design:retail - April 2017 - 6

editor's note

006

A Caricature
of Reality

ALISON EMBREY MEDINA
EDITOR IN CHIEF/ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER

alison.medina@emeraldexpo.com
@dretaileditor

T SOME POINT

in your life, you
have probably
had a caricature
drawn of you. It is
not always a pretty
sight. An awkward experience, in fact,
as you sit on display in front of myriad
passersby, watching and staring as you
uncomfortably have your face dissected by a stranger with a paintbrush. I
recently had a digital caricature drawn
of me at an event. The artist drew freehand, but using a special stylus pen
on a tablet, making my face instantly
emailable (and Instagram-able).
Inevitably, a caricaturist's job is to
find the most distinctive and definable parts of the subject's face and
over-embellish said features to create a memorable cartoon version of
his or her muse. And those "distinctive and definable parts" tend to be
what we would individually consider our greatest flaws, peculiarities or
defects, now exaggerated to comic or
grotesque effect.
As the artist finishes his work and
your caricature is revealed, you start
to question everything. Why does this man hate
me? Is my chin really this pointy? Is my hair that
big? Are white glasses absolutely ridiculous? Selfesteem takes a massive hit as we self-study these
amplified flaws of our face and subconsciously zero
in on the negative. It's what we have been conditioned to do. But what caricaturists are trained to
do is recognize that which makes us flawed is also
what makes us memorable and endearing.

APRIL/MAY 2017

DESIGNRETAILONLINE.COM

The retail industry at large is a bit of a caricature of itself at the moment. Retail right now is in a
constant state of ambiguity, transition and change.
We are ripped apart by the negative headlines of
closing stores and job loss, and focus intently
on the bankruptcies and liquidations-and we
begin to question everything. Is retail dying? Are
all stores closing? Has Amazon sucked the life from
us? It's a caricature of the complete retail story

GLOBALSHOP.ORG

that is unfolding around us. Legacy
brands that have not done enough to
change or keep pace are going silently into the night, while at the same
time fresh, innovative disruptive retailers are being born daily and are
expanding rapidly. Retail is finding
its soul again. Beneath the exaggerated features of negativity, retail still
has some pretty good cheekbones
and friendly eyes. You just have to
look at the entire face.
Let the cartoonists focus on
Donald Trump-retail has plenty
of good stories to share beneath
the muck. And we at design:retail
strive to continue sharing those
headlines with you. The expansions. The first stores. The rebrands.
The prototypes. The flagships.
We strive to share the good that
is happening in retail right now,
in all corners of the globe. And
trust me, we have plenty of work
to choose from (more than ever,
perhaps). Innovation is a funny
thing-it's a bit contagious. Help us
in our journey to to make the good
in retail viral again, and cast the
negativity aside. Perhaps Helen Keller said it best:
"Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot
see a shadow."

Illustration by RYAN RHOADS, DIGITAL CARICATURES LIVE

http://www.DESIGNRETAILONLINE.COM http://www.GLOBALSHOP.ORG

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of design:retail - April 2017