the coolest art direction

In looking over the catalogs my wife brings home, I couldn't help but get sucked into looking at them. Not because I'm in the market for gauchos and wedges, (I promise, I'm not) but because the art direction was so cool. Having majored in Creative Advertising Art Direction at VCU, I was more or less conditioned to observed and analyze this kind of stuff.

Anthropologie (a woman's and housewares boutique) and Urban Outfitters (a more edgy-urban store that services both men and woman as well as housewares) caught my attention, and I need to mention that both's art direction (even though different from each other) are driving the bandwagon that everyone will be on.

Anthropologie has a more Victorian, 30's-old-estate feel to it. Good use of texture and props. I love the pictures here the best. Especially the greenhouse ones. Very old-elegant; old money.

Urban Outfitters is more "student film" and in-your-face, if you will. Lots of texture with the cut outs. They've kind of taken the last century, really, (with the use of old graph paper and what could be your grandmother's wall paper) and have made a montage of everything.

If you have a chance to go in any of these strores, do it. Even if you don't wear women's clothing, I think it'd be good to peek inside to see what's ahead of the curve.