ABOUT US
ENVELOPE is a creative studio and community art space — we are a multimodal platform where individuals can engage at the intersection of art, media, and community. As a creative studio, we offer a range of services, including art direction and design, content creation, brand strategy, and event production. As a community art space, we provide affordable studio space and host art exhibitions, performances, screenings, workshops, and talks to foster discussions around contemporary topics. If you’re interested in working together at some capacity, please reach out at contact@envelope.services︎
MEET THE TEAM
Artists at heart,
business in mind
Envelope is made up of talented friends, old and new. Our methods are the product of over 40 years of combined professional experience working with brands such as Amazon, Google, The New York Times, and local businesses alike.
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MAURICIO VARGAS
Branding & Strategy
A graphic designer and art director with a demonstrated history of working with agencies and brands alike. Mauricio’s work ranges from sculptural to digital design with a focus on brand development, graphic design, and custom typography. In his off time you can find him organizing community events or at the cinema.
Previous clients include Howard Hughes Inc, Adobe, TEDx, Foot Locker, and Amazon.
Branding & Strategy
A graphic designer and art director with a demonstrated history of working with agencies and brands alike. Mauricio’s work ranges from sculptural to digital design with a focus on brand development, graphic design, and custom typography. In his off time you can find him organizing community events or at the cinema.
Previous clients include Howard Hughes Inc, Adobe, TEDx, Foot Locker, and Amazon.
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CHARLIE RUBIN
Photo & Art Direction
Charlie is an artist / photographer based out of Bronx, NY. His photography practice focuses on intimate portraiture and landscapes, often capturing cultural spaces with a sense of honest curiosity.
Previous clients include
Bloomberg Businessweek,
Museum of Modern Art, MoMA Design Store, The New York Times, The New Yorker, Telfar, Vanity Fair.
Photo & Art Direction
Charlie is an artist / photographer based out of Bronx, NY. His photography practice focuses on intimate portraiture and landscapes, often capturing cultural spaces with a sense of honest curiosity.
Previous clients include
Bloomberg Businessweek,
Museum of Modern Art, MoMA Design Store, The New York Times, The New Yorker, Telfar, Vanity Fair.
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TOMMY FOX
Fabrication & Interiors
Tommy is a trained studio artist, comfortable across disciplines and scales. He focuses on the practical intersection of sensible design, color theory and custom hand-painted surface treatments to develop memorable, beautiful spaces. His practice is highly collaborative.
Past clients include Marc Jacobs, Ap0cene, Google, and the Chrysler Museum of Art.
Fabrication & Interiors
Tommy is a trained studio artist, comfortable across disciplines and scales. He focuses on the practical intersection of sensible design, color theory and custom hand-painted surface treatments to develop memorable, beautiful spaces. His practice is highly collaborative.
Past clients include Marc Jacobs, Ap0cene, Google, and the Chrysler Museum of Art.
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JOSEPH TALMAN
Finance & Tech
He’s the numbers guy.
He also keeps us optimized and informed on how to make the company running smooth.
An artist and photographer in his own, Joseph has also carved out a career in accounting for himself, doing the books for multiple award winning restaurants and real estate companies around New York City. His breadth of knowledge keeps us in line.
PHILOSOPHY ︎︎︎
Envelope is threshold.
In architecture, the envelope refers to the physical boundary that separates interior from exterior, the public from the private. Depending on its design, this envelope can be an open, welcoming park pavilion or a rigid, impenetrable border wall. The connection between design and the experiences it fosters extends beyond the physical realm, as seen in the digital interfaces we engage with daily and the habits they shape. This echoes Henk Oosterling’s poignant axiom, “Dasein ist Design,” in which he suggests that in a world where everything is aesthetically considered, engineered, marketed, and consumed, existence itself is a form of design or art.
Envelope is mirror.
In metaphysics, the envelope can also be viewed as a wall of sorts. One that defines the boundaries of intersecting ideas. These boundaries form what Peter Sloterdijk, in his book Bubbles, describes as ontological “immune systems.” These “bubbles” of existence—shaped and sustained by the atmospheric conditions of a particular time, place, and community—emerge through the proliferation of ideas and the exchanges that occur on both individual and global scales. Metaphysical envelopes that offer a topological lens through which we can better understand the phenomenological forces driving what is commonly referred to as globalization.
Envelope is threshold.
In architecture, the envelope refers to the physical boundary that separates interior from exterior, the public from the private. Depending on its design, this envelope can be an open, welcoming park pavilion or a rigid, impenetrable border wall. The connection between design and the experiences it fosters extends beyond the physical realm, as seen in the digital interfaces we engage with daily and the habits they shape. This echoes Henk Oosterling’s poignant axiom, “Dasein ist Design,” in which he suggests that in a world where everything is aesthetically considered, engineered, marketed, and consumed, existence itself is a form of design or art.
Envelope is mirror.
In metaphysics, the envelope can also be viewed as a wall of sorts. One that defines the boundaries of intersecting ideas. These boundaries form what Peter Sloterdijk, in his book Bubbles, describes as ontological “immune systems.” These “bubbles” of existence—shaped and sustained by the atmospheric conditions of a particular time, place, and community—emerge through the proliferation of ideas and the exchanges that occur on both individual and global scales. Metaphysical envelopes that offer a topological lens through which we can better understand the phenomenological forces driving what is commonly referred to as globalization.
Envelope is biome.
Bruno Latour, the anthropologist behind Actor-Network Theory, drew on elements of Sloterdijk’s ideas to expand his work, particularly in areas of political and ecological studies. For Latour, the envelope became a metaphor for the Biosphere — the thin layer of Earth where all life exists — and the political actors who shape decisions regarding the planet's health. Known for his critique of epistemological traditions, Latour came to adopt the power of art to communicate hybrid concepts and bridge gaps between nature and culture. At the core of his work was his desire to raise concern for the Earth’s “critical zones” — the fragile areas essential for life.
Envelope is community.
It’s at this intersection of the arts, nature, and politics that our own conceptual envelope begins to take form. Through thoughtful exhibitions, publications, and programming, Envelope aims to create a space where new ideas can be developed and nurtured. It‘s a space where tactics for liberation can be tested through art actions and performance. A space where radical kindness and ancestral rage can coexist in the face of anachronistic tradition. A space where the natural world is regarded as family and social welfare is prioritized above all else. A space where, under the pressure of critical discourse, we can challenge the integrity of old paradigms—oxidizing the Occidental, eroding the monumental, and embracing the aberrant.