A digital artist who usually charges hundreds of dollars for the service is surprising strangers by redesigning their lackluster flyers for free, after finding them on the street.
Max Kolomatsky came up with the guerrilla marketing idea last year after noticing the many uninspiring posters plastered on street lights, buildings, and subway stations in his New York City neighborhood.
The 25-year-old started taking them home and redesigning them in his spare time, while making videos of the ‘random acts of kindness’ for his TikTok page.
For discreetly pasting the improved flyers around the city, Max has been compared to Banksy, the pop artist who remains anonymous while creating art in public spaces.
He’s completed at least 15 free redesigns, transforming boring and hard to read flyers with eye-catching images, bold colors, and a stand-out typeface.
His most popular video, with 11 million views, features a dull, black-and-white flyer for a cleaning service named The Clean Team. He dreamed up a superhero theme that looked like the Avengers armed with spray bottle, mop, and sponge. (Watch the fun video at the bottom, showing the transformation…)
The Brooklyn freelancer said the first video shows him redesigning a flyer for a group looking for people to join them in playing Catan—and the result was totally unexpected..
“I recorded it for TikTok and the reaction was pretty instant. I posted it at 5pm and it had over a million views by the time I went to sleep. The group found the TikTok on the first night and they loved it.
“They were excited that it had just come up on their phone. I was hoping they would see it in public and have a surreal moment but it’s almost better they saw the whole process.”
Max, who has worked in illustration since 2020, has found the surprise redesigns to be a win-win. He gets to market his services and make something for his portfolio while perform an act of kindness that helps local businesses.
Hundreds of people have reached out to Max after seeing his TikToks, asking him to work his creative magic on their signs but he declines to work that way. He will continue picking random posters that grab his attention (or lack thereof) on the streets of New York.
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“I prefer to do this slowly—quality over quantity— telling the stories on TikTok in a compelling way.
Max uses Adobe software and the company took notice of his viral social media presence, and they now have a paid partnership that allows Adobe to posts Max’s content on their TikTok page.
Max has also enjoyed meeting a few of the flyer-makers in person—like the goth band that was looking for a guitarist and drummer. They did complete their band and they’ve released new music.
“They had actually seen some of my videos beforehand and someone had made a joke to them like ‘what if that guy redesigns it?”
“I gave them copies of the flyer and it was good promo for them.”
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Max has never put his contact info on the public posters but it is something he’s considered changing.
“I was attracted to that idea of it being anonymous—just thinking about the moment a stranger discovers it. But the ones with small businesses, I want to try and see if I can attach files or something like that.”
Despite the reaction to Max’s artwork being overwhelmingly positive he has received a few negative comments.
“A lot of people in the goth community who commented on that video said they liked the original flyer better, because it was janky and homemade.
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“It was a turning point in the project for me because it made me very aware (that) I don’t want to make an image more corporate or take charm away from the street.”
Perhaps the best part about his viral videos is that they’ve given other people the idea to do the same thing in their cities, like Berlin. It’s a win-win for the gig economy and freelance designers everywhere, no matter the language.
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