Michael Vadino sharpened his visual and design skill working in the mix of the music and fashion. He began his creative career as art director for Russell’s Simmons’ iconic hip hop clothing company Phat Farm by day and on nights and weekends working with artist and DJ James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem developing the visual style of the fledgling label DFA Records.
With stints at fashion ad agencies Laird & Partners, Kraftworks, and Bureau™–the design studio he co-founded in 2008–Michael has collaborated with brands like Marc Jacobs, Calvin Klein, Yves Saint Laurent, Coty Intl. and The Limited Corp. In 2010 Michael’s body of work for DFA Records was featured in the exhibition “that’s cool, but can you make it more shi*t? a retrospective of the art of dfa records”.
In 2016 Michael partnered with long time collaborator Carolyn London to form London In New York, a creative consultancy that served the marketing and creative needs of The Metropolitain Opera of New York City from 2016 to 2021
Michael currently serves as Creative Director of Départ Wine and provides artistic direction and design services for The Four Horsemen restaurant, Nightmoves nightclub, Voodoo Vin wine bar and Karakterre natural wine salon.
"The only logo to rival ' I Heart NY ' on the t-shirts of hip kids worldwide is that of DFA . . .
This is the visual aesthetic of DFA records. Raw, energetic, direct and potent, a symmetrical reflection of their intelligent, analog audio. The one responsible for this is Michael Vadino, a New York-based artist, who began by designing a DFA party invite and soon was art directing the whole shebang."
–Trish Roberts, Concrete Playground
