Hill, we talk a lot as a as the nation's museum um of design. Uh we talk a lot about design is everywhere. And I think like this talk is great because it, you know, I think the first point of [snorts] uh like oh a designer, you know, design the communication design, the graphic design. Um, but designing the systems, all of those systems from sanitation systems to like wayfinding to the subway, all of those design systems are asked to be kind of integrated with the campaign as the overlay, which is quite complicated, but it sounds like it all moved quite quite well. I think um the toolkit part of it where Anish played a huge role in this because he had done it for the campaign but we made brand guidelines as we were designing. I mean you know there are pieces out there that have the wrong vector file of the Bappel and I see them [laughter] and >> only you know only you know >> tell us exactly what the toolkit is because that was a a nice part of it too really. So the toolkit, it's like a brand guidelines of how to use it. And I think what's what I think is interesting about design in this context is participation. And I think um having someone wear a jersey or having someone wave a fan or you know um attend something where you receive the baffle, it becomes like a part of like the fabric of the World Cup. and um to do that, you know, um and you can talk about I can't speak to it, but Ma's program with the $26 cups and meals and um things that like you get to you get and they were a lot of local businesses and like places in our neighborhood and in Bedstein and Fort Green and I think like you can walk up to your local bar and like get a beer cup and it has the branding and you get excited and it's not something you don't always have to wait in line for the jerseys, right? But even when you do um >> actually I'll talk about the jerseys after, but I think um that has like a whole other talk about >> but I think that what what was interesting is you know I had to kind of surrender as a designer that do I want control or participation and I think participation is what I wanted to happen. And I think what that meant is that that toolkit goes out to everybody and like your bodega man is making [laughter] that sandwich sign and the type is wrong. The battle is stretched and >> the ink cartridge was almost out. >> It's okay. And I think it's okay. >> Yeah. No, that some of my favorite uses of the design are the like extremely off ones [laughter] that just do have the baffle and like they went for it with the colors. You can tell. [laughter] >> Yeah. There's a lot of like Momo places in Queens with just like apples everywhere, I guess. >> But that's the point, right? And it's recognizable. [laughter] Um, but I think the the $26 deal we loved also um I don't know if there's there's no cups there, but there's f uh pictures of cups. So, one of the things we talked about also and that I think about a lot on campaigns is and I have like a fake like Gandhi quote, but it's like be the momentum you wish to see in the world kind of thing. [laughter] Um, and that's kind of like the thing I always tell people and and we thought of that with the World Cup too, right? So, what we have in New York is we have restaurant week, which I'm sure you all are aware of. And restaurant week happens, I think, um, it'll happen shortly after this, but we said to ourselves, well, restaurant week is just what we say is restaurant week. So, why can't we do something similar for the World Cup? The World Cup is a special moment. We want it to be clear that it's a special moment. So, we talked to NYC tourism amazing, amazing partners, and we said, "What does the World Cup restaurant week look like? what is something that's really participatory, that celebrates the tourists who are coming in, that celebrates our food scene, that shows the best of what New York City had to offer. And they invented it out of their own heads because we were creating that momentum. And now we can see how it took off. But that $26 meal deal, the toolkit that helped all these restaurants participate, these commemorative cups that you can get one from each burrow, folks are like going to Staten Island for the first time ever to pick up one of these beautiful cups that arch designed. um they look so incredible and again that's just some you know the cost was relatively low in the scope of things that the city can pay for and does pay for and yet I think the impact was incredibly outsized um because both of the distinctive look the like once in a you know blue moon nature of it the fact that it was so special um and it really brought people together in a really exciting way. >> Yeah. And so there's a lot of firsts going on. And um this will segue to the jerseys, but are are any other So New York City's never done besides restaurant like sporting wise has never done anything like this. And are other cities have you seen anybody kind of take this initiative in other cities? Because the World Cup is in how many US cities? I can't remember. >> So there's a total of 13 host cities and I think eight or nine are in the US. Um but the answer is no. And it was a very funny conversation we had with FIFA who were kind of like, "Yeah, you're the only city that's doing this." And it really took us by surprise, I think. Look, like FIFA's branding is really iconic also in its own ways. Oh, those are my nails, please. [laughter] Thank you. Um, shout out to Lara Lux Nails. Everybody should go. Um, h I was They were amazing. Um, so [laughter] sorry, nails jump scare. Um, okay. So yeah, no other city did this. And it it was so funny because it seemed so obvious to us that we should do this, but I think a lot of cities kind of took on FIFA's branding, but and look, that is very cohesive. And so what that meant was that everything all seemed of a piece, but also you didn't hear about a lot of the special stuff that other cities were doing. And I think with this idea of New York is the best city in the world, New York is going to do things differently. Um that meant that we had to look different and that meant we had to feel different. And so it's this incredible branding that made that possible. But once we knocked down the door of, oh, no one's ever done this branding project, then we're like, well, what else is nobody else doing that we could [laughter] possibly do? And that's where things like the fairies and everything else came from. We literally asked every agency, what are the things you've always wanted to do that you've never been able to do in city government? Or what are the secret things that you think would be an incredible surprise and delight for people? And they showed up, right? Like the fairies came from EDC. There were so many different agencies that had these suggestions. DSNY came to us with the sanitation trucks. Um, and it really was kind of a whole of government effort >> and we're also the only city with our home jerseys. So, let's let's go there. Tell us the whole uh design process. How do you get them? It's still ongoing by the way. >> Um, and what has the response been? >> Answer that part. But, [laughter] um, the design, I mean, the response has been like overwhelmingly incredible. People are like breaking their computers. I mean, [laughter] these two stood in line since 1:00 a.m. that day, and all my friends texted me at like 5 minutes before like, "Do you think we should get there now or like in an hour?" And I'm like, "Someone's been there since 1:00 a.m., so you're not going to get it." Um, but I think, you know, I mean, the mayor uh in a delightful way and surprising way has like a very good eye. um as we like know but working some on something directly like I made a lot these are people in the wild that I saw during the Knicks game I just asked to take photos of some of them um I made a lot of jerseys that he didn't approve like the branding was approved quicker than the jerseys I think because I think going back to what we were talking about with like the old style nostalgia kind of like ref jersey I think beyond that I think the stuff I was making felt like lux and he was like no he was like your friends like not that he said this directly but I'm saying it's not like for me and my friends you know it's for every single person it's for people of like all diverse you know where they work how they work places burrows and there's no like uniform style for a really like sexy jersey you know so I think he wanted something that felt relatable and approachable and that like felt classic in a way. Um, so we went through a lot of different design options. Um, where that pigeon lives. There were 20 different badges I think I made and none of them were being approved. And then he just said, "I want a pigeon." And I I made a pigeon. Um, >> wait, tell I I actually never noticed the pigeon. That's crazy. >> The pigeon. The pigeon is on the >> THE PIGEON. OH, you know, I never I looked at it really tight. >> That's a pigeon. >> That's amazing. Okay, so pigeon on the left, the um >> B on the right. >> B on the right. New York City. What's on the back? >> The sleeves have the sleeves have the burrow stickers and the names on the other side. And then the back is the 26 um for the year. And there's another babble in the back. >> But um the colorways were approved. like all of that was fine, but it's more like, you know, I was using cursive. It felt like kind of Kith like and that wasn't the the approach. So, I think like we were saying how fast everything went. I made a lot of things and we had no idea like what we were doing next. Um, so yeah, I think like again participation where this became bigger than I expected because we were asked to wait in line and like there was a drop and it was limited and it makes people excited and I think um I another designer I know was DMing me like ah god I'm going to get it and the lines are going on and on and then then he texted me later or something and said that he didn't he couldn't wait in line so he left and then he saw a guy on a bike in Brooklyn wearing it and he screamed out like did you just get that jersey and he was like yeah and then he pulled over and then they talked for 30 minutes and then they got a beer that weekend and like I think I saw this tweet that's like Mayor Mumani solving the male like uh loneliness crisis [laughter] um and I think I not the male loneliness crisis necessarily but I do think so many people were talking about it and like chatting about it and like people I see and they don't know it's me but when I'm walking down the street and people are wearing it and they're like you look so good you know and it's re it's like caused a thing that feels fun. I mean these memes are so funny >> um uh about the jerseys but >> I was shocked like they were going for $2,000 within the day and people were buying them. >> Wow. >> Um yeah. No. >> Okay. So how do you get them that because the first batch sold out unexpectedly. The first batch sold out unexpectedly or kind of >> I think I was like it wasn't unexpected. I just didn't think there would be a line since 1:00 a.m. for like hours and hours. >> Was it at city hall that you had to get them? >> It was at the city store. So very close by. >> Okay. So what is it's for those that don't know what is the city store? >> The city store is a very very cute store kind of like near city hall where you can get basically like merch from all the different agencies. You can get DOT merch. You can get like cute branded um like street signs like all of that kind of stuff. And let me tell you, they have never experienced customers [laughter] in all of their years of existence. Like they have a lot of interns who are like supporting and the interns were very overwhelmed. [laughter] Um, but I think, you know, it was it was incredibly exciting. And so we're now doing limited drops basically like a few hundred go on sale at 10 a.m. every day. And so you can >> online >> online. Okay. >> Do not over overrun the interns, please. It's online. [laughter] So you can go and then you can pick it up in store. Um but we really do encourage people to also look at the other stuff in the city store because it's very cute and um all of the proceeds go back to the city budget. So um you're supporting. >> But what I think is also interesting about this whole thing is that Mazy is like a familyowned business in Clinton. >> Maz who made them. >> Yeah. Mazi who's made them. They make jerseys and t-shirts and like custom wear. um I think mainly in sports related stuff but in other things but their studios in Clinton Hill and I I went the day that we went to go photograph them for that GQ article and um I mean they're sewing everything by hand like they're working around the clock for everyone to get these jerseys and yeah I mean like we literally I don't think can make more of them because >> no I mean one thing that was very clear was we were like we want to work with a local family-owned business to do this. It felt very important to us to support like New York City um makers and as a result there's a very limited supply of jerseys because they are actually pulling all-nighters to to sew these by hand as she said. So that's the one kind of thing that we hope everybody does understand is like you know people are working very hard to make this. We are supporting a local business and I mean it's just incredible to see the demand >> and just how much they're making them to be honest. Like it's not a lot for like everyone else, but for them it's >> thousands. Yeah. >> So, how many more days are possible, too? >> I I believe at least there's another drop tomorrow. I don't know. You can go on the mayor's Instagram and it'll say the exact days that it's available. >> We'll find out online. >> Everyone's like, "Yeah, cool, cool, cool." So, [laughter] >> okay. So, we've covered the application on the cities, we've covered the merch. What about digitally? So tell us a little bit more about you know that I think one thing that we know is that the city is looking a bunch more savvy um as far as social media but I think cities in general are realizing the potential of social media um and website you know all the applications that you could do uh with communication design like this. So um what has been the strategy on social media? Is it is it that participation strategy? Like how do you keep track of it? How's the response been? >> Yeah, I mean I guess I'll start from the beginning here and say that everyone knows this is a huge strength of the mayors and you know that can tra like that can kind of track back to a few things. One is he is very charming, charismatic, a great communicator. Um and that is kind of the first thing that you need. You know I've worked for a lot of candidates and you know that is uh in short supply often. Um the other piece is that from the beginning the campaign was supported by DSA and that is sort of a built-in audience in many ways right and DSA is very disciplined and when you endorse someone then you support them and you retweet and you like and you post right and so it did create a lot of algorithmic momentum that grew his audience pretty significantly both his talent and then the final piece of course is the talent of the amazing creators and you know we were able to hire artists on the campaign documentary filmmakers people who would not ordinarily work in politics or in campaign campaigns. Um, and that also that creativity um, and the style really governed the way we do things. So, those are like the three kind of foundational pieces that I'll call out. Um, and then obviously it is a virtuous cycle when you have like really great content. Um, and I'll let Arsh talk more about like the different kind of dynamic pieces of the design, but I think we've done some pieces like a blitz where it's kind of like send us photos of you seeing the branding out in the wild and that had tremendous uptake. Um, and we've been kind of creative and participatory once again there. Um, which has been really exciting. >> Yeah, I think >> I was just gonna as you jump in too, maybe you could share uh a little bit because I don't know um who follows Arsh's work here, but hopefully all of you will afterwards. You do like a lot of book design. Like are you are you normally doing so much digital or was this a new thing? >> Yeah, I think I do a lot of work that no one sees. Um, and I think I've, you know, I've had high positions in at institutions where like I touch everything, right? So, like I might not be making all of the social assets, but I'm approving all of them and I set the strategy and um I have helped build websites for all of the places that I've worked. Um, I think it's just because I've always had these like I I am now running my own studio, but I think since I've had these full-time gigs, I'm not like a big like I post, but I don't I post things that are easy. Like I'll just like put the book cover on a mockup and like post it, you know? But I think like I do a lot more than print actually. I love doing book covers and I love doing magazines and it makes it um they're they feel novel now. like it's like a novelty to be able to do it in a world that is so digital. So that's what I share. That's when I can feel like the most creative sometimes. But I think like branding systems, I mean the Atlantic was the first place that I did a major redesign, but you know, I see a few Atlantic people in here, I think. But they're we had a team of four who did the entire redesign. um then and we had like brilliant people, but we made a new website, we made a new app, we made a new magazine, we made um we had a new font created, a tight face for the Atlantic. Um everything was new and it was just four to five of us doing it. So although I wasn't leading that, I was a pretty heavy team member and that kind of set the foundation of all the other things I did. But yeah, the thing that people that I post and that people remember is the magazine, but it was kind of all of it. Um, but I think in terms of this, it really kind of was like me and Anishh that worked on it. But like I said, there are so many people in city hall working around the clock to get things out so that everyone like can know when to get a jersey. And um, I think what has made the digital part of this special is the engagement of everyone. Like I felt insufferable of like the amount of people tagging me and I'm like, "Okay, I'm posting the BA again." Like every second I'm [laughter] posting the same bus stop, but I was just like it builds momentum of like people excited about seeing the bus stop, you know. Um, but I think yeah, the mayor has always been incredible with social. I think, you know, there are good and you can use social for bad or good and I think it's for good, you know. Um, I think the administration does a great job of connecting with younger people. Um, and older people too that are on their phones just as much. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, there's like there's gifts, there's like videos, there's Do you have you been able to qu I know you've been in the thick of it, but have you quantified at all like how many designs there are? No. No. No. No. No. [laughter] >> Too busy making new designs. Yeah. >> Oh, wow. Um, okay. So, um, we're going to kind of move towards joy and togetherness. The the stories that you've told so far of people connecting um have been very touching, but I'm wondering um like what comes next. So, the the World Cup is ending on the 15th, I believe, on Wednesday. >> No, >> 19th. 19. >> Oh my gosh. Sorry. 19th everybody. [laughter] on the 19th. Uh so this keep you know this keeps going. Um but in both I want to hear from both of you individually like what maybe what you've learned from the joy and togetherness. I think we've heard like a lot of positives but maybe something that like didn't work out that you've learned from and like what's how do you continue this spirit in your work both in the city and as a designer? >> I guess I'll talk about two different things. So the first is anything where you're moving this quickly and trying to do this much, there will be so many things that don't end up happening that right like there are probably twice as many initiatives that we started working on and some got to the phase of things being built before being killed. So the thing that's really important to understand is just how iterative it is and just how you have to operate if you're going to move that fast. Um like one example, we were trying to put a soccer field on the Staten Island Ferry and that didn't work. Whatever. But like we [laughter] got we were budgeting, we were scoping, we were hiring. Like we got you know this close to being able to do it and then you know whatever. Um [laughter] anyways, rip rip. We'll see one day. Um but but I think actually that's like a good thing to for everyone to really be aware of is it's pretty devastating to kill you know the projects that you love but also that is part of being able to move this quickly. The other piece I guess I'll tell a story about um one of the initiatives and then that can talk about the future. So we have these 247 seven soccer fields that are open in each burrow and so people are playing overnight and this was something that came together again very quickly over the course of two weeks and we were kind of like we have a suspicion that there are a lot of people in the city who don't play soccer because they finish work really late at night. whatever their schedule is and however they interact with the day, they are just unable to make it in the normal times when people are able to use public space. And so we were like, let's just do this and see what happens. And we almost didn't really promote it for the first couple weeks. We're like, let's just see whatever. And they are being used overwhelmingly. They are being used until 6:00 in the morning every single night in every burrow because people are walking up and people are like third shift workers. They are contractors. Um, there was this one group of of guys who have been playing together for 12 years after they got off work at like midnight and they were like, "Cops just chase us off dark fields basically every week and we are begging you to keep these fields open because we have been able to play." Um, and it's like so so so incredible. Um, I think a testament to this thing that we said to ourselves which is let's use the World Cup to try as an excuse to do things that we would not ordinarily do and that government would not ordinarily do. And there's so many things like that, whether it's a bus lane or whether it's these 247 fields. And so part of what I'm doing in the next uh week or two with folks on my team is just figuring out what can continue. Right? A lot of these bus lanes and like improvements that um DOT made in support of the World Cup are going to continue. Um there's a bus lane in like to LaGuardia basically that like whatever I think it was 90,000 people every day are like up and down that stretch. and we shaved 6 minutes off the route and now that's going to continue because we saw that success as a pilot during the World Cup. I am very interested in what it would mean to extend field lighting hours in the city for example. Um there's so much like can we build many pitches like what is the legacy of the World Cup beyond the final whistle um that we are thinking about. So very very excited for that and hopefully a lot more to come. Do you know I'm you can tell I'm like a quantify kind of person but how many like ones estimate how many people have come to New York City or or are estimated to come throughout the World Cup in addition to who you know already the residents. >> Yeah. So the estimate was about 1.2 million visitors I believe I believe that's the case and I think you know hotel occupancy has been quite close to full. So, we are definitely seeing um an economic impact, an economic benefit, as well as folks who are coming that hopefully are going to come back because they had so much fun. >> Yeah. >> Thanks. >> Um I would say to piggyback off of that that a so many things I designed are mocked up within like a day. It was killed by the next day. I mean, I didn't even know the pins were printed. Like, I don't I don't know fully what's there and what's not. Um, but I think I I received feedback from a mentor I have about as a designer I can speak to, but maybe it's applicable in other ways where I was just like annoyed that something wasn't going through and they said to me that the best thing you can do as a designer is just move on. Like you know when to leave the project, know when to let it go, know when it's not worth your time. So, I think like there were moments I'm disappointed, but um that happens all the time. And I think like the one thing I wanted to see besides obviously that ferry was um the buses were going to be wrapped at one point. Um and we designed the whole bus out and it was like huge baffles on both side and I love the bus so I I was excited for it but it didn't happen. But there was there were so many moments like that or like you know I'll start something and they're like we have to post this now and I'm like okay you know just post whatever someone made it's fine. Um, but I would say what I would like to keep seeing, not necessarily related to city hall because I can imagine there's going to be a lot of amazing fun things. And I I you see a little bit already where the mayor has asked like an RFP out for the grocery stores and like that is unusual for city hall to ask agencies within the city to submit a proposal to design grocery stores. Like that's amazing. I think that will keep happening to some degree um of participation. But I think for me, I would love for like clients to start working with independent designers, smaller firms. I think um there's a lot of huge agencies that maybe are the right fit sometimes, but there's often a lot of talent just within the city. Um that people can build a team, you know, like if I had to, I could build a team because I have so many connections with artists and illustrators and production people. And um I didn't have the time to build a team, but I think for future projects, it's nice to um I don't know, believe in a talent you see and pursue it and like know that they will like I I think half of why this project was successful was there was a just a trust like that I would get it right even if it wasn't right immediately. And that's very unusual. Um and I I rarely feel that type of trust where everyone was just like, "Oh, she'll get it right." which is like give it a minute. >> Yeah. >> Well, I think it's very inspiring too for the designers out there to hear that. So like both ways like coming from the city to put those RFPs and stuff out there but to believe in our you know believe in yourself and apply and put yourself out there to these bigger projects. >> Um great. Okay. Uh we're going to jump into Q&A. So I'm going to come down with the mic um and we'll take our first question. Um, this is a very simple question, but in the uh I guess like stickers collection, there is a green sticker with I'm guessing are they chickens? They're not pigeons. Just curious. They're doves. Okay. And I guess what's the relationship with? So, all the burrows have flags. I did not know that until I started this. Um, the flags are a bit bizarre. Uh, some of them kind of like [clears throat] dated. >> Yes. Um, and so to avoid any sort of like I don't know, like I was trying to figure out how to use the flags. And I think, you know, all parts of the flags didn't make sense, but I tried there wasn't honestly that much um thought behind I was just like, how do I make these look cute from the flags? And the Staten Island one was the only one that was redrawn. And they had these Nothing felt like I could pull it quite um easily except those I think they're doves that were on it, but the sticker idea in general came from like an apple sticker, like a fruit, like a label on a fruit. Um and I know there was like a big push and emphasis on using all five burrows and everything. So, I had to use the names somehow and I figured I might pull something from each because they all had a lot of colors and um it just it matched up very well with the color palette we had. >> The the stickers also were a stroke of genius in part because I think a lot of the things that we associate with some of the burrows, they do not like to be used as associated, right? So, like the Staten Island ferry, for example, is what many people would think of. I think people in Staten Island are like that's not something that represents us, right? And so I think the flags were like a really a really smart thing to do. >> Yeah. I think like they couldn't no one could really argue with anything because it's on their flag. Um so I think honestly like when I pick the colors when I'm doing this I'm I'm trying to get things approved too. Um, and I think, you know, just to say as a designer, there's a lot of particular when you work in like an institution or in government, there's a lot of things that come out that I have my name on that I didn't necessarily agree to or want, but there's just so many people involved that sometimes I think strategic thinking of how will this get approved without um totally sacrificing the design element of it is important as a like creative director. Okay. Next up, we're going to go here and then to you and then to you. >> All right. Um, so I felt like this you were talking about momentum and use of design to kind of push um the mayor's vision and uh you know yeah vision of New York, the mission of of of like the city government in this new iteration. Um, so how do you see this kind of continuing um or how do you see continuing this momentum of use of design to encourage this joyful inclusivity message? So I one of the things that has been important to the mayor is that the campaigns the city is running have different designs, right? So we have a fast and free buses design um which came which like you can see in the presser that they did last week. There's a child care design like a a twocare design. Um, so our campaigns look visually distinctive on purpose because we want people to say, "Oh, that's the thing I'm a part of. I'm I know what I'm looking at. I also understand that that is the way that the city is communicating with me and the things that um, you know, are benefiting me also come from the city and I I have that recognition. So doing that in a way that city government doesn't usually, right? I think in previous administrations it's just this is the font of the city, you know, and we're going to use it and maybe the background will be a different color. Um, but it does feel very important to us to say, "No, no, this is a project. This is a campaign. This is an initiative that is here to make your life better, and here's what it looks like. Here's what it feels like, and here's how you're going to recognize it." um as having been the work of the city of New York. >> Uh maybe the biggest challenge during these uh more than a months uh to make New York uh affordable or accessible for everyone during the World Cup. Thank you. >> Yes. Um 100%. One of the first things that um the mayor and I talked about when I took this role was how can the World Cup be for everyone? We know it's very clear that that is not necessarily FIFA's priority. Um their priority is to make their profit and it is what it is. And we said to ourselves, the the World Cup is coming to New York. That's been decided. Now, how can we make sure New Yorkers benefit? So, it was both um in the five burrows. We know that there's not very many people who ever get to go to the games regardless of how much they cost. So, watch parties in the streets, the $26 deal, the open soccer fields, um kids being able to play, all of that was part of the accessibility. And then we also said, "No, but New Yorkers should get to go to the games." And so we were able to negotiate this $50 affordable ticket deal, which is also something that no other host city did. Um, and no other host city was able to get because we said New Yorkers should be in the stadium as well. >> Or even just the link NYC. >> Oh my gosh. Wait, that was so fun. >> I found that really sweet. It was this was a crazy one where we had this idea like months and months and months ago and it's these link NYC screens that you guys are probably see around and we were able to stream games on 200 of those screens throughout the World Cup and that was like I I I remember I wrote on the whiteboard at the very beginning radically increasing accessibility and I just like pad that on the whiteboard and it's like my handwriting is terrible whatever but every time we were wondering what to do we would like look over at it basically and saying to ourselves how can everyone watch the games link immed immediately came to mind and the layers of things you have to do to get live streaming on a link screen legally. Um, are there concerns about people getting distracted while they're driving? Are there concerns about No, I mean just every single bit of liability, every single bit of the cost of live streaming to a link screen um figuring out how to map it. Um, we had some that was also an opportunity for like really incredible public private partnership frankly. Um, and so I don't know and and that was incredible. And then we were able to do it also for the Knicks, but that was a thing where it's like, you know, in city government often it's better to say no, it's easier to say no. And we pushed and pushed and pushed and we're able to get so much collaboration done to make that possible. And now I think that's now a tool that we can use in the future also to increase accessibility. So very exciting. Um >> um I have two questions. The first one is what was your inspiration to do this? And my second question is what could you say to like young designers to get started on their journey? >> Oh, thank you. Are you a young designer? >> Yes. >> Oh, cute. What What kind of design? Like what do you like to do? >> I like to design like apparel and like shoes and all that stuff. I I actually designed two pairs of shoes. >> Oh, I want to buy one >> during the summer. >> Cool. >> Last summer. >> That's great. I would say to pay attention to the Do you live in New York? >> Uh yeah, I do live in New York. >> Okay. Well, I think living in New York, kids, it's special to live in New York as a kid because you can look at things all the time and you walk past a million crazy design signs and um stores. And I think, you know, I grew up in the suburbs where that's not I don't see things as much. It's just like a a neighborhood I would drive to, you know. Um, so I think I would say to pay attention and to keep a notebook with you and write ideas down that you have when you see something or I don't know if you have a phone, but you can use your parents phone to take photos of things around the city and just keep it in your brain all the time. I think I keep a little notebook that I just write down ideas. Even if they're not good ideas, I still write them down. So I would say to do that as a young budding designer. Um the first question you said what was my inspiration for >> yes >> the babel >> um for like inspiration for like to do to not only the babel but like all >> to be a designer. >> Yeah like to be a designer and the babel. >> Okay. >> Um to be a designer to be honest I I wasn't really that good at anything. I like I didn't know what I wanted to do. Um I was creative growing up, but I didn't um there was like not one thing I was good at. My parents are here and they're going to laugh. [laughter] They came all the way here from DC. But um they're going to laugh. I think like you know I have Indian parents. They told me I'm not going to be a painter or photographer. No shade to anyone who is but I was not allowed to do that. Like so I I remember them saying you have to do something with a computer. So like, and that was before people like had laptops and stuff. So I think they wanted me to be practical about what can give you a life. Um, not that painting and everything can't. There's I think New York, if you're going to be an artist, is the place to be. Where I was from, we didn't at my age back then, there were no other, you know, people like me that were creative. And that's changed a lot. And by the time you need a job, that will change even more. But I think um design was the way for me to apply creativity. I wasn't too bad at it. Um but what helped me really like I wasn't that I was an okay designer most of my beginning of my career. I once I met a mentor that really helped me apply the design. So I met someone who explained design to me that felt easy and I learned how to think about design and once I had someone helping me and guiding me that changed my life. So I think it's important to talk to people and to just always keep conversations open. If you see someone that you really love their work to ask them questions like you're doing now. Um that's what helped me. Um, okay. We have time for two more. You were the first one back here and then I'll make my way up. Um my question is how do you reconcile good design and what design should be like all of the scientific apply ways that you in which you make design happen with the constraints of no time and knowing that a gazillion people will be using your design and you'll have to probably uh be okay with them destroying it as you had mentioned before. Um, how do you know when to step back and stop doing the what you're supposed to do and allow for other people to take over or for design to just be um, yeah, what it is, >> if that makes sense. >> Um, I think it's hard. Well, one, I will say City Hall didn't destroy any of my designs, but yes, other clients have. I think I think um, that's not I feel like the answer isn't applicable to everyone. like everyone's in a different situation of work and education and finances. I think um I think you have to I don't know if this sounds like very conservative, but you kind of have to earn your way to do that a bit. I think um I you know people can look at Instagram and it's all bits of smokes and smoke and mirrors where it might look like I'm doing a bunch of cool projects which I am but I work like a 100 hours a week and I don't sleep and my friends in here know that like I am sac I sacrifice a lot to get those projects because that's what I want to be doing right now. So I've put in a lot of effort for years and years to to come to a place where I can be like I actually don't want to work on that project anymore or like and I actually think I feel grateful that I've reached that place I think a bit younger than I imagined and I don't know if that will stay either that could change again right so I think I'm at a place where I know when to back out I know when to surrender I know when I need to pay my bills and this is a client that will help me do that I know that taking one more book cover will pay my summer vacation. You know, like I I I am practical about what I'm doing and when. I think if it compromises your like if it compromises your integrity as a designer, then yeah, I I think in those moments you have to make a decision. I also think there have been projects that my name is on that I'm not proud of. But I think that's just kind of the way it is. Someone once told me, and I don't know what the math behind this is, but if you like one out of every seven projects, you're doing fine. And I don't know why she said that. She's like a very famous designer, but she told me that. And I just for some I just keep it in mind where I'm I don't like everything I do, but I do like at least one out of every seven projects. So, >> hi. Um I um have a I have an anecdote to share and a question, but the anecdote is um I've not been this much into sports until this summer. And um honestly, your campaign has is a testament to that. Um I feel like I've been searching for like collective joy and that I feel like that is the face of like the collective joy that we've been experiencing in New York. So thank you to the both of you. Um, and as a lover of design, like that is what really like got me into the World Cup to be honest. Um, so it's been a great summer so far. Um, and uh, yeah, so like it's been great design too. Um, also I was a victim of the line. Um, for um, yeah, so I I could say that I like felt really optimistic, but we were like 20 people short of them being out. Um, but what the great thing is like there was seven of us in line that were really optimistic up until they said no. Are you friends now? >> We're all friends. Yeah. And so I'm new to I'm new to New York. So like it was just like such a great way to like So now we have this group a group where >> What's the group chat name? >> 1800 Got Lines. [laughter] And now we just like now we just like uh throughout the city just tell each other the line health of like any line that we might encounter cuz New York is like >> this is why I do anything. >> Exactly. Exactly. So I just I had to share that. Um yeah we we've become really good friends. Um we we hang out now and people ask like how do you guys know each other? Like oh we met in line a week ago. Um so yeah it's been it's been really great um connecting connector. Um but now every drop online drop we're like connecting with each other. We're like is everyone logged in? We haven't been successful but um we're we still have four more days. It's weekdays by the way. Weekdays at 10 a.m. Um anyway, yeah, every time um Zoron was like he was um advertising it, we're like take it off. Everyone already knows. [laughter] Um but yeah, it's been it's been a great um it yeah, it's been a great summer. Um my question is from the time you were approached to do the this campaign like to the first deliverable like what was that timeline like? What did that look like? [laughter] >> 10 days >> maybe. But I will say that first I made that key art the one you see in the bus stops. But I again had to think of it strategically of like everyone I knew everyone was going to get assets to make their own things. So I had to think about like what is the formula to make this where this can now I I we didn't even know if it was going to be on the we didn't know anything. I just know I had to make a key art and then one main graphic. So I'm like okay the babel is the main thing that we can extract. Then the typography will be the same. We have the color palette. I'm gonna make a border with these these pattern like these um stripes and I'm gonna have a um skyline. I actually saw someone like commented like I know it's AI because why is there a hexagon? Because the skyline has like these little yellow hex soccer ball hexagons. They're like why is there a hexagon in the middle of the Empire State? No, sorry, the Statue of Liberty's stomach. And I'm like cuz I was rushing like literally like I didn't know I moved that there. It already got sent out and like it it was over. And yeah, you can see if you can see I got lazy at one point like the hexagons just are in a row instead of scattered cuz I was like I can't. But um yeah, I had to build a formula of what could be extracted and pulled apart with knowing that the babel will be like the main focus. Um, so yeah, it was probably 10 days from like someone emailing me to >> for the record, I don't condone that. And and it was what it was. But >> I also I I enabled this behavior, too, where I >> It's not not really your fault, >> but they didn't ask me to keep looking at everything all the time, but I did like I'm like, can I put my two cents in or can I I I just wanted it to h I wanted to give my time to because I was excited about it. Yeah, it was. Yeah, I we don't recommend giving people so little time and the quality of what we got from the time is just incredible. >> But it's also a testament city hall like they're working more than I am. So like any time I would ping someone, I mean, not that this is good either necessarily, but everyone's just trying. everyone felt excited about something and I think everyone could have given up on a bunch of initiatives and it would have still been okay but you know I'll ping someone at 900 pm or I'll ping someone at 6 am and someone will reply and no one was ever upset like everyone was excited like oh god that looks great I mean Anishh I think 10 times a week was like sick [laughter] >> I think also maybe there's um uh you know tonight we've talked a lot about design and like systems and things like that. But we have not talked a lot about the actual sport of things. Uh but I think that you know there is is the endurance and the kind of bravery and the actual like fitness of uh the spirit of things that maybe was also infiltrating both the city and you at Arsh as a designer. Um well thank you so so much. We um are going to wrap it up here and give a big round of applause. Um, thank you so so [applause] much.