Today we’d like to introduce you to Tony Kadysewski.
Hi Tony, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
My FixturesCloseUp website is comprised of 28,620 Posts and 1,391 Pages, 1,100+ categories, and a 105,707+ image pictorial inventory of unique or otherwise interesting small-scale fixtures, displays, Guerrilla Marketing, and visual merchandising strategies seen across the entire range of retailing. I undertook its journalistic development as Long Tail Content Marketing because I work in the fixture industry. Just as a cityscape is built up of individual bricks, beams, and boards, so a store is constructed of small-scale outfitting and merchandising that combines to help create the selling-floor environment. Many of these small elements are unsung heroes in creating an effective, functional, appealing space for merchandising goods. Because of the wide-ranging creativity of designers, similar display problems are often solved in unique ways. FixturesCloseUp attempts to document these varying solutions … and provide a source of ideas and inspiration for additional new solutions or new applications of existing fixtures. FixturesCloseUp targets a “purer” fixture readership than that of old-guard publications like Design:Retail, VMSD Visual Merchandising and Store Design, Shop! Retail Environments, and Path To Purchase bypassing “waste circulation” to retail finance, site selection, architectural design, operations, logistics, flooring, lighting, HVAC, and other non-fixture focuses.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Every day, a minimum of three new posts and one feature post on retail outfitting are published. Each requires actual visits and field research in stores, up to 18 original in-store photos that are ultimately retouched and refined for publication of 6 per post, drafting of a minimum of several hundred words of description and analysis of the fixture, its use and success, and actual formal construction of each post in WordPress. After pushing the “publish” button for EACH POST, 7 flights of social media outreach are sent to over 37,000 followers of FixturesCloseUp on LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and to FixturesCloseUp email subscribers. That makes for a busy day, 365 days of the year.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I am a Who’s Who in America honoree as Content Strategist and Founder of FixturesCloseUp. My early SYMAP Synagrahic Computer Mapping has been inducted into the Library of Congress. I hold eight advertising awards including prestigious ADDY Awards. And I am an award-winning calligrapher recognized for intricate illuminated works exhibited in over 30 juried and invitational shows, and recipient of 20 top distinctions, including Best of Show and multiple first-place awards, with pieces honored across categories spanning fine calligraphy, book arts, and decorative design. I hold three degrees from Penn State University and juggle for entertainment and relaxation.
If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
I would say I had a mostly ordinary childhood. I was the middle child of three. That has its own social and psychological implications, particularly with an older sister, JoAnn, who was a Junior Miss contestant winner, and a younger brother who became a renowned international videographer and filmmaker. By the time I was in high school, I was a “motorhead,” fixing, driving, and drag racing several vintage “hot rods.” In college, I evolved into a “hippie,” socially active in anti-war demonstrations, even in Washington, DC. I am old enough to have done hits of “Owsley Acid” before LSD was even declared an illegal drug. Professionally produced and pure, Owsley Acid was distributed via pills imprinted with the distinctive Owsley Owl. Always good to deal with a well-respected, recognized brand name.
Pricing:
- Visits and subscriptions to FixturesCloseUp.com are free.
- Onsite advertising pays the bills.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://FixturesCloseUp.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fixturescloseup/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/anthony.kadysewski
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/fixtures-close-up
- Twitter: https://x.com/FixturesCloseUp
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCulDKkqUQHpgd5qC8wgLwog
- Other: https://x.com/FixturesCloseUp (or https://twitter.com/FixturesCloseUp)
