Sound and Color, a mixed-use space that will host a design studio, vinyl retail store, gallery space for art shows and more, will open on Grand Avenue in January.
Frost Design Studio and Grand Avenue Records will share the space, located on Grand Avenue north of Roosevelt Street. The businesses hosted a small preview at the 2015 Grand Avenue Festival.
Co-owners of Sound and Color Ian Frost and Konstadinos “Cocoe” Tsimahidis met through the music and art scene in Phoenix and have worked on several projects and events together over the last several years. Because of their shared tastes in art and business, they decided it was time to get a space together to house their businesses and share their love of design and music.
“It was totally natural, and we felt like it was presented to us at the right time,” Tsimahidis said. “We’re community people so we felt like this would be a great opportunity for us to kind of do our part in the community.”
Sound and Color will have many different faces and be a space where the local music and arts community can discover and share their craft.
Frost and Tsimahidis are connected to the local music scene and said it should not be too hard to find and attract other local artists to enjoy and perform at the space.
“We just kind of want to do our part and give people a little platform to come and share their music and not feel weird about being in a record store and, you know, actually talking about tunes and sharing music,” Tsimahidis said. “First and foremost, you know, you’ve got to share the music.”
Unlike other local record stores that carry a large variety of genres and media, Grand Avenue Records will focus on the vinyl community that is interested in dance music and DJ records.
“We’re very supportive of the DJ culture and the traditional DJ culture here in Phoenix, and so we wanted to kind of have almost like a barber shop for vinyl enthusiasts,” Tsimahidis said.
The other half of Sound and Color is a graphic design branding studio. Frost Design Studio does everything from interior design and murals to branding campaigns and logo identities.
Frost used his design skills to redo the district’s mural map at this year’s Grand Avenue Festival. Tsimahidis also got involved by donating temporary tattoos for the children in attendance.
Sound and Color will be open and hosting curated events at every First Friday. Frost is also trying to bring in people from the local design community to hold lectures and other events.
“We picked Grand Avenue just because of the location and it’s kind of that last thriving art community that feels non-gentrified so everyone’s there for a reason and a cause,” Frost said. “We kind of want to be involved in that, and be a part of that, and embrace it and all that.”
Beatrice Moore, a local artist and owner of several Grand Avenue properties, said it is nice to have business owners who do more than go to their properties, do their work and go home.
“It’s always refreshing to see people that are willing to step out of their own personal business and actually do things for the community,” Moore said. “I prefer to rent to people that do things out in the community and aren’t just isolated from the community around them.”
Sound and Color will have a soft opening during First Friday on Dec. 4 and will officially open its doors to the public in mid-January.
Contact the reporter of ASU’s Downtown Devil at mallory.prater@asu.edu
