A division of international brand management company Schawk Inc., Schawk Retail Marketing handles online, offline, and in-store marketing efforts for major retailers and brands. On Thursday night, the company hosted an open house in its West Loop photo studio, inviting 300 guests to a cocktail reception with live photo shoots.
"We opened the studio a year and a half ago, and our goal was to get clients, prospective clients, and industry influencers into the space," said Mike Lemon, senior vice president and marketing director at Schawk Retail Marketing. "The space really speaks for itself, and by inviting people in, we were able to showcase our capabilities in copywriting and fashion and food photography. It also allowed us to introduce some of our new technology."
Lemon said the event was designed to "give everybody a day in the life of what happens in our studio." At the entrance, guests got name badges printed with customized maps of the 60,000-square-foot space. Prospective fashion clients headed to an area where Ford Models posed in looks from local boutique Akira. Other attendees followed arrows to a kitchen set where Richard Blais, a finalist from the fourth season of Top Chef, put on a cooking demo that used liquid nitrogen. Schawk photographers were on hand to capture the action in each of the vignettes.
Skirt PR managed the event, tapping Revel Global Events to create a festive ambiance. "We came in to disguise a few things and turn the studio into a fun, loungey space," said Revel C.E.O. Clint Paton. Storage lockers became cabanas dressed up with custom pillows, and black leather furniture formed a seating area in the center of the studio. Designers also highlighted in-house props—choosing, for example, to illuminate mannequins with colored lights that throbbed in time with the DJ's beats. "It was such an exciting space to work in because it's complete sensory overload," Paton said. "The space is always pumping at 100 miles an hour, and that's not even when it's dressed up for a party. That's on a daily basis."
