Making New Friends. Loran Thrasher’s Larger Than Life Dogs for Neiman Marcus. ~ News from IA Agency

Artist Loran Thrasher collaborated with Jody Meyer, visual manager for Neiman Marcus, and her team to capture the spirit of the season and designer Johnson Hartig’s latest collection. Johnson Hartig’s designs are a known for being vibrant, quirky and completely off the wall. Inspired by Hartig’s bold collection, Jody had the idea to create large cardboard dogs for the display then handed it off to Loran to run with it.

Loran hit the ground running, researching and narrowing down the specific breeds.

He cut the wooden frames in his studio and took them to the Neiman Marcus Downtown store to finish.

The next task at hand was to cover the frames in cardboard to bring to life each dogs character, which Loran admits was the most time consuming part.

“My job was to focus on their design and personality. It was interesting to see what part of each dog visually identified them as to their breed. Obviously, a poodle looks like a poodle because of the way in which they are groomed. But most of the other dogs had to be identified by the shape of their hind legs, or jaw, or the way they stood. Everyday I worked on them was a new education for me. The cardboard had to be patterned and manipulated to give the right form and contour to the dogs individually. I don't think I ever found a way to really formalize one solution that would work for all of them. It racked my brain.” –Loran Thrasher

The dogs stand over 7ft tall and 8ft wide, eluding the playfulness of a dog and commanding your attention and awe. Loran states he couldn’t have done it alone. Finding beauty in the collaboration, Loran expresses that it was a few people working together to make something great.

The larger than life display is located at 1618 Main Street.