LINDA ZACKS

It started with a painting.

Lendrum Fine Art commissioned me to create two large-scale artworks for McDermott Will & Emery’s offices at One Vanderbilt.

After they were installed, I tracked down MWE’s creative director to show him there was a lot more behind the art -decades of big ideas, design and integrated campaigns. Then I pitched him some ideas.

That led to creating the look and feel for MWE’s Health Private Equity Conferences in Miami, New York and Europe - from concept through environmental graphics, video, print and digital. The series ran from 2023–2025 and won a GDUSA award for event branding.

Then it came full circle. Lendrum commissioned me again on behalf of MWE to create a custom New York skyline for the 67th floor of One Vanderbilt.

PAINTING → PITCH → CONFERENCES → PAINTING

I don’t wait for the next assignment. I create it.

McDermott Will & Emery is now McDermott Will & Schulte.

I created THE SWEAT POET, an apparel brand born from the intersection of art and sport.

From the concept and brand identity to the original artwork, products, language and digital experience, I built the whole thing around the shared intensity of creating and training.

ART + SPORT = THE SWEAT POET

Exercise is poetry. Sweat is art. Art is sport.

thesweatpoet.com

I created the visual identity and campaign for the Broadway revival of Fiddler on the Roof.

A new hand-painted interpretation of the iconic title grew into a complete visual identity spanning Broadway, advertising, digital and merchandise.

The challenge was to create something that felt unmistakably Fiddler while giving one of Broadway’s most beloved musicals a fresh visual life.

Agency: AKA NYC

It started with tote bags.

I was hired to create limited-edition totes, silkscreened live at Sundance TV HQ in Park City. I pushed the assignment further, and it grew into years of projects spanning animation, branding, environmental graphics and original art.

The tote graphics made their way into a large-scale animation about storytelling. I typed words on a typewriter, photographed them on paper and brought them to life - a nod to screenplays once written that way.

I also created outdoor concepts for Sundance HQ and an experimental print for Robert Redford’s office on wood I found wandering Williamsburg.

TOTE BAGS → TYPE → MOTION → ENVIRONMENT → ART

I’ve worked with Ballet Tech since 2014, creating its branding and visual identity, from the logo and overall look and feel to signage, collateral, awards, and ongoing campaigns and illustrations for Kids Dance, Introduction to Ballet, and Ballet Tech Across New York.

TRASHABET started with an “e” I spotted on the sidewalk while walking my pup in Brooklyn.

That one letter sparked a daily typographic treasure hunt. I began finding entire alphabets in scraps of trash exactly as they appeared on the street.

There are now five complete TRASHABETS, each built from countless hours of walking, looking and hunting.

TRASH + LETTERS + OBSESSION = TRASHABET

TRASHABET prints available… contact me.

Lendrum Fine Art commissioned me to create two large-scale artworks for One Vanderbilt in Midtown Manhattan.

Installed on the 67th floor, “hustle” spans 20 × 6.5 feet across five panels, and “RECESS!” spans 12 × 6.5 feet across three panels.

I created the visual identity and campaign for Broadway’s Holler If Ya Hear Me, a musical inspired by the lyrics of Tupac Shakur.

The project began with a visual language built from hand-drawn typography, painting, photography and collage, then expanded across the entire production: from the Palace Theatre and Times Square to subway environments, advertising, digital, merchandise, print and promotional materials.

The goal was to create a world that felt raw, immediate and alive… one flexible enough to carry Tupac’s words from a Broadway marquee to a T-shirt.

Agency: AKA NYC

Launched in 2000, The 1000 Journals Project was an international collaborative experiment following 1000 journals as they traveled through more than 40 countries and every U.S. state.

I first got involved as one of a group of artists invited to create an original journal cover. Years later, out of hundreds of journal entries, my art was chosen for the cover of the published compilation by Chronicle Books.

When the project became a feature-length documentary by Andrea Kreuzhage, I was brought in to create the graphics and designed the entire opening title sequence, working with an animator to bring it to life.

The project also resulted in exhibitions at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

ART → BOOK → FILM → EXHIBITION

My 1945 Remington DeLuxe has been one of my favorite creative tools for years. My husband even proposed to me on it.

I use it to write, draw, build images and make words physical. Its letters have traveled through paintings, illustrations, books, animation, branding and countless experiments - including Sundance campaigns and THE SWEAT POET.

Sometimes the words are the idea. Sometimes the type is the image. Sometimes it’s both.

THINKING → TOOL → ECOSYSTEM

RPA asked me to create an artful interpretation of the Newport Beach Film Festival name.

I drove around the city photographing it in motion, then collaged those images into the letterforms - essentially painting with light to create something that felt like film.

The piece became the festival’s hero art, appearing across LA on bus shelters and outdoor advertising, festival screens and printed materials. It was also featured in Communication Arts.

CITY + MOTION + LIGHT = FILM

What began as a little MoMA postcard book eventually became a city block.

As Lower Manhattan was rebuilding after 9/11, I pitched my “Greatest City on Earth”series to the Downtown Alliance’s Re:Construction public art program.

The idea was selected, and excerpts from the series went huge - wrapping a construction site at Fulton and Nassau Streets with my New York skyline imagery. The Re:Construction series was later turned into a book.

The project was featured in Communication Arts.

ART → PITCH → CITY BLOCK → BOOK

I created the “Back 2 School Essentials” campaign for Sony Style, beginning with the concept and expanding it across every U.S. Sony Style retail store.

The work took over Sony’s Madison Avenue flagship through large-scale windows and interiors, then extended into animation, posters, web, print, products and even plastic figurines.

ONE IDEA → AN ENTIRE RETAIL WORLD

I wanted to make art about fighting, so I created the assignment.

I developed a pitch book of fight-inspired painting concepts and took it directly to Bellator MMA. They chose FIGHT, a 54 × 96-inch enamel-on-canvas piece for their new corporate offices in Hollywood.

Years later, FIGHT found another life as one of the roots of THE SWEAT POET.

IDEA → PITCH → PAINTING → BRAND

INQ Mobile turned my personal work into a brand world.

Imagery from my handmade books and photographic experiments became giant graphics for its 3D booth at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Portions of my painting The Street became mobile phone packaging, and other work extended into an integrated campaign.

PERSONAL ART → BRAND WORLD

When CMT brought its annual awards show to Manhattan, they asked me to come up with ideas that merged cowboys and cabs.

I created the logo and a series of images that took over the city - from street posters and lamp post banners to Madison Square Garden.

The campaign won a Broadcast Design Award.

COWBOYS + CABS = CMT IN NYC

Hamilton Jewelers commissioned me to create the identity and visual campaign for The Art of Time, celebrating the 20th anniversary of WatchFair.

I created the logo, branding and original artwork, which extended across Hamilton’s magazine, the event, exhibition, limited-edition prints, apparel and promotional materials.

In partnership with the Arts Council of Princeton and Exhibit No.9.

Goodby, Silverstein & Partners asked me to create a crazy “A” for the Adobe Creative Suite campaign.

Inspired by the dictionary and working with all kinds of physical materials, I came up with “A is for anything.”

The idea expanded beyond the original “A,” with elements from it used throughout the entire campaign.

DICTIONARY + MATERIALS + A = ANYTHING

AKA NYC asked me to develop concepts for a new integrated campaign for the YMCA of Greater New York.

I created a pitch book of original concepts, copy and visual directions. My “HUMAN Y’s” concept was chosen and developed through several rounds into “WE ARE Y,” the heart of the campaign.

My designs were then carried through in-house across NYC, print and digital.

IDEA → COPY → DESIGN → CAMPAIGN

I created the visual identity and campaign for the Tony-nominated Broadway production Hand to God.

The identity and custom typography extended across Times Square, advertising, digital, TV, print and merchandise.

Agency: AKA NYC

Paris design studio Curius invited me to contribute to “J’avance, Donc Je Pense” - a giant collaborative mural at Gare Montparnasse exploring what we think about when we travel.

My work joined contributions from artists in Montreal, Melbourne, São Paulo, London and Paris, creating one enormous collage across the station.

Apparatus in Toronto commissioned me to bring my artwork to three snowboard designs for SIMS: Pristine, M3 Krystal and M3 Filter, created for women and boys.

ACCO / Mead licensed my artwork for its colorful “Painterly Expressions” Back-to-School collection.

My paintings became notebooks sold in Target stores across the U.S.

ART → PRODUCT → TARGET

Anomaly asked me to invent a visual language for Converse Create’s Halloween campaign.

I developed a range of lettering, design and concept directions. Here’s where my brain went—and the direction they chose.

Cover art and hand lettering for Emil Ostrovski’s intense teen novel Away We Go, published by HarperCollins.