Merry Christmas, you paint too?

I haven't always used a computer to 'express' my creative appetite. My background is in fine arts, you know painting, drawing, collecting a trunk of "found objects" "objet d'art" (aka garbage), being messy, making things with toxic materials...

Yesterday I completed my 3rd year of Christmas window painting at the Canada Way Business Park. This is the newest addition to my plethora of artistic applications. The first year I took on the task alone with no clue or experience. At least I bought water-based supplies considering the previous painters caused much damage to the security film on the windows using permanent marker. I am eagerly reminded of that past blunder every year by at-least 4-5 people. It was a long, cold project in the midst of a blizzard. I made the mistake of painting really big things too - ex: making a snowman that took me over an hour to paint - I still had 7 more large front entrances to complete, ughhh!

The second year I called my good friend Evelyn. This was the best decision ever. How time flies and work becomes fun when you have a friend; who is an amazing and creative artist as a bonus, to complete the job..and her penguins were a huge hit! This year we pretty much had it down pat. We had themes planned for each window, images to stoke our creative fires, step stools, MUSIC, and egg cartons - a painting essential.

No we don't use stencils...that's where the artist comes into play. It's very liberating to picture what I want to paint in my head and translate it directly to the glass. Of course things aren't perfectly drawn so it's a different feel than the 'out of the box' pristine images that some windows often have. You know the ones. Evelyn said great quote in regards to that, "Our minds are our stencils".

So what am I babbling about, what's the purpose? Well I wanted to blab about getting to paint freely on the windows of such companies as IBM and Electronic Arts, but also to talk about doing something 'festive' for the holidays and how creating some 'newness' can help your business by reducing the banal and make customers smile; or just add some visual interest while visiting your site or business.

I am wholly aware that many people don't enjoy and may despise the holidays with all of the traditions now diluted within the masses and replaced by consumer-driven traditions etc. On the other hand, so many (myself included) love the holidays. I look forward to the imagery, decorations, music, cinnamon scents; the slow down of work, the snow, the family get-to-gethers...yeah yeah, too bad Grinches!

Our painting definitely made many people smile - with exception of the cleaning staff who were trying to conceal their internal distaste for the approaching task of having to clean the windows...yet again. I think that people enjoy the 'newness' the imagery brings to the entrances they pass through day after day. I believe it refreshes and revitalizes energy when businesses take time to change decor, it reduces blasé days and creates a dialog (whether they love or hate it!) for a while anyways...then time for the next change!

This same idea can be applied to websites. Keep your visitors interested by seeing something new. It can be via dynamic images in banners that change every few seconds, by changing up banners with holiday specific images or messages from the staff to the user such as "Media FX Group wishes you a wonderful holiday season". Think about adding context appropriate images with jack-o-lanterns during Hallowe'en...

Digital displays are another medium to do this. The Media FX Group can whip you up some fresh new visuals to attract fresh customers, or interest returning customers; all the time keeping your company brand front and center.