Joe Baer aka JB
Name:
Joe Baer
Position:
Creative Director
Company:
Zen Genius http://zengenius.com
1.What do you see through windows?
I see a long history of retail and creative entertainment dating back to the 1800′s. I see windows and I think about the years of connections made between the shoppers and stores. I see the essence of the store’s image or their current focus.
2. What gets your attention in a window display?
A window with a great concept, captivating story, clever use of materials/textures and effective use of color and lighting will always grab my attention. I also love to be caught
off guard and shocked by a window.
3. What feelings are evoked when you gaze into a styled window display?
Awe and amazement. I love being moved by a great window that makes me think: “How on Earth did they do that?”
4. Describe your most memorable window display moment?
My most memorable window display moment was when my partner spotted me while I was working in a Victoria’s Secret window. Our eyes met through the glass.
5. When was the last time a window inspired you to go into a retail store?
Neighborhood furniture stores in Long Beach, CA. A well placed mid-century modern furniture set featured in the window… it drew me right in.
6. Did you always want to work in the world of window display or was it an accidental career choice?
Window display was a bit of an accident for me. I did not know there was a career opportunity in a creative field like window display and a friend explained it to me when we were walking by a department store. I knew instantly that I wanted to be in visual display.
7. What was your first job that involved retail window display?
My first visual job was at Lazarus Department store in Cincinnati, Ohio. I was on the selling floor and did not realize that I wasn’t supposed to change the displays in my department. Luckily the visual manager, Marianne Twist, reprimanded me and then told me about a temporary holiday position in the Visual Department. My first window display was for Ralph Lauren and I made rosettes out of the socks and did a fall color run of polo shirts. This was in the eighties right before they started boarding up and painting store windows.
8. How much of the creative work you do is part of your social life?
I’m always thinking and looking for inspiration…whether I’m shopping, on vacation, watching TV or seeing a concert or show…. I just can’t turn it off. It’s always fun to observe, react and brainstorm creative work when you are with your friends! Some of the best people I’ve met in my life are Visual people who always know how to have fun and push the creative envelope.
9. Who or what inspires you in your work?
I’m reading a biography on Frank L Baum the author of the Wizard of Oz and the Founder of VMSD (Shop Window Magazine). The fact that Baum was a merchandiser in the 1880′s, an avid fan of Window Display and that he wrote some of the most memorable and visually exciting stories ever is pretty f***ing cool. I just read that his Tin Man was inspired by a display window for a hardware store….body from a washboard, stove pipe limbs, a frying pan face and a funnel for a hat. Love that!
10. What is your wildest dream for a window display?
My wildest dream would be to create a window display where the “Snozberries taste like snozberries” and people are encouraged to lick the windows. I guess that could get pretty gross after awhile and it may be unsanitary too. But… it’s a dream, right?
23 October 2011
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16 Comments
Ahhh a window appealing to all the senses. This man is a genius! As a food lover how could I go paste tasting something
And the Tin Man….Pull the other one….Are you serious??? Who would have thought…
Window dreams, love it.
4. Describe your most memorable window display moment?
My most memorable window display moment was when my partner spotted me while I was working in a Victoria’s Secret window. Our eyes met through the glass.
There’s something perverted about windows dressing but when the object and it’s observer make connections – magic happens!! It’s a good kind of perversion I guess??
ha. snozberries taste like snozberries! i agree with ‘rocky road’ this man is a genius!
you have inspired me to google the works of zen genius.
i would lick the window, over and over again. unsanitary, yes! but they’re snozberries!!
i work in the field of creating the perfect coffee…a window you could not only look and touch but taste…ah the imagination runs wild!
the power of windows! cheers to that!
snozberies…has anyone ever tasted them? do they exist? or only at Willy Wonker’s establishment?
So I googled snozberries and was led to the Urban Dictionary definition. Certainly surprising! Not at all what I was expecting. Oh my!
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=snozberries
A few years ago Sony featured scratch and sniff decals on their windows in New York. That was equally as exciting and compelling for the window viewers.
so this snozberry idea has been the hot topic for me over the last week….
i was telling my aunty about Joe Baer’s idea and she said…
what if the design of the window was split into smallish squares that people could lick..and then they peel off their square once all licking had occured?!?!?!?
Joe Baer – can a dream turn into reality?!?! if so you would be the person to do it l believe!
HOLY MOLY!
JB you are correct!!!
In Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Willie Wonka mentions licking snozberries. What most people don’t know is that in one of Dahl’s adult books, snozberry is a euphamism for penis. He was slipping dirty humor into a kid’s book for his private amusement.
WOW!! who knew!
ok ok…maybe l take back my ‘square concept!’ hahahaha
well heres to collaboration!
I am all for your SNOZBERRIES window dream! I saw we can work around the whole unsanitay side of it and make it work it would definately be a step forward for window designs… I also love candy!
as I sit in china town with team tuls I look at all the people and wonder…if there was a window people could lick down this very popular dixon street how the vibe of this place would be so much more than 1000′s of people just walking through. people would stop, stare and experience a window display like never before, if only they could lick! JB your idea needs to be brought to life!
Quote from the remarkable Minh Lu – ‘evoking all of my senses, IWD interactive window dressing, wake up my senses, let me feel it in my heart’
xx
I.W.D – Let’s initiate and collaborate!!
Who would have known ey..This Q&A has got my attention again. Maybe I will just leave it up on my computer 24/7 !
That dirty Ronald Dalh. Another childrens story has been put in the gutter. Lets have blueberries and rasberries rather than snozberries lol
Aw how romantic ‘Our eye’s met through the glass’ and on a Victoria Secret window – go figure.
I honestly think a licking window is an amazing idea! We have ‘seen’ and ‘heard’ a window, even ‘felt’ but using our other senses like ‘taste’ to experience a window.. live… never heard of it!
Can’t wait to see!
haha! or taste it! It’ll be a race to taste first!