Articles
FROM PRODUCTION TO DELIVERY
According to Alex Lindsay, “Design has always been the KEYSTONE of our business.” Design may be the keystone of the business, but the key to Lindsay himself is integrity. Lindsay cares, on a very personal level, about the quality of the work he produces. The best design in the world is nothing without this commitment to excellence . . .. Modern Arts remains involved from production through delivery to the client. It is the kind of attention to detail, which keeps Modern Arts' clients faithful. These clients include many of the European retailers that have stores in the United States such as Charles Jourdan, Yves St. Laruent, and Louis Vuitton, as well as leading American retail stores like Barneys New York, Talbots, and The Gap. Download full article
MORE THAN JUST A TOTE
Women's Wear Daily
When it comes to shopping bags, what goes on them is just as important as what goes in them. In the retail, cosmetic and apparel arenas, shopping bags are taking on a new importance as promotional devices to let customers know about changes within stores, and as key props for window and counter displays. They are even used to help create a shop-within-a-shop feeling and often are almost art forms, particularly when the flag a special promotion. However, their primary role - apart from the functional service - is as an advertising vehicle. Industry folk commonly refer to shopping bags as walking billboards. Download full article
It's In the Bag
Shopping bag design is a fast growing field - but one few designers seem to truly understand. Modern Arts, a specialist in this arena, offers some valuable tips.
Some people get as much use out of the bag their Gucci shoes come in as the shoes themselves. Upscale designer shopping bags have enjoyed a surging cachet in the last few years and that trend seems likely to continue. “It's kind of like keeping up with the Joneses,” says Alex Lindsay, head of Modern Arts, a New York City-based firm specializing in retail packaging design. “When a French store on Madison Avenue puts out a beautiful bag, the store next to it wants a bag that is equally eye-catching. … People perceive bags as free gifts . . . and a beautiful bag someone keeps and uses provides the least expensive advertising for retailer,” says Lindsay. Download full article
PROMO
The International Magazine for Promotion and Marketing
Los Angeles - Southern California may be smoggy, but even the pollution couldn't hide the sweet aroma wafting around the streets here during the launch of Aramis' New West cologne. The Fall promotion featured a scented shopping bag that was inserted into 750,000 copies of the Sunday Los Angeles Times newspaper. New West also ran a color ad in the LA Times Magazine and supported the product launch nationally with TV spots.
The bags, which were designed and produced by New York-based Modern Arts, contained a shielded scent strip of New West cologne. Newspaper readers were encouraged to open the bag and remove a blotter to get a whiff of the new women's fragrance. Download full article
Business Bulletin
The Wall Street Journal
Old BAGS get sacked, new bags get scented and stuffed into newspapers as promos. Modern Arts, a New York package designer, made a perfumed shopping bag to boost a new cologne and says the inserts mark a growing trend. Download full article
Style Makers
The New York Times
Alex Lindsay, SHOPPING BAG DESIGNER
Consider the designer shopping bag. Consider Alex Lindsay. To all intents they're synonymous. Mr. Lindsay is the founder and owner of ModernArts, a company that creates totes for such retailers and brands as Barneys, Polo, Charivari, Giorgio Armani, Chanel, Gucci, Yves St. Laurent and Paloma Picasso . . . To his way of thinking shopping bags are worn, rather than carried, as a badge of allegiance to a social group - the represented by the store. With this in mind, ModernArts weighs decisions about shape, size, paper texture, even materials for handles and the estimated height of the client's customers. Mr. Lindsay feels that packaging “should reflect the attitude or specific essences of the client.” Download full article