Linked by Air is a design and technology firm in Dumbo, Brooklyn founded in 2005 by Tamara Maletic and Dan Michaelson. The two had previously studied together in the Yale University School of Art graphic design program. The firm's approach to design emphasizes change, growth, and modularity. Linked by Air is best known for designing and developing digital products such as websites, mobile apps, and physical-digital experiences. It also creates brand identities and wayfinding systems. The firm works with cultural and academic institutions, businesses, and non-profit organizations internationally, and is known for its impact on cultural organizations in New York City. Notable clients include the

Brooklyn Public Library The Brooklyn Public Library (BPL) is the public library system of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. It is the sixteenth largest public library system in the United States by holding and the seventh by number of visitors. Like the two othe ...

, Columbia GSAPP, The Shed, Whitney Museum of American Art, Het Nieuwe Instituut, Smithsonian Institution, Printed Matter and Yale University. Members of the studio are also known for their teaching practices, including at Yale,

Parsons School of Design Parsons School of Design, known colloquially as Parsons, is a private art and design college located in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. Founded in 1896 after a group of progressive artists broke away from established Manhatt ...

, and

Pratt Institute Pratt Institute is a private university with its main campus in Brooklyn, New York (state), New York. It has a satellite campus in Manhattan and an extension campus in Utica, New York at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. The school was ...

Notable work and recognition

Among the studio's earliest works is the 2006 website for the Yale University School of Art, which allows all students, staff, and faculty to edit every page of the site without training, using a modular

content management system A content management system (CMS) is computer software used to manage the creation and modification of digital content (content management).''Managing Enterprise Content: A Unified Content Strategy''. Ann Rockley, Pamela Kostur, Steve Manning. New ...

. As of 2018, it had been modified by over 800 editors at the school. The website won an award in experience design in the AIGA 365 competition in 2007. Linked by Air won a second award in experience design that same year for the camera-based physical-digital experience, Prada Mirrors, commissioned by the design firm 2x4 for the

Prada Prada S.p.A. (, ; ) is an Italian luxury fashion house founded in 1913 in Milan by Mario Prada. It specializes in leather handbags, travel accessories, shoes, ready-to-wear, and other fashion accessories. Prada licenses its name and branding t ...

“epicenter” in Manhattan's Soho neighborhood. Significant projects include the website of the Whitney Museum of American Art, designed in 2009 and revisited in 2013, in anticipation of the museum's move into its new building. That website features a “sunset” every night, experienced by all visitors to the website at the same time. New sunsets have been commissioned seasonally from artists including

LaTurbo Avedon LaTurbo Avedon is an avatar artist, curator, the designer and founder of Panther Modern. Their work emphasizes the practice of nonphysical identity and authorship since 2008–2009. They have explored the growing relationship between users and v ...

, Kristen Lucas,

American Artist A list by date of birth of historically recognized American fine artists known for the creation of artworks that are primarily visual in nature, including traditional media such as painting, sculpture, photography, and printmaking, as well as ...

Rafaël Rozendaal Rafaël Rozendaal (born 1980) is a Dutch-Brazilian visual artist currently living and working in New York City. He is known as a pioneer of Internet Art. BYOB Rozendaal founded BYOB (Bring Your Own Beamer), an open source exhibition concept. The ...

, and Jodi. In 2012, the studio was awarded the Jury Prize of the Brno Graphic Design Biennial. Working with the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Linked by Air built Smithsonian Hi, a mobile web-based museum guide that uses real-time image recognition to let users learn more about objects on view. The platform was later also adopted by the National Museum of African Art and the National Museum of African American History and Culture. In 2021, the firm developed signage and environmental graphics for the

's new Adams Street branch in Dumbo, the first new public library built in Brooklyn since 1983. The exterior of the library is painted with the label “LIBRARY” in very large white letters, visible from across the East River. In 2022, Linked by Air helped the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum develop a non-linear digital platform for its exhibitions. The first use of the platform was the digital complement to the museum's physical exhibition about American fashion designer Willi Smith.{{Cite news , last=Magazine , first=Smithsonian , title=Users Design Their Own Journeys in New Digital Exhibition Platform , language=en , url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/blogs/cooper-hewitt-smithsonian-design-museum/2022/02/01/users-design-their-own-journey-in-new-digital-exhibition-platform/ , access-date=2023-09-11

References

External links

Official site

Yale School of Art's website
Design companies of the United States Design companies established in 2005 2005 establishments in New York City