New Venture
I'm taking a temporary break from the whole Marc and Ty's scheme for a little while to work on an independent project. Currently I am working with the Mies van der Rohe Society to bring a line of products to the public. So far we are just working on a wristband, like "Armstrong", but with the saying "What Would Mies Do?" It's a clever rebirth of 2 past trends that will hopefully strike a cord with many local architects.
It all started one night while I was working at Crown Hall trying to get my drawing done for the next day and someone walked by with an "Armstrong" bracelet on. I started thinking about the trend and remembered how popular the "WWJD" bands were in middle school. It was about 2:00 AM and I laughed to myself and thought "What would Mies Do? Would he keep drafting, or would he just quit and go home?" I decided it had potential so the following weekend I started studying how much it would cost to make the bands. After determining it was possible I figured I needed help, so I E-mailed the director of marketing at the Mies Society and set up a meeting for the following Monday.
It was the first meeting I ever had to attend on my own. I've been to meeting before but always had someone there by my side to help me out. Needless to say I was nervous. I started thinking my idea wasn't really good and what if I wasn't prepared. I talked to my family a lot and they helped calm me down and prepare me for my meeting. I printed up analysis sheets and a meeting agenda so that I would know what to say at the meeting. The meeting went great. Justine, the marketing director, made me feel comfortable and made my first meeting a great experience. She loved the idea and she has thinking about an entire line of "WWMD" merchandise. We are reconvening next week to discuss our options and where to go from here.
Current Ideas:
Mies face Cufflinks
Mies face Tie Tack
Mies face drawn Tie
1 comment:
Hi, this may seem very strange. I´m writting you from Buenos Aires, Argentina. A few years ago, in 2005 I travled to the US and I was in Chicago just by the time the Crown Hall was being re-opened. I remember I saw the "What would mies do?" wristbands and read (somewhere, i don´t remember where) the story about how you came up with the idea and I thought it was a great one. I myself have thought numberous times while drawing at 2am what would those great masters do.
Sadly, I took the tour and then completely forgot about the wristbands and then left. I was in Chicago for 3 or 4 days and then left to New York. Since then, I have always regreted not buying one the moment I saw it.
What happened to that merchandise? Is it still posible to buy?
I hope you see this message. I actually remembered about the frase while drawing my last architectural project and decidided to lok it up...
Hope to hear from you.
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