Anthropologie Personified

It has been nearly 10 weeks since I started my internship at Anthropolgie in Rittenhouse Square and time has been flying by. One of the coolest things at Anthropologie is that everything is designed and created in-house. As an intern to the Visual Display Coordinator, hours upon hours of this semester have been spent crafting. Yes, I actually receive REAL college credits to hot glue, paint, sew, and hot glue some more.  While the crafts may be tedious, the end results are unreal. The amount of beauty and pseudo-realism that goes into the large installations at Anthropologie is often underestimated. Walking into the store, many aren’t aware that somewhere up on the 4^th floor, interns are crafting away to make the large-scale installation truly amazing.

Anthropology in the sense that most are aware of is how a culture develops. Its origins, its social customs, and genetic characteristics are all balled up in order to explain the behaviors of mankind. The Anthropologie that I have become accustomed to has a lot of the same similarities. I have come to perceive Anthropologie as a person whose culture I am studying. Each day I learn something new about who “she” is. “She” is any persona given to a different section of the store. She is wise and knowledgeable, or maybe she is dark and mysterious. She could be organic and whimsical, or she could be artistic and cool. Every aspect of her personality is put into the displays in order to make who she is truly shine, so the customer can see exactly what kind of person she is and relate to her.

Interning in a retail setting instead of an advertising agency is definitely a different experience than most advertising majors would want. Spending most of my classes working on the Adobe Creative Suite, taking two days out of my school schedule to do hands on work is ultimately creatively stimulating. But working in a studio instead of an office has also opened my eyes to the possibilities of working outside of advertising. Since Anthropologie does minimal advertising other than the catalogs and emails that they send, it is up to us, as the visual team, to advertise to them based on the work that is presented in store. By doing this, we are able to capture new customers and get a firmer grasp on those who are already loyal shoppers. I really appreciate the opportunity given to me interning at Anthropologie. Most advertising majors aren’t able to see what goes on in other aspects of advertising besides what happens in an agency.