When Black Ink first opened in Beacon Hill, the store measured less than 500 square feet. That’s tiny for a store, especially one as diverse as Black Ink. “It was a process which took many years,” Corcoran says. “You kind of refine and figure out how best to use all that space—that limited amount of space.” To maximize the space she had, Corcoran developed tall, adjustable, cube-based shelving. The supply of merchandise changes weekly, so it was the perfect solution. Products could be easily switched and reconfigured, and with the addition of a rolling library ladder, the little space was maximized. “When we got the opportunity to open a store in Harvard Square, we used the same model—it was just a little bigger.”

In Corcoran’s scenario, the analogy of a canvas seems all too apt. The design is contained and defined by the space. It’s a problem that seems tailored for Corcoran, who studied studio art in college. “It’s like an installation piece,” she says. “It’s like a daily installation, and you don’t know what’s going to happen when people come in and interact with it.”

ADVANTAGES OF AESTHETICS

Art is too often conceived as serving no useful purpose. It is premised in pleasure, in beauty, but it is not often utilitarian. People don’t typically see it as capable of solving problems. But why should this be the case? Why can everyday experience not constitute art? In some ways the design and arrangement of stores seems more challenging than creating art for art’s sake—the products need to sell. “The beauty of it is it’s very democratic,” Corcoran says about her own store. Merchandising can be a thing of beauty; store curation, a form of pop art.

Space and design within these stores is carved out by a personal need to create. Because of that, stores often reflect the way the owners see themselves. Even in a single branch of a large chain, there is ample opportunity for individual creativity, just as there are ample possibilities for customers to feel at home. So are they really curators? “I never really [thought I was] before, but so many people have told me that I am, that I’ve started to believe it,” Bobby says. Maybe he should.

—Staff writer Kurt P. Slawitschka can be reached at kurtslawitschka@college.harvard.edu.