building 543, which holds our cafeteria, had a ton of great stuff going on today for earth day – starting with this beautiful display of flowers that greeted everyone who walked in the door! i thought it was a really nice touch that the flowers were arranged in water bottles :) there were plant potting and vertical garden workshops hosted by terrain, reusable water bottles and bags for sale, stations for recycling batteries and cell phones, and lots of yummy organic treats!
more below…
one of our visual display team members is heading to california (where she’ll be working on displays for our west-coast stores) and to send her off they took advantage of the nice weather to have a festive outdoor gathering. check out more great pics from the party below!
i discovered the artwork of rachel t. robertson a few weeks ago and i thought it was so reminiscent of our new website creative concept, sweet jasmine. rachel is a san francisco-based artist who creates whimsical collages reminiscent of a scrapbook, combining nature imagery and mixed media with tiny details like graph paper, envelopes, stamps and thread.
one of our favorite trends for spring are wrists piled with bracelets and bangles- brass, silver or gold, it doesn’t matter, and the more the merrier is a key motto here. mix delicate gold leaf patterns with bulky mesh and brightly painted flowers for texture with a touch of the unexpected. this look has a multi-cultured and exotic feel, giving the illusion that you’ve traveled the world collecting pieces from different places along the way to display like artwork on your arms. give a simple summer dress a mysterious edge and turn a casual daytime look like shorts and a tee into rocking evening attire – just layer on some bracelets and you’re good to go!
(click on image above to shop our bracelets)
a couple of weeks ago i got an email from a reader named katie, who wanted to tell me about a website she started called art wall. i wanted to share this cool site and a brief interview with you…
a lover of art with a background in display and visual merchandising, katie always felt that there was something missing from the experience of shopping for art online: the “wow” factor that inspired display can add to the equation. with art wall she saw an opportunity to bring the two together. read on for a brief interview with katie about the website.
what inspired you to create art wall online?
if i think back it was really out of a desire to showcase special picks and finds for a fan-based site i run: savegocco.com. i wanted a way to feature and highlight my picks: enter the “studio” room. it was going to stop there as just a page in the save gocco domain, but then i thought: why not make a whole website with pages dedicated to different rooms in a house? i have a total crush on art walls, i find them fascinating and think it takes a special skill to create them in a way that looks interesting. i’ve studied them in magazines for years so it was only natural that i used that type of display to highlight multiple pieces of art that worked together…i used my own home as inspiration.
the website features different rooms- an entryway, dining room, master bedroom, etc. – each with a selection of artwork displayed on the walls. viewers can click on the artwork to see an image of the piece, and information about the artist.
i read on your blog that february’s master bedroom had a “love” theme – do all the rooms have themes?
all the rooms have a very subtle theme in the sense that each one has at least one piece that relates to the room. read: a key lino print in the entryway, the gocco prints in the studio, a sultry portrait in the bedroom. i don’t love themes for rooms in general but i do appreciate that different pieces may work better in specific rooms.
i love all the artists you feature on art wall – do you select who you’re going to feature, or do people submit their work to you?
the displayed pieces are a mix of artists who have submitted their work to me and artists i’ve invited to display. i want the site to continue to have a specific look and feel so i think it’s important for me to keep scouring the indie marketplaces for that look.
check out art wall here, and also check out the art wall blog, its full of inspiration! thanks katie!!
a couple of girls from our visual display team setting up for an event in building 543…pretty!
*update – the umbrellas are from a market in india :)
i found this photography project the other day and it reminds me a lot of the WAFA mail art postcards i posted this morning so i thought it would make a cool DIY project for today! this is something that i definitely want to try- all you need is a camera and a friend!
every week, photographers ian land and caroline hancox each take a photograph and email it to each other. they then create a diptych of the photos and display them on a website, taking turns deciding which photo goes on the left and which one goes on the right. to make things more interesting they live 114 miles apart, have never met and do not know what the other one has taken during the week.
isn’t it weird how even though they aren’t planned, the photos end up looking really good side by side? or do i just think that because that’s the only way i’m seeing them?
regardless, it is such a fun project and a great way for them to collaborate and inspire each other through their work. check out the website here.
this would be such a fun thing to do with a friend- especially one that lives far away! if any of you try it send me your photos :)
last week i was over in the area where our visual display team works on the amazing creations that you see in our stores, and i spotted boxes and boxes of these colorful little creatures…
so what are they? our new store displays for spring! here’s a look at the installation in our king of prussia, pa store:
i love it! our visual display team always does such an amazing job :)
our visual display and store design manager sent me these photos of the brooklyn store front…aren’t the flowers gorgeous?
our visual display team just recently installed a new community wall here in building 15, and we have a cool time lapse video of them creating it – they put a lot of hard work into it, and even dyed the fabric outside in the rain!
and here is the finished product:
very warm and cheerful :)
another birthday today – this time for our visual display & store design manager!
the birthday girl gets crowned…
and yes, the people magazine was a joke…
finding a great vintage item (especially t-shirts for me) is like stumbling upon your own personal treasure. it’s unique and personal and immediately special.
these photographs were brought in by our marketing manager, who recently discovered them at her grandmother’s house. she’s trying to come up with a cool way to display them at home…they’re of her grandparents in their younger years, and not only are they awesome because they’re vintage, but they’re simply great photos too. check ‘em out… as you can see the sizes are different than your typical 3×5 or 5×7. if you have any great ideas, i’m sure she’d love suggestions :)
