We Noticed: Wynwood Arts District Miami

Industrial Design is a broad field, covering a lot of ground.  That’s just one of the many perks of the profession we love.  Architecture. Interior Design. Brand Development:  Any discipline that affects our physical and aesthetic environment is impacted by the design principles included in the curriculum of an Industrial Designer.

The wide-ranging nature of Industrial Design has allowed us to work across a variety of fields at CMDG. And because our job requires us to re-imagine work in each of those areas, we’re always on the look-out for new, better ways to implement existing designs.  It’s a bit of a habit with us.

But a couple of weeks ago while on vacation in Miami, we came across something so remarkable, so fresh, it flipped our artistic comfort level upside-down. It’s called the Wynwood Arts District, and we can’t imagine how anyone could ever improve it.

Until a few years ago, Miami’s Wynwood district was a dilapidated industrial neighborhood, filled with derelict factories and abandoned warehouses.  But starting around 2009, all those cavernous, unused spaces began to attract the attention of artists in search of large, inexpensive spaces to make and display art.  Much like New York City’s Soho neighborhood in the 1970s, Wynwood quickly blossomed into an arts district, filled with studios, galleries, performance spaces, and entertainment venues.

Today, Wynwood Miami is one of the largest open-air street art installations in the world, hosting over 70 galleries and museums.

Best of all, the art isn’t confined to the outside of the building. Each structure allows graffiti and street artists to use its exterior walls as canvases.  As you can see in our photos, these are not your average graffiti-tagged buildings. The work on display at Wynwood is some of the most forward-thinking art we’ve ever seen. It’s expressive, vibrant, cutting-edge stuff.

It’s impossible to pick a favorite from all the work we saw, but Bicicleta Sem Freio definitely stands out. They’re a pair of Brazilian illustrators and designers whose work includes everything from rock concert posters to a line of Nike apparel. The third picture from the top, above, is theirs. You can’t get a true sense of the level of detail from just a photo, but we were blown away.

If you have plans to travel to Miami, we can’t recommend the Wynwood district highly enough. Wynwood, along with Art Basel–which attracts artists and art-lovers to Miami for four days in December every year–is contributing to Miami’s reputation as one of the world’s premier art destinations.

 

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