Secret Ingredients, Glue Sticks and Going Green

At the 2006 IRDC in San Francisco we introduced the Iron Merchant Challenge, a timed visual-merchandising competition based on the cable network show “Iron Chef.” Session attendees formed teams and were challenged to create a display vignette using materials and props provided, along with a “secret ingredient.” The session was great fun—for team members and the viewing audience—so we asked Joe Baer, principal of ZenGenius and coordinator of last year’s challenge, to lead Iron Merchant II. Here’s a preview:

IRDC: Iron Merchant was conceived as a way for IRDC attendees to challenge themselves creatively through a timed event with limited materials. How can an exercise like this affect a designer’s day-to-day work?

JB: We are challenged every day to be more creative and more innovative. We are given tighter budgets, less staff and less time to complete our projects. It’s smart to exercise your creative muscles. A creative task or creative exercise that is related—or even not related—can inspire new ideas or generate new directions. When a creative exercise includes others, it also opens up new ways of communicating and you can gain insights about yourself, your own work habits and your co-workers.

IRDC: The participants all work from the same theme in this challenge. What’s this year’s theme, and why?

JB: This year’s theme is a “Green” Visual Challenge with an Atlanta twist. The attention to green retail at this year’s conference and at the closing keynote in San Francisco last year make this a worthy issue for this year’s challenge. It’s not always easy to understand what global warming, green design and LEED mean to visual merchandisers and retailers. How can we make a difference? What responsibilities do we have? What can we do differently on a daily basis to reduce our impact? How can we channel our power as retailers to make an impact on our planet?

IRDC: What’s the most interesting thing you learned through last year’s competition, in terms of how the teams responded to the challenge?

JB: First, how amazing, different and interesting each of the five windows turned out to be. Each team used the secret ingredient, a stuffed octopus, in a unique manner. The amount of creative energy and talent in that room was incredible and I was blown away by what they were able to accomplish in such a short amount of time.

Second, it was interesting to see what roles each of the participants took and how it opened up lines of communication between people. For some it was an icebreaker—a way to connect with other conference attendees in a tangible way. And those who were normally not in creative roles enjoyed taking on a new role and honoring their creative side.

Third, I thought it was extremely interesting that every team used their hot-glue guns and were fighting over glue sticks! I didn’t know we still valued our hot-glue guns so much. Is anyone out there making “green” glue sticks yet?