If a Story Took the Form of a Store, What Would it Feel Like?

What would a transmedia storytelling store look like? Probably something like Old Village Hall.

While developing Two Blue Wolves and Nightwork, I thought a lot about the “product” I was bringing to the market. As a transmedia storyteller working in so many mediums at once, it was hard to pin down exactly what that was at first. At some point I realized that my product was the story itself, that central narrative thread, which, in my case, can take many forms—a book, a song, a video, a piece of art. So if this product of mine were to live in a brick-and-mortar store, what kind of place would that be?

On a recent visit to the East Village, I stumbled on what might be the best example of what a transmedia store could be—Old Village Hall. The tiny shop features the designs of Scott Hill and his historically-inspired take on reclaimed furniture, home goods, bags and clothing. The store also offers a collection of artwork and vintage objects that expand on Scott’s story of our past.

The shop on East 2nd Street is about the size of a glorified walk-in closet. There you’re immersed in a world that is both familiar and mysterious, where you can feel the thread of a story weaving itself through every fabric of every chair, along the frame of a portrait, through the pattern of a silk scarf. Thankfully, everything is pretty affordable—which means Scott isn’t just offering us a story to connect with, but one that we can take home and incorporate into our own.

Here’s a video of Scott talking about the store. I especially like his comment about creating “a souvenir of your life.”

Coincidently, Old Village Hall also features limited edition prints by one of my favorite New York photographers, Mikael Kennedy. What a surprise when I found two of his prints hanging on the wall. I met Mikael randomly one day while I was at Think Coffee on Mercer Street. He was working on an image on his computer at the table beside mine. I couldn’t stop looking over at it. I asked him about it and we got to talking and I’ve been following his work ever since. Below is one of his photographs that’s for sale at Old Village Hall. You can see more Mikael’s work on his official site >

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 1st, 2010 at 12:24 pm. It is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.