Free Ideas: Coffee + Graffiti

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Anonymous writes: Dear J, I own a coffee shop (kind of), and to decorate the walls, I want my customers to leave messages/drawings on the wall. I’m doing this so they can get creative too while they spend $$, what guidelines would you recommend for them to start posting?

Dear Anonymous: If you are going to let customers write or draw on the walls of your business, you may need a few guidelines. Since I don’t know the exact nature of your establishment, I am going to assume that it is frequented by children, and people of various walks of life. You don’t want it to be boring, but you also don’t want it to be inappropriate. Here are a few guidelines you can pick and choose from:

Make the customers come up and ask for the ‘special’ markers. This means they are essentially getting ‘permission to post’. Treat the markers like a bathroom key: make sure you get them back after they are used. The customer will feel special, but also know that you are aware of them writing. This will dramatically decrease any inappropriate posts.
Have a daily theme: “What makes you happy?” “Who is your hero?” Ask questions that will have positive and interesting answers. Use a suggestion box to solicit questions of the day from customers: “This question is brought to you by Ted, a regular for over 3 years…”
No politics. Nothing is more divisive. You will have holes punched in your walls if you let people write about politics.
No hatred. Don’t even let people write, “I hate rainbows.” It’s a slippery slope. If you let people hate rainbows, the next thing they’re going to hate is unicorns or leprechauns. And that’s just not cool.
No trolling or bashing. (See hatred above).
No bigotry. This goes without saying.
No racism. This goes double without saying.
No ‘bad words’. (see bigotry and racism above) Remember the kids! Even if they already know all the words they might not know how to spell them yet.
No phone numbers, addresses or email addresses. You don’t want the walls to become a dating service. Or a message centre.
No advertising! Don’t allow customers to solicit other customers. Unless they pay for it! You could sell 1′x1′ squares for people to advertise cool services like painting or dog walking or psychic readings.
You could make people go through a screening process, or customer vote, before they can begin drawing or posting on the walls.
Or you can go hard-core, no rules, and let your customers censor the bits they don’t feel are appropriate. Or draw over them. Or transform them.

Which ever way you slice it, it’s going to be a messy mix of different styles and attitudes. You are best to confine this to a limited space, with limited colours to start.

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