Graham Slick

Every project Design

PIPS Table Tennis & Art Space

The elephant logo, website, hand-painted glass signage, clothing and print for a table tennis venue and art space in Williamsburg.

The PIPS logo: a blue elephant with PIPS on its side, above the words PIPS Table Tennis & Art Space, on a field of ping pong balls
When
Between 2011 and 2013
Role
Creative direction, logo, website, signage, clothing and print
At
Madzik Agency, New York

PIPS, a table tennis venue and art space in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, came to Graham for its creative direction. He designed the elephant logo, the website, signage hand-painted on glass, clothing and print.

PIPS began in May 2011 as a plan for a month-long art event at 158 Roebling Street, with ping pong as part of the piece. Graham’s first ideas for it were PRPP, the People’s Republic of Ping Pong, a star on a paddle in yellow on red, and TT’s Ping Pong Gallery, with the storefront painted like a table. By June it was PIPS: a red elephant patterned with tiny ping pong tables and a yellow paddle on its ear, beside the name in heavy black letters, and P I P S across the four windows over the door. Later the elephant also came as a black silhouette with PIPS cut out of it, and by the end of 2012 the logo used it, in versions for Williamsburg and Brooklyn.

That summer and fall he designed the website, with pages for table tennis and for the art space, member accounts with RSVPs, a mailing list and a Twitter feed that welcomed new players. He made a sign-up screen for the front desk and posters of the house rules, from the Ten PiPs Commandments to No Drinks Outside. In print came flyers, postcards and business cards (his own named him a board member and curator), a five-class punch card and a class schedule numbered like a course catalog, from PIPS 101, Intro to Table Tennis, to PIPS 260, Match Skills. The tournaments, openings and parties got banners, posters and brackets, from the monthly Best in the Burg to the 300 Dollar Tourney. He also designed T-shirts, tanks, staff polos and a headband, and in March 2012 a stacked, boxed wordmark for the Mini Pong Classic, set up for vinyl beside the elephant.

It’s one stop on a ping pong thread that runs through his work, with Tiger Beer’s Tiger Pong, a Puma ping pong holiday at Brooklyn Bazaar, Open Paddle, Here Here and the logo for Soho Pong.

A mock-up of the storefront at 158 Roebling Street: P I P S in white letters across the four windows over the double doors, the elephant over the side door and on the glass doors, between murals of a shark and a bottle
The storefront, mocked up in July 2011, between the building’s murals
The window sign: PIPS in heavy black letters, Table Tennis & Art Space, 158 Roebling Street, weekday and weekend hours and play@pipsout.com, beside a red elephant patterned with tiny ping pong tables, a yellow paddle on its ear
The window sign, June 2011
The storefront at night: P I P S in white across the windows over the open doors, and players at ping pong tables inside
P I P S on the glass, 2013
The PIPS logo: PIPS in heavy black letters above Table Tennis & Art Space, beside the red elephant
The logo, 2011
The later logo: a black elephant with PIPS cut out of it, above Ping Pong & Art Space and Brooklyn
The logo by late 2012, in its Brooklyn version
The PIPS homepage: the logo and menu of Table Tennis, Art Space, About and Contact, Turn Table Tennis, a DJ tournament, as the feature, the next seven days of open play and classes, a donate button, a Twitter feed of new players and a training promo
The homepage, November 2011
The Tournaments page: Best in the Burg, a monthly tournament, over the shark mural, with its details, an archive of past months and the upcoming tournaments
Tournaments
The Art Space page: The Horn Show, a group exhibition, under a painting of a horned woman with a parrot, with the list of the artists in the show
The art space, with a painting from The Horn Show
The Open Play page: players around a table, then how it works, from signing your name on the chalkboard to donating some love to the PiPs house
Open play
A member’s account, open over the homepage: training and event RSVPs, name and mailing list settings, here filled in for Graham
A member’s account
A sign-up screen for the front desk: PIPS in gold over a black elephant, Sign Up for the PIPS Mailing List, with fields for a name and an email address, on red patterned with small elephants
The sign-up screen at the front desk
A sign: The Ten PiPs Commandments, from best 2 out of 3 games to 11 points to no paddle banging on the tables, with a warning about players with accents, personal paddles or only drinking water
The Ten PiPs Commandments
A sign: the PiPs Table Tennis General’s Warning, a paragraph of mock legal terms ending Play at your own risk
The General’s Warning
A sign: No Drinks Outside, asking players to keep their tasty beverages indoors so the neighbors don’t see inebriated stoop moochers
No Drinks Outside
The opening flyer: PIPS running up its side, Table Tennis & Art Space, starting July 1st, the hours, classes with a professional player and coach, and the red elephant
The opening flyer, June 2011
The class schedule: a week of classes numbered like a course catalog, from PIPS 101, Intro to Table Tennis, to PIPS 260, Match Skills, with a youth class every weekday
The class schedule
Graham’s business card: the logo, the address and phone, and Graham Slick, Board Member & Curator, with his email address and phone number
Graham’s card, as board member and curator
The five-class card, front and back: the logo and address on red, then Five Class Card, good for 5 group lessons, $20 value, with five red paddles to punch
The five-class card
A tournament bracket: The Best in the Burg, Williamsburg Championships 2011, over a faded red elephant
A bracket for Best in the Burg
Poster: The PIPS 300 Dollar Tourney, Thursday December 8th at 8pm, a spoof of the film 300 with its Spartan king swinging a paddle, the format, the prizes and Spectators Are Welcome to Witness the Carnage
The 300 Dollar Tourney, December 2011
Banner: Ladies’ Night Tournament over a photograph of Elizabeth Taylor playing ping pong
Ladies’ Night
Banner: Rumble in the Jungle over a bridge’s red steel walkway and bike path
Rumble in the Jungle
Banner: Chinatown Style Rumble over a night sky full of paper lanterns
Chinatown Style Rumble
Banner: Turn Table Tennis, a DJ tournament on Friday, September 16, set as the label of a record
Turn Table Tennis
A charcoal T-shirt with the elephant and PIPS drawn in a thin outline, on a model
The outline tee, 2011
A white T-shirt with a round elephant badge over PIPS, Ping Pong, Brooklyn, on a model
Ping Pong Brooklyn, 2013
A green headband with the white elephant, on a model
A headband, 2013
Two early marks in yellow on red: a paddle ringed by balls over PPPP, and a paddle with a star over PR, a ball and PP, above People’s Republic of Ping Pong
First ideas: the People’s Republic of Ping Pong, May 2011
A mock-up of the same storefront as TT’s Ping Pong Gallery: the front painted green with white lines like a table, two paddle outlines and a ball, with a For Lease sign still in the window
TT’s Ping Pong Gallery, May 2011
The Mini Pong Classic logo: MINI PONG stacked in heavy white letters in a black box over CLASSIC, with square corners and with rounded ones
The Mini Pong Classic, March 2012
The vinyl file: the Mini Pong Classic box above the black PIPS elephant
Set up for vinyl
Open Paddle on a tablet, branded for PIPS: tables with countdown timers and the players waiting for each
PIPS in Open Paddle, the table waitlist Graham designed