Design Lecture

My lecture actually came at work! I work at Barker and Meowsky, a non-corporate pet boutique on Armitage. The owner of the store is a close friend with Vogue magazine designer and New York window artist, Remy Ortiz. When I heard that he was coming one night to do the store window, I immediately volunteered to be there to assist him and learn from his design. The first thing he told me was his background with design. He said that he never had planned on joining the design world; it in a way came to him. He found an opportunity when job hunting to start designing a small-town shop window in Tampa Bay, Florida and fell in love. He then went on to learn much of the design concepts. There were two major things that he left me with. The first, he told me, was the power of a triangle. In design, balance is everything. And by the use of a triangle, not only does it discard the design fear of being top heavy, but also it brings lines cleanly to a point. We stacked riser boxes in various triangular forms and I could really start seeing how right he was. Secondly, he told me that grouping is very effective. Instead of spreading various items around the window evenly, by grouping like items, it makes the viewer retrieve the information much simpler. And for a window display, the faster and easier attention is grabbed, the better. Another interesting design element he told me for doing window displays was to work at night if you can. Not only is the store empty and easier to move things around, the reflection in the glass shows the layout. This way you do not have to run in and out of the store to view your work.  I am very happy I stayed with him to learn this information. I will definitely be thinking back to his advice as my design journey progresses.