THE NEW LITTLESBUKHARIAN BROADWAY

DesigneD by: Alex suleymAnov

ARTS 395 / Fall 20121

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Table of Contents2

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Project Objective

Brainstorm

Research

Concept

Logo Experimentation

Final Logo & Typographic Information

T-shirt

Bukharian Times

Billboard Advertisement

Map of other Littles

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This project is categorized as a branding project for “The New Littles.” Over the course of WNYC’s New Littles project, they’ve identified some of New York’s overlooked ethnic communities. The objective of this project was to design an identity for one of the neighbor-hoods. Students were asked to choose a neighborhood from a list and create an identity that can be placed on t-shirts, a website, a neighborhood banner, etc., for that particular neighborhood.

Project Objective

3Brainstorm

44 Research

This project is categorized as a branding project for “The New Littles.” Over the course of WNYC’s New Littles project, they’ve identified some of New York’s overlooked ethnic communities. According to their website, there are over 15 Littles, and count-ing. These areas are some of the more overlooked ethnic com-munities compared to larger communities such as China Town Queens, located on Main Street, Flushing.

I chose to feature a “little” that wasn’t part of the list on WNYC’s website, which is home to hundreds of Bukharian Jews, 108th street in Rego Park. According to the 2011 Census, there are over

60,000 Bukharian Jews living in New York City. Bukharian Jews hail from many parts of Eastern Europe such as Tash-kent, Uzbekistan, Bukhara, Israel, and other parts of the former Soviet Union. In New York City, Bukharian Jews live in many areas of Queens including Fresh Meadows, Kew Gardens, Forest Hills, Rego Park, as well as Ocean Parkway, in Brookyln. As a Bukharian Jew, I am constantly exposed to my heritage, and part of the daily routine is going 108th street, Rego Park, to buy food imported from Russia, as well as other necessities that aren’t really found anywhere else. In addition, 108th street is always busy with Bukharian Jews. Whenever I walk down the street, I always see old friends bumping into one another. It’s nice to see how such a large community can still stay connected through this area.

Although 108th street is a strip of 5 blocks of stores, restaurants, etc., it is the only place in New York City that I, as well as hundreds of Bukharian Jews know of where we can buy things from our country and run into people we know. As my grandmother says, “108th street is a place where Bukharians from all over New York City can come together to take part in reuniting with old friends, buy food which is much better than other stores I go to, and find deals on items I can’t buy anywhere else.” It’s a place of happiness and one that always brings joy to me.

5 5Concept

For this project, I decided to have a concept where I feature Russian and English combined together, since most, if not all Bukharians residing in Rego Park speak both languages. To achieve this, I tried to find fonts that contained English letters but could be legible if I typed out the words in Russian. After searching the web, I came across two fonts which allow you to write whatever you want in English, as it’s pronounced in Russian, and then use Russian letters to create the logo.

Because so many Bukharians reside in Forest Hills and Rego Park, Queens, as well as are extremely familiar with 108th street, I decided to feature 108th street as the main part of “Little Bukhara.” While thinking of what to name the area, although it is famous for just being called 108th street, I discovered in my research that the area is known as “Bukharian Broadway,” which I had never known before. I decided to combine the two, “Bukharian Broadway,” and, “108th street,” into 1 logo. Writing it in English as “Zto Vasmoy,” which is Russian for “108th,” I decided to incorporate the street name into the main logo. In addition to the logo, I designed a t-shirt, a poster, and an article which appears to be featured in The Bukharian Times, our own community newspaper.

66 Logo Experiments

!"#$%&'(&)!'*&+,&- Z T O V A S M O Y

B ukharianBroadway Z TO VA S M OY

! "#$%&'%(!&)%*+%,! ! ! ! ! ! !"#$!%&'($)

! "#$%&'%(!&)%*+%,! ! ! ! ! ! !"#$!%&'($)

! "#$%&'%(!&)%*+%,! ! ! ! ! ! !"#$!%&'($)

!"#$%&'()

*+%,-.))

!"#$%&'%()

!&*%+,%-!!!!!!!"#$!%&'($)

!"#$%&'%()

!&*%+,%-!!!!!!!"#$!%&'($)

7 7 Final Logo & Typographic Explanation

!"#$%&'%()

!&*%+,%-!!!!!!!"#$!%&'($)

CyberiaABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789 !?

Soviet

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz

0123456789 !?

TypographyWorking on this assignment, I had to decide which typefaces to use for the identity of the Bukharian community. I ended up using two typefaces: Cyberia,and Soviet. The reason I chose these fonts was to represent the language that is spoken in the community, as well as make it legible; whether it’s for people who only read Russian, Eng-lish, or both. The Soviet font is what’s used in the “Bukharian Broadway” logo, with Cyberia being used in the middle as “Zto Vasmoy.” I think these fonts work with each other be-cause of the style they contain and because they are written in Russian, although they can be read in English as well. It’s sort of like the Bukharian community; old and new.

88 Logo Shirt Design

9Bukharian Times

Newspaper AdThis is a real Bukharian Times newspaper cover page. The only part that is not real is the ad I placed about the new logo and t-shirt designs I created. You can see that on the right column where the title is, “New Identity For 108 Street.”

1010 Billboard Advertisement

Billboard AdAn ad created to invited people to go to 108th street. It features Uncle Sam where he says that he wants you to visit 108th street, while wearing a Rabbi’s hat.

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Are you interested in learning more about the other “littles” out there? Head over to: http://www.wnyc.org/shows/bl/clus-ters/2011/jun/02/june-guest-andrew-beveridge-and-new-littles/ for the latest scoop on what other littles are out there.

The map picTured below was produced by:Jody AvirgAn and rebeccA Lee dougLAs

The Other “Littles”