DDi - June 2012 - (Page 8)

8 | From the Editor Defining creativity H ow do you go about trying to define the concept of creativity? Well, first of all, you can’t. And second of all, you shouldn’t. Creativity isn’t something that can be measured or forced. Creativity is a spirit, a gift, a pleasure and a pain. It is different for you than it is for me, and it catches us all in the most unexpected of places. Last month, I found myself on two continents in a two-week span (three, if you count my home in North America). In those travels, I saw with my own eyes how creativity can take a variety of turns. In Rio de Janeiro, I saw how 250,000 people can live in one favela built into the side of a stone hill. How the bright colors of the buildings and the ebb and flow of the cascading beaches reflect the lighthearted energy of the Cariocas lifestyle. And I saw retail stores with koi ponds in the store windows, signature scents in their opening entryways and an entire wall made out of lipstick tubes. Creativity at its finest. Across the Atlantic in Paris, I saw how the mixing of ancient and contemporary can breathe a unifying harmony between the historic past and the modern present. How the beauty of a found street can derail an editor’s entire afternoon itinerary (why yes, I would love to have a glass of wine on the sidewalk, thank you very much!). And I saw patisseries that merchandise sweets as if they were diamonds, luxury stores that spare no expense on defining experience for their customers and a vendor selling fresh crêpes and sorbet from a preserved Model T automobile turned food stand. All in a day’s work! Welcome to DDI’s first-ever “Creativity Issue.” Whether your work in the retail design industry rests in finance, IT or PR, or in the nitty gritty work of designing, planning and rolling out retail stores, creativity affects every part of what you do. We here at DDI consider ourselves to be a bit of the creative types ourselves, so we opted to spend several pages of this issue devoting content to the art, mystery and wonder of creativity. On page 32, you’ll find what we are calling the “Creativity Pin-Up.” Here, we’ve borrowed the expertise of our creative-minded industry friends to provide insights and anecdotes—and what I think might make some fantastic good-old-fashioned T-shirt slogans—and turned them into a magazine layout meant to inspire. It should be noted that every photograph in that centerfold pin-up feature was taken by either myself or another member of the in-house DDI staff (including our vice president). We like to think we have creative blood running through our veins as well! So, go ahead. Rip out the pages, tack them up on your wall and let the words bleed through you each time you take on a new project or deadline. No really. We WANT you to rip them out. Rip, rip, rip! Or, if you are anal about preserving DDI as if we were National Geographic (we know you are out there, and we love you for it), feel free to print out a copy at www.ddionline.com/magazine. Later this month, I travel to Hong Kong for the first time, and am I ever anxious to discover what creativity awaits me there. There may be no beachside Brazilians or French crêpes, but the idea of the unknown has my creativity stirring already. Alison Embrey Medina Executive Editor alison.medina@ddionline.com | June 2012 www.ddionline.com http://www.ddionline.com/magazine http://www.ddionline.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of DDi - June 2012

DDi - June 2012
Table of Contents
From the Editor
From the Show Director
Newsworthy
Shopper Insights
Visual Perspectives
Editor’s Choice
Design Snapshot
Behind the Scenes: Anthropologie windows
Creativity Pin-Up
Channel Focus: Lifestyle Store
Right Light
Calendar
Advertisers
Classifieds
Shopping with Paco

DDi - June 2012