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Al-Ahed Telegram

NY Goes Back in Time Reviving Hand-Painted Ads

NY Goes Back in Time Reviving Hand-Painted Ads
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Local Editor

Once outdated relics in a digital world, painted advertisements are flourishing once again in New York.

NY Goes Back in Time Reviving Hand-Painted Ads

Toiling under the blazing sun of a heat wave, Justin Odaffer puts the finishing touches to a Ray-Ban ad he has spent several days painting on the facade of an East Village building in downtown Manhattan.

For the past seven years, Odaffer -- who has a degree in fine art -- has painted ads on walls in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago for Colossal Media, which has risen from nowhere to become the leader in painted advertising.

"Basically we created a revival," says Odaffer. Without the company he works for, he believes painted ads would be hanging "by a very thin thread."

But setting up the company in 2004 was a leap of faith, admits Paul Lindahl, co-founder of Colossal, which is based in Williamsburg.

"Technology was taking over and there was really no need for hand painting at the time. Nobody cared," says Lindahl.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team

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