We tried to goof on the Williamsburg J. Crew by getting hold of the employee handbook for the store, but you know, it sounds like they’re doing a good enough job parodying themselves. From T Magazine:
“We didn’t want to just go and do graffiti,” says Jenna Lyons, J.Crew’s creative director. Initially, she wanted to keep the store’s facade as she’d found it — covered in posters and spray-painted tags. “Unfortunately when we did a survey of the space, the facade was actually in such poor shape we had to replace quite a bit of the brick,” she said. “We asked, ‘Who is a local artist who might be able to do help us tell people we’re coming in a way that’s not obvious and might be able to reference that graffiti sensibility — but making it feel more modern?’ ”
…
But forget about Lyons’s real employees for a second: what would Hannah Horvath think of a J.Crew moving into Williamsburg?
YES, WHAT? Just a reminder, that if you hear anyone make jokes about Williamsburg hipsters these days, that person is a terrible hack and should be tied to the tip of an ICBM and shot into space.
View Comments (4)
If you can't create, co-opt.
Also, what the hell does this quote mean? It's utter gibberish:
"‘Who is a local artist who might be able to do help us tell people we’re coming in a way that’s not obvious and might be able to reference that graffiti sensibility — but making it feel more modern?’ "
I read that sentence 3 times, and I've come to the conclusion that I'll just never understand it.
I don't know about you guys but I'm super glad that fictional character Hannah Horvath, as interpreted by Marketing Person, got a chance to weigh in.
I can just imagine being part of the creative team and having marketing giving them those specifications on the design.
Marketing Genius: "Our new J. Crew store needs new locally-sourced artistic graffiti that says we're coming but doesn't really say it obviously. It's also got to be retro but way more modern. Do you think you can do that?"
Creative: "So you want bubble letters?"
Greg LaMarche did the art...an actual graf artist.