Creating an Urban-Chic Vibe in the Iowa Heartland
March/09/2008 Fascinating Folks
I met a great couple at the Studio Management Services Workshop in Atlanta last month, and they were kind enough to let me give you a peek into their business world. They are Anne and Quinn Kirkpatrick of Small Wonders Photography in Davenport, IA, who are pictured below with their 6-year-old son, Ethan.
Small Wonders is located an an industrial-style loft space in the Bucktown Center for the Arts, which is situated along the Mississippi river front in the heart of Davenport. Shown below is their welcoming meeting area and gallery. Quinn uses an upstairs room for studio shoots, and they also have access to other areas in the building for indoor shoots, including a conference room space. The Kirkpatricks moved their studio to the center as soon as the renovations of the former furniture warehouse were completed in July 2005. Eighteen other studios and galleries are housed in the building including jewelry designers, painters, sculptors, etc., with over 100 artists represented. Anne explains that on the last Friday of each month, the entire building hosts an evening-hours "Final Friday" open house. "We usually serve light food and wine, and the entire building hosts live music in one of the main studios, along with a featured exhibit," she says.
Quinn and Anne did a great job designing and furnishing the studio . . . "after much deliberation," says Anne. "We carefully picked out the furniture making sure that each piece said 'Small Wonders.' We wanted clean lines, but a warm feeling as well. We chose a white couch and tempered it with a warm cherry-wood coffee table to complement the studio’s natural wood floors and beams. We try to hide our desk area so it's not the focus of the studio (only 400 sq. feet), and our projector is mounted on a ceiling beam, so it is out of sight."
I just love the hanging-bar apparatus shown below. Anne tells me that it can be purchased at Pottery Barn for around $100 per unit. She says it is quite versatile, and it obviously maintains the urban, industrial look of their studio.
Another aspect of the Kirkpatrick's business that really interested me is their mall display kiosk and the banners they use to grab attention. Anne describes how their great-looking display came to be:
"Quinn and I did a lot of research on mall displays, and everything we read said that they really work if they’re done right. We decided that if we were going to take the plunge ($333 per month), our display HAD to be eye-catching and consistent with the brand we are bulding. So along with our designer, we decided the main images of the display should be big and dramatic. Then we added a few smaller images in frames and some bevel-edge mounts around the perimeter (ranging from 8x10 to 20x30s). We display images of weddings, babies and high school seniors.
"The mall display banners are actually double-sided laminated inkjet prints mounted on ½-inch gator board. We had an exhibit display company create them for us under the direction of our designer. Our designer — he and I worked together in my past life in an ad agency — had this cool 3-D design program we used to figure out what images we should place where. It allowed him to pop the images into the template he designed, move them around and determine how each image would look on each side of the display case."
The kiosk is located in front of Bath and Body Works, which is great for attracting moms, brides, and high school seniors. It is also near a ramp where there is high-density stroller traffic.
Anne says that one of their objectives for the kiosk was to make it look different from any other photographer in the mall. I believe you will agree that they have hit a home run with both the kiosk and their handsome studio space! Thanks to Quinn and Anne for sharing.
Small Wonders is located an an industrial-style loft space in the Bucktown Center for the Arts, which is situated along the Mississippi river front in the heart of Davenport. Shown below is their welcoming meeting area and gallery. Quinn uses an upstairs room for studio shoots, and they also have access to other areas in the building for indoor shoots, including a conference room space. The Kirkpatricks moved their studio to the center as soon as the renovations of the former furniture warehouse were completed in July 2005. Eighteen other studios and galleries are housed in the building including jewelry designers, painters, sculptors, etc., with over 100 artists represented. Anne explains that on the last Friday of each month, the entire building hosts an evening-hours "Final Friday" open house. "We usually serve light food and wine, and the entire building hosts live music in one of the main studios, along with a featured exhibit," she says.
Quinn and Anne did a great job designing and furnishing the studio . . . "after much deliberation," says Anne. "We carefully picked out the furniture making sure that each piece said 'Small Wonders.' We wanted clean lines, but a warm feeling as well. We chose a white couch and tempered it with a warm cherry-wood coffee table to complement the studio’s natural wood floors and beams. We try to hide our desk area so it's not the focus of the studio (only 400 sq. feet), and our projector is mounted on a ceiling beam, so it is out of sight."
I just love the hanging-bar apparatus shown below. Anne tells me that it can be purchased at Pottery Barn for around $100 per unit. She says it is quite versatile, and it obviously maintains the urban, industrial look of their studio.
Another aspect of the Kirkpatrick's business that really interested me is their mall display kiosk and the banners they use to grab attention. Anne describes how their great-looking display came to be:
"Quinn and I did a lot of research on mall displays, and everything we read said that they really work if they’re done right. We decided that if we were going to take the plunge ($333 per month), our display HAD to be eye-catching and consistent with the brand we are bulding. So along with our designer, we decided the main images of the display should be big and dramatic. Then we added a few smaller images in frames and some bevel-edge mounts around the perimeter (ranging from 8x10 to 20x30s). We display images of weddings, babies and high school seniors.
"The mall display banners are actually double-sided laminated inkjet prints mounted on ½-inch gator board. We had an exhibit display company create them for us under the direction of our designer. Our designer — he and I worked together in my past life in an ad agency — had this cool 3-D design program we used to figure out what images we should place where. It allowed him to pop the images into the template he designed, move them around and determine how each image would look on each side of the display case."
The kiosk is located in front of Bath and Body Works, which is great for attracting moms, brides, and high school seniors. It is also near a ramp where there is high-density stroller traffic.
Anne says that one of their objectives for the kiosk was to make it look different from any other photographer in the mall. I believe you will agree that they have hit a home run with both the kiosk and their handsome studio space! Thanks to Quinn and Anne for sharing.