Gloomingdale’s for “Bus Vogue: the Glow Series”

A collage illustration for “Bus Vogue,” that would be part of the department store “Gloomingdale’s” in-store gift wrap option to be selected from a wall. The collage depicts the frequent clientele that the character “Orpheus 5” serves as a sales clerk in Gloomingdale’s. The appropriated and original illustrations are of the monstrous, bargain-driven, wealthy “harpies” rendered into disfigured Picassos with botched plastic surgeries, who spend their pointless hours pecking at Orpheus 5 for discounts, dressed in impostor Chanel suits fit for a hunchback from Tehrangeles. The “I vant discount” in faux Picasso-esque exclamations in the design allude to the diaspora heritage of these Gloomingdale’s denizens that were based on Mortezaie’s real-life experiences working at Bloomingdale’s in Century City, where he dealt with the Westside diaspora for a very brief, but inspirational four months in 2006.