NEW YORK.- In an unprecedented gathering of original works of art by the world’s most celebrated designers and visual artists, Times Square will be the cite of an extraordinary exhibition – “Design Times Square: The Urban Forest Project” – a collection of banners designed by an international roster of over 175 artists and designers. Designers from around the world have created banners using the form, idea or a characteristic of a tree as their inspiration. The banners will be on display on street poles throughout Times Square from Thursday, August 17, through the end of October. The exhibit is being organized by the AIGA NY Chapter, the Times Square Alliance and Worldstudio Foundation.

“Never before have so many artists and designers come together to create such a large scale public art project,” says Mark Randall, principal of Worldstudio and the designer who conceived the project. “We developed a theme that presented the designers with two opposing concepts - a forest of trees placed in the middle of one of the most exciting and chaotic man-made spaces on earth. The results have been amazing, the variety of work from the designers is beyond what we imagined.”

“Times Square is a place where creativity is always on display, making it the perfect place for these artists,” says Tim Tompkins, President of the Times Square Alliance. “As the crossroads of the world, it’s an ideal place for a diverse international roster of designers, each of whom has taken their individual perspective on the area and created extraordinary works of art. We see this as an even more urban ‘Gates’ project, bringing creativity and art to one of the world’s greatest urban public places.”

With a list of participants that’s a veritable who’s-who of the current international design scene, “The Urban Forest Project,” promises to be a spectacular visual arts event. Among the renowned visual artists and designers whose work is represented in Times Square are New York's Lawrence Weiner, Massimo Vignelli, James Victore, Carin Goldberg, and Paula Scher. Designers from as far afield as Australia, Slovenia, and Brazil are also participating. These celebrated international designers include Vaughan Oliver and Alan Fletcher from London, Vince Frost from Sydney, Hideki Inaba from Japan, and Uwe Loesch and Fons Hickmann from Germany.

Amongst the artists whose works will be on display will be 18 from Manhattan’s High School of Art & Design. These teenage artists-in-training are part of an AIGA mentoring program that couples students with professional designers who have guided the design of the student banners, from conception to final product.

Following this display, the banners will be recycled into tote bags designed exclusively for this project. The bags will be auctioned off with all proceeds going to scholarship and mentoring programs that benefit students of the visual arts.

This project is being offered as part of Design Times Square, a series of design related initiatives celebrating quality design in Times Square, encouraging businesses to invest in design, and demonstrating that good design is good for business. for more information, log onto www.urbanforestproject.org.