Client: Nordstrom

Scope:  National Fashion Retailer, New Product Line Launch of "Signature" Garbo Fashion Line

Mission:  Conceive and design the branding for a high-end, Greta Garbo fashion line for Nordstrom

Key Insight:  When I grew up in Arvada, Colorado there was one movie theater. It wasn't a multiplex. The lone screen was magical to me. It was a portal to the celluloid world of fashion and fantasy. Years later, my father, a marvelous architect, actually designed a movie theater. He placed a large mural of movie icons inside of it.

When Nordstrom asked me to take on the merchandising of a fashion line designed around Swedish silent and classic film legend Greta Garbo, I felt as if I was transitioning the legendary icon to another new medium, just as Garbo had gone from the silent era to the "talkies."

Designer fashion labels, hang tags, and images could not vocalize such famous lines as Garbo's from classics like Grand Hotel with “I just want to be alone.” To usher-in the new Garbo fashion statement, the piece quoted her fiercely independent voice in print: "I would like to do something unusual, something that has not been done. I would like to get away from the usual."

Garbo had a special affinity for the color gold, the same of color of the Oscar statues she was nominated for three times and the honorary one she received for her unforgettable screen performances. Gold was the inspiration for this package and the rich and sophisticated gold thread that wove her autograph.

Perhaps what has impressed me the most is the way iconic stars of cinema transcend the medium they occupy. The analogue for those of us who make design our life's work is how we, too, strive to transcend the physical dimensions of our workspace, to reach out and connect with the hearts and minds of our audience.

Categories: Events, Fashion, Print