NEW YORK.- This summer New York's Times Square will be the site of an extraordinary exhibition - "Design Times Square: The Urban Forest Project" - a collection of banners designed by 200 of the world's most celebrated designers and visual artists "planted" at the city's busiest, most energetic, intersection. Artists from around the world were asked to use the form, idea or a characteristic of a tree as the inspiration for their banners.

The 200 banners will be on display on street poles throughout Times Square, from the first day of summer, June 21, 2006 though Labor Day, September 4. The exhibit is being organized by the AIGA NY Chapter, the Times Square Alliance and Worldstudio Foundation. This exhibit includes the work of such renowned international artists
As Lawrence Weiner and Natalie Jeremijenko, Vaughan Oliver and Alan Fletcher from London, Vince Frost from Sydney, and New York's Massimo Vignelli, James Victore, and Paula Scher.

Following this display, the banners will be recycled into tote bags designed exclusively for this project. The bags, each unique design objects, will be auctioned off with all proceeds going to scholarship and mentoring programs that benefit students of the visual arts.