Friday, June 6, 2008

When I Was Cool

I was looking through old pictures yesterday with my daughter and ran across something that made me giggle a bit. You see, before I took on the job of Momma, I had a paying gig. I worked in retail like a lot of kids out of college and I even had one of the three most coveted "cool" jobs: coffee shop, book store and mine, the music store. Unlike most kids though, I stayed there for seven long years before we were run out of business by big box retailers, but that's a story for another day.

One of my management duties was P.O.P merchandising. This is a real fancy was of saying that I made displays using point of purchase materials, a.k.a. posters. It was one of my favorite tasks, just me a stack of posters and flats, a staple gun and a huge wood base. The purpose of this task was to create and photograph a display so we could prove the the record companies that we were advertising for them and they in return would continue to send us more posters and promo Cd's. I was actually quite good at this otherwise useless skill.

Now I'm wondering how I can parlay this recovered knowledge into a technique for my etsy store. I learned that people love images that pop, basic colors surrounding a central image or repeating patterns that emphasize a theme. I guess I've got the theme down with the repeating frame around each of my photos, but I think I'm still lacking the pop. Maybe my mannequin head has got to go, but I still lack a proper model or photography skills for that matter. I guess I shall put away this lesson until another day. It was sure a nice blast to the past though.

Challenge Update: We now have 7 participants! There are plenty of medallions left, so please join us and make something amazing with tatting.

8 comments:

Crystal said...

I miss those record stores....I remember wondering as a "kid" how those displays happened, and thinking how cool it would be to do that.

Just know that someone envied you that skill! ;-p

I still feel like I missed out on something by not working in a coffeehouse in college....

Anonymous said...

I used to be amazed at those displays in both music stores and video stores (neither of which were big box stores - they are DULL in the presentation)!

I'm certain you will find a way to make to bring those skills to bear again (pop-up books?)! :)

Luna said...

Sounds like a pretty cool job to me! Wish I could find one like that now.

Unknown said...

Those were the days!

Unknown said...

I have had some convos like that with my mom, she worked at an art supply store and an ice cream shop.

Im going to tell my kids I worked as a custom hemp jewelry artist by the beach the summer after college... haha. I feel like they will have a bunch of questions...haha

Sew Bettie said...

Oh man! I hate that record stores like that are so few and far between now.

Unknown said...

Mixed. Media. Collage.

Girl you must get on creating some & selling them, your work was rad! There is definitely a market for it. Start with some digital imagery and add in other fun stuff you like.

This is a great example of how cool it can be
Decorated House

Unknown said...

Oh & PS, you are still cool
:~D