DDi - March 2010 - (Page 10)

10 | Newsworthy | Awards Tom Beebe wins Markopoulos Award ach year, DDI presents one outstanding industry professional with the prestigious Markopoulos Award, an honor named after the late visual merchandising legend Andrew Markopoulos. This year, Tom Beebe, creative consultant at Paul Stuart, was bestowed with the peerawarded honor. Beebe began his career at Gimbels and quickly made the move to Bergdorf Goodman for a three-year stint. He later spent seven years at Neiman Marcus, before joining New York retailer Paul Stuart in 1985, where he worked for 14 years, six of those in the role of creative director, responsible for windows, ads, catalogs and all creative. According to Beebe, Photo: Thomas Iannaccone his work there encompassed 14 windows, every three weeks, for 14 years—or about 3,332 windows. After Paul Stuart, Beebe did a short stint at Henri Bendel to get some “girlie girl experience.” In 2001, Beebe says that he “wanted to think out of the box,” and thus landed at DNR magazine, where he served as creative director for eight years, traveling all over the world. When the 116-year-old Fairchild-owned menswear publication was shuttered in 2008, Beebe decided it was time to come back to retail. He now serves as a creative consultant for Paul Stuart, heading up the company’s store windows, and styling ads and catalogs for the past year. “I had to go back in the trenches, get back in windows and come back to retail, because I wanted to help push the business again, and bring back some magic and energy to the windows,” he says. Read on for a Q&A with this year’s Markopoulos Award winner, Tom Beebe. How did you get started in the design profession? I got a Bachelor in Fine Arts in communication arts, but I knew I needed to go somewhere to learn the designers and the business and the names, so that’s why I ﬁgured retail. I was always attracted to retail because of that. I had to ﬁnd some place where I could use my communication skills and get some momentum and energy—those are my key buzz words. If you know my work or look at my pictures, it always has some kind of movement or spirit or energy to it, so that became a signature. The Paul Stuart windows always have a tie ﬂying or a hat ﬂying in the air, or clothes that are wired or threaded, so it became a very puppetry kind of thing. It became more than just a still life. Paul Stuart’s 14 windows gave me a stage to create the street theater—to ﬂy ties. Q A What is your design philosophy? It has to have some kind of movement or energy—I love mastering still life and pushing it to a direction that’s different than before. I’m very big on the art and craft of windows, the craft of display. I feel it’s missing. I think everything has become cookie cutter at a lot of stores. And I know that’s necessary for control and the times we live in, but I think there’s a whole advantage to the unique, more artistic windows that almost become art installations. People used to run around the city to see New York windows. It’s a phenomenon. I think a sense of discovery is important in a window, to reward the person viewing the display. It should feel like ﬁnding a $10 bill on the ﬂoor in a taxi. What singular project has best deﬁned you as a designer? Gene Moore was my mentor. We used to always connect and talk about shadows and wiring and windows, and how to hang things and how to create a mystique in the window—how to stop people, basically. He did the windows at Tiffany for 39 years—he was like the wizard of the windows. After he passed away, we did a windows show with the Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum, and I spearheaded that. I got 15 stores in New York to dedicate themselves to Gene Moore and to the museum, so Cooper-Hewitt recognized display as a design ﬁeld, which was a big push, and it was very exciting. Why is visual important in the overall retail landscape? People used to line up outside of Tiffany to see the windows, it was like a gallery. They were street theater galleries, and I think that’s all going to come back again. I think companies know that they need visual people, because they’re the ones who are going to give the brand a personality or a market. You have two seconds to stop people when they walk by, and in that two seconds they should get the store, get the brand. We have to entice them to get in the store and to come back again, that’s kind of what it’s all about. What does winning the prestigious Markopoulos Award mean to you? To me, it’s a great honor, and because it’s from my peers, it’s really special, actually. Visual/display/styling is all dreams and illusions—to remain consistent even when it contradicts. This award is for your career, my career—it is a lot of pins, threads, wire. Movement, my look, my style—it becomes one’s signature. Meanwhile, 2010 is now, and what is next? Viva la pins, threads, wire. —JESSIE BOVE, MANAGING EDITOR Q A Q A Q A Q A | March 2010 www.ddimagazine.com http://www.ddimagazine.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of DDi - March 2010

DDi - March 2010
Contents
From the Editor
Newsworthy
Greentailing
Editor’s Choice
Design Snapshot: H&M Home
Design Snapshot: The School of Life
American Eagle Outfitters
Juicy Couture
Channel Focus: Jewelry
Shopper Marketing Section
Selfridges 3rd Central
Schnucks Market
Right Light
Design Leaders 2010
In-Store Technology
Product Spotlight
GlobalShop Show Coverage
Classifieds
Advertisers
Calendar
Shopping with Paco

DDi - March 2010