43 Personas of the Retail Artist
It’s been days since our latest triumphant quest to discover the best and brightest in signage and display trends (check them out). And still, the visuals I experienced – bold and thoughtful arrangements of words and colors and things – continue to play through my mind.
The images are dramatic, beautiful and evocative. They invite participation and demand speculation. I marvel at the telling details and great swaths of narrative. This mental slideshow is a riot of color and ideas and truths, where scale is manipulated and perspective is challenged, literally and figuratively.
As these big thoughts bounce around in my head, I realize that this is how I feel after an afternoon at the Museum of Modern Art. What I witnessed last week in those stores was art; portraits of real life and landscapes that tell us about the future.
Retail marketers and display and signage designers are artists – real artists who work to evoke emotion, pose questions and challenge the status quo. They have to be. Their galleries may have dressing rooms and window displays rather than ornate frames and halls of portraits, but they still tell their stories with passion and wit.
I prove my point with 43 distinct personas that great artists, retail marketers and designers can and should assume:
- Guide
- Agent Provocateur
- Philosopher
- Anarchist
- Observer
- Social Commentator
- Rebel
- Engineer
- Visionary
- Risk taker
- Humorist
- Magician
- Auteur
- Truth-teller
- Conman
- Mystic
- Psychologist
- Maven
- Ringmaster
- Social Archeologist
- Skeptic
- Clown
- Teacher
- Misfit
- Translator
- Archivist
- Spokesperson
- Naysayer
- Explorer
- Malcontent
- Motivator
- Hero
- Manipulator
- Champion
- Messenger
- Set Designer
- Architect
- Child
- Mudslinger
- Raconteur
- Technician
- Soothsayer
- Salesman