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Building a Perfect ARCH
by Anya Harris
The quirky coolness characterizing 32-year-old ARCH Drafting and Graphic Supply in San Francisco starts at its façade. Eight years ago, when Marilyn Hajjar was hired as manager, she had the building painted metallic copper. “It’s so beautiful, it glows,” she said. “When the sun is shining, it just radiates. It’s so easy to tell people how to find us: ‘Just look for the shiny copper building on the corner of Missouri Street and 17th.’ They can’t miss it.”
Many elements of the store make it a natural fit in San Francisco’s bohemian culture: its selection of unique gifts, funky custom-built and reclaimed industrial fixtures, and the friendly dog ambassadors Otto and Barley, who remind neighborhood patrons to bring their own pooches by for “cookies.”
But despite its hip outward appearance and laidback style, the longevity of the store is most likely due to its courteous, knowledgeable staff – most hold degrees in or are studying art or architecture themselves. They’ve helped the store cultivate an extremely loyal following among the architects, designers and artists who make up its core customers. Read More
What we Saw at the Show
Whether you’re stocking now for back-to-school or fourth quarter, it’s a good time to review the innovative, creativity-enhancing products presented by our industry’s vendors at the NAMTA show in April. Here, we’ve devoted 14 pages to products that will inspire your customers to draw, color, paint, print, sculpt, scratch, doodle, sketch, trace, transfer, journal, tie-dye, trim, cut and clean. Click Here to view PDF
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 From www.smallbiztrends.com
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“It’s pretty, but what can I do with it?” – Directing Customers Toward Decorative Papers |
| Fall 2002 |
Decorative papers capture your customers’ attention and draw them in with beautiful patterns, textures, colors and designs, as the possibilities of what can be done with the papers unfold within the imagination. Or not. Maybe your customers love the look of your decorative papers, but are just pla ... [click here to read more]
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Help Create the Best Impression(s)
by Tina Manzer
The headline in Philly.com, “Printmaking is Everywhere, and This Festival Shows It,” perfectly describes what’s happening with printmaking now, not only in the City of Brotherly Love, but also around the world. The headline’s story is about Philagrafika 2010, the first-ever citywide contemporary art event produced by the group Philagrafika in February.
Formerly the Philadelphia Print Collaborative, founded in 2000, the group’s mission was to heighten visibility for the art of print. Its programs “…expanded audiences for member organizations, provided professional development and exposure for artists, fostered new collaborations and networks of mutual support within the artistic community, and enabled thousands of youth and adults to learn about and participate in the art of printmaking,” says the organization’s website.
It adds: “Developments in the field of contemporary art are now global, and the medium of printmaking is no exception.”
If there is any doubt as to the expanding reach of this art form and its impact on AM retailers, just read NAMTA’s landmark report, “Artists & Art Materials USA 2009.” It discusses “inks,” “blank books,” and “printmaking supplies” (among other materials) and highlights their potential for growth. Read More
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Perspective
by Kevin Fahy
SUMMER and SMOKE
If working in the art materials industry had not sufficiently demonstrated to you that everything in our world is interconnected, the events of this past spring should have done the trick. It started with the reawakening of Eyjafjallajökull, which sounds like the beginning of a very dark fairy tale.
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An Industry Veteran Shares Her Wisdom
Marilyn Hajjar, manager of ARCH Drafting and Graphic Supply in San Francisco’s Potrero Hill neighborhood, discusses the advantages of a buying group, and the importance of high-quality art materials in today’s discount world.
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