Category: Features

Award-winning artist, designer, and creative director Jason Naylor has a pretty impressive background. With clients including Guess, Xbox, Fenty and Space NK, Naylor was previously working in the Creative Department of MAC Cosmetics and brings that flair for colour to his art. For our collaboration, he crafted large-scale typography featuring phrases like “Love you miss you” and “You are my magic” and “You feel close even though you’re far” with colourful lettering, bold backdrops, and plenty of clashes.

The project was pasted on the streets of New York City during the first lockdown, an attempt at uplifting the citizens during a dark, gloomy time. Naylor is passionate about spreading life and colour across his own projects and the world. Based in Brooklyn, he has a BFA in graphic design and runs his own studio. According to his website, his work contains messages of love and positivity because he believes “that kindness is the key to success”. Working across all types of media, Naylor has won awards for his work.

Speaking to Roger Smith, Naylor said that his passion for street art is deep-seated, but that he was scared to try it until he had to. He said that he was asked to create a mural for Microsoft for their SXSW installation when “The wall graphics fell through. It was very last minute, and I didn’t have time to worry about tools.” He added that street art is therapeutic: “Painting in the street, in public is the most meditative place I have. Despite being in public, it’s a very peaceful, magical place I go when doing it. I love the energy of people watching, it energizes me to stay focused and productive. The process can be gruelling, going up and down a ladder all day, but it’s very rewarding.”

Baron Von Fancy, AKA Gordon Stevenson, is a New York born-and-bred artist working across mediums. Stevenson’s trademark is typography of boundary-pushing, funny, often cliché, always current phrases like “Mercury was in fucking retrograde”, “You don’t have to be crazy to do this, but it does help” and “Against all authority except my mom’s”.

As long-time fans of his work, we wanted to collaborate with Stevenson on something special. During the first lockdown, when New York City was experiencing a dark, lonely time, we teamed up with him on a series of posters that intended to bring some light to the streets.

Featuring the uplifting phrase “Moments like this never last”, the series combined his trademark typography with a simple white background to get across a message of hope and togetherness at a time when optimism felt distant. It served as a powerful reminder that this too will pass, however painful for now.

Known for his public art and bold messaging, Stevenson “Constantly strives to push the boundaries of his art and designs, employing boldly expressive lettering, incredibly vivid colours, and a range of materials including fluorescents, glue, dyes, and reactive paint.” Born to a hedge fund father in New York City and privately educated, Stevenson partly got his start in the art world via Instagram, sharing pictures of his works to an audience of over 77k. Speaking to High Lark, he said, “Instagram has been the most valuable thing to me in terms of my career.”

His website says that he “Seeks to question conventions by infusing his work with elements of street art that have inspired him since he was a child,” and that energy comes through in our collab, pasted on the streets of New York. We wanted to play with his unique style, bringing some levity to a difficult time for the inhabitants of his home city.