By Mark Wisz, Co-Owner & Production Manager
Last Fall, OtherWisz Creative was presented with the opportunity to design merchandise for the anniversary of New World Record, a bygone Buffalo record store. If you know anything about me, you know I have a passion for records, so I jumped at the chance to work on the project.
New World Record was an influential record store in Buffalo, NY from 1984 – 2008. They were one of the first Buffalo stores to carry World music and New Wave records, and they were a big supporter of the local music scene.
When NWR owner Govidan Kartha was planning a 40th Anniversary celebration to fundraise for Roswell Park, he asked me if I could help design a branded pennant, a product I haven’t had the opportunity to design in my almost 40 year career. Usually reserved for colleges and sports teams, pennants have been making a comeback of late. It’s not hard to see why, they’re nostalgic and have a great tactile quality, due to being screen-printed. Additionally, we were able to keep the production local, using one of the leading pennant manufacturers, a Buffalo company called Oxford Pennant.
This pennant design was a collaboration with both Go & the original NWR logo designer Richard Kegler, of P22 fame, who designed the ‘logo’ as a typeface with pieces of the store’s visual brand elements as font characters. After presenting a few different graphic concepts, we settled on a design that transformed the logomark into a large ’40’ – to not only commemorate the store’s anniversary but put the recognizable visual brand front and center. The final design included the established date and the regional designation of Bflo, NY. Working through a wealth of color options, we ended up with a sharp crimson & white ink on a royal blue background, complete with a white end and red tassels. This artwork was also used for canvas tote bags, perfectly sized for carrying records.
The final pennants were a hot item at the anniversary celebration, and their sales helped to raise funds donated to Roswell Park. Go team, New World Record!
