How Andy Warhol Changed my World

Art has been a major influence in my approach to the interior design and marketing of A Nerd’s World. Andy Warhol is a pop art icon who created unique pieces through different mediums such as the blotted line technique, silk screen paintings, photography, and film. Ironically, he was the most known anti-social socialite in the art world. Warhol knew the importance of marketing his brand, by appearing at events and surrounded himself around the underground talents of his time such as Edie Sedgwick, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Velvet Underground to name a few. His art was admired by many and inspired others like myself.

There are three ways Warhol influenced A Nerd’s World:

1. Our beloved personalized business cards were shot with the same film and Polaroid “Big Shot” camera that Warhol used (click here to view).

2. We have video portraits of our nerds playing 24 hours a day on the big screen televisions in our store. The simple videos pay homage to the famous video created by Warhol called “15 minutes of fame”, where the individuals on the screen sit in front of the camera for 15 minutes doing whatever they please (click here to view).

3. Warhol used mainly tertiary colours when he created his famous portraits such as the Marilyn Monroe. The tertiary colours are a primary and a secondary coloured mixed. He did this because they would stand out more and were not as used by other artists. Our hand-painted signage on the A Nerd’s World front windows display the popular used tertiary colours inspired by Warhol’s art. The reason is because, we too, want to stand out from our competitors and draw the attention of the drive by traffic on Bathurst st. towards our one-of-a-kind shop (click here to view).

Moments ago, my family and I pulled up to St. John the Baptist Byzantine Catholic Cemetery in Pittsburgh, the location where Andrew Warhola (later known as Andy Warhol) was buried in 1987. Warhol’s family were immigrants from Czechoslovakia and lived in a poor and fairly quiet neighbourhood. Warhol was a self-made millionaire who pursued his career as a commercial artist by moving to New York City shortly after graduating college. There is a Warhol museum in downtown Pittsburgh that houses his most memorable pieces allowing his fans to appreciate his art up close through various installations.

Warhol found a way to present his creativity through simplicity and questionable forms that kept his audience interested in the unexpected. Revisiting Warhol’s hometown will spark new inspiration for the revamp of our storefront. Some people love him, some people hate him but he was undoubtedly a marketing genius.

Chris A. Hughes