Ode to NYC

Natasha Jen is an award-winning designer, an educator, and a partner at Pentagram. Born in Taipei, Taiwan, she joined Pentagram’s New York office in 2012.

A six-time National Design Award nominee, Natasha’s work is recognized for its innovative use of graphic, verbal, digital, and spatial interventions that challenge conventional notions of media and cultural contexts. Her work is immediately recognizable, encompassing brand identity systems, packaging, exhibition design, digital interfaces, signage and wayfinding systems, print and architecture.

Working at the intersection of technology and culture, Natasha has developed branding for some of the most complex “frontier” technologies, from AR/VR, quantum computing, photonic computing, mobility technologies, gaming, and biotech to crypto/blockchain innovations. Her clients include a wide range of collaborators from global technology brands to cultural institutions, including Google, Pfizer, Waze, Reddit, Lightmatter, Galaxy Digital, New York Botanic Garden, Storefront for Art and Architecture, Center for Architecture, The Asian American Foundation, Harvard Graduate School of Design, Metropolitan Museum, Fernando Romero Enterprise, Bjarke Ingels Group, and OMA New York.

Natasha has earned awards from every major design competition and is frequently published in publications, including Wired, Fast Company, Kinfolk Magazine, Print Magazine, Creative Review, and Metropolis. She was a winner of Art Directors Club’s Young Guns 4 and also served as a judge for the competition in 2007, 2011, and 2017. In 2014, Wired Magazine named her as one of nine “Designers Who Matter.” In 2023, the Royal College of Arts awarded Natasha an honorary fellowship in recognition of her contributions and achievements in the design field.

She serves on the board of Storefront for Art and Architecture in New York. She also served on the Board of Directors of the New York Chapter of the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) from 2014 to 2017. She is a faculty member at the School of Visual Arts BFA Graphic Design Program and is a guest critic at Harvard Graduate School of Design, Yale University School of Art, Cooper Union, Rhode Island School of Design, and the Maryland Institute College of Art. She is a member of the Alliance Graphique Internationale.

Jin Chun is a multidisciplinary designer, originally from Korea, specializing in identity and graphic design. After receiving a BFA in Design from School of Visual Arts, she has worked with diverse clients from small businesses and cultural institutions to large corporations across various industries, being able to adapt to different visual challenges to communicate design concepts.

Artwork Description:
This poster, marked with the declaration “New York Est. 1624,” embodies the convergence of the city’s historical narrative with the avant-garde design aesthetics of retrofuturism. The skyline emerges as both a testament to architectural ingenuity and an emblem of the city’s perpetual transformation. It conjures an impression of New York’s enduring vitality and its relentless quest for progress. This poster prompts imagination of the interplay between tradition and expectation, history, and the limitless possibilities of New York’s future.