CLICHÉ is an NYC nightlife creative concept I created in partnership with my friend Orson Roland. He is a Dj (@orson_) and production manager at Le Bain, I am a visual artist. We are both hopeless insomniacs, this is what brought us to highlight what we truly like about nightlife: good people, good music and good places. Especially during these times of social distancing.
During four months of quarantine, we have done a tremendous research and documentation work: from each club’s style and atmosphere, to the crowd and most iconic faces. My role as a creative director was to translate these nocturnals moments into high realistic hand-drawings. Almost three hundreds portraits were created for this project.
As millions of New Yorkers during COVID crisis, we have seen the city that never sleeps asleep. No more people in the streets. No more hugs. No more smiles. No more parties. Still. Art, and hope. This is why we created NIGHT EMPERORS — a series of illustrations that pay tribute to the most iconic faces and clubs of Manhattan (The Box, Lola, Soho Grand, Le Bain, Baby Grand, Casablanca, China Chalet, Etal).
Our goal? Show the beauty, diversity and singularity of NYC’s nightlife in the most realistic yet fantasied way.
NIGHT EMPERORS will be released soon on Instagram (@cliche.nyc). The nightlife is a very specific industry with its own cultural codes. We want to show that we know the crowd and identity of each club to be more visible for new collaborations and ventures.
