We often tend to compare great cities of the world and try to tally the result to figure out which city scores the most (I always compare Mumbai, my hometown, to all other cities). Two cities that are fiercely weighed in together world over are Paris and New York. Each city has its own marvels and heritages that often mesmerize a person. Graphic Designer Vahram Muratyan draws comparisons in a series of graphics between the two metropolises in his blog ‘Paris vs. New York’ to give us a better perspective.Paris is a city known for its baguettes, dames, structures, artists and culture. From whatever angle it is looked at, it seems fascinating and beautiful. But New York fanatics would beg to differ. They’d counter each argument with a remarkable New York fact that proves the Big Apple’s superiority on Paris. Instead of ending this debate of debates, Graphic Designer Vahram Muratyam, a Parisian himself, presents a comparison of the two cities in similar categories in his blog ‘Paris vs. New York’, a tally of two cities (a smart spin on the title of Charles Dickens’ book), without being biased to his home city.
The graphics remind me of minimal movie posters that are making the rounds of Facebook. The posters, too, show a concept in its simplest form without much pageantry, exactly like Vahram Muratyam’s graphics. While describing the differences between the two cities, he highlights all the major attractions of both of them, giving a person a visual representation of the two cities’ culture, food, habits, etc. On the creation of the ‘Paris vs. New York’ series, Vahram Muratyan says to the Guardian, “It all started when I wondered, if I was stranded on a desert island, what aspects of Paris and New York would I keep? What would be the perfect collection of things? They could be habits, or landmarks or food, anything that would bring the two cultures together in one image.’
And as the popularity of the blog grew, it took its natural course of becoming a published book. The illustrations of the blog were reprinted in a book of the blog’s namesake. I feel that the blog, apart from being a pure anthropological delight, serves as a great visual match that helps one relish the flavour of the two cities simultaneously. Check out his blog here: http://parisvsnyc.blogspot.in (it’s in French).
Recent Comments