RANT- SMH My Career 10/11/07

Well, here's a toast to YOU, Sydney Morning Herald for your brief and second rate overview of our industry in the My career section on Saturday.

Not only did the SMH choose to interview a fledgling window dresser, crediting her with the window designs of Australia's premier department stores (nationally), but then they entitled the article 'window dressing for dummies'. Fantastic. Now our already much overlooked profession is being advertised as an arena for less than intelligent high school drop outs who seem to find their way to the profession with little direction or talent..

If I was David Jones, I would demand an apology that their VM department was shown in such a poor light, and that not one of their VM directors, either in store or of windows, was quoted for the story.

The sense of humour and intelligence required to create the Selfridges/Harvey Nichols displays that the interviewed VM aspired to, are of such a standard as to rival any major advertising campaign or innovative set design and installation art being revered in the international arena.. And these need to be constantly repeated 12 times a year, with a massive international audience, ready to praise or criticize.

And beyond the need to be highly creative and consistently so, marketing plans, customer movement patterns, balancing budgets, set construction, team management and trend forecasting are all skills held by Heads of VM and displays.

If the SMH had bothered to entertain journalism of a higher than tabloid level, perhaps they would have actually helped young people understand that our job is more than just moving around mannequins, and is actually integral in brand identity and market share.

How is Australia ever going to lift their visual appreciation and creative place in the world, let alone move forward culturally, if we continue to dumb down the skill set held by professional creatives?

It is astounding that one of Sydneys premier newspapers can put out such a poorly researched and biased piece of reporting.