In on the Ground Floor.

• Author: BRONIKOWSKI, LYNN
• Position: Darcy Bisker's Degage - Brief Article

DARCY BISKER'S PHOTOFLOOR PROCESS, COMING SOON TO A STORE NEAR YOU.

Darcy Bisker's idea of the perfect commute is in-Line skating through Washington Park, cell phone to her ear and pager in hand, to keep her in touch with both coasts.

She does it often, leaving her Wash Park high-rise apartment/office on a crisp afternoon to head for her outdoor "office" and the freedom of having her own retail-design company, Degage.

"I spend lots of time exercising on my Rollerblades," said Bisker. "For me this is part of the creative culture; you can't be in a closed system and expect to get ideas."

Bisker even travels with her in-line skates - checking out the colors and trends of Los Angeles and window shopping through New York City.

"It's so great that I have to window shop to see what Valentino, Chanel and others are doing," said Bisker. "By Rollerblading through the streets of New York at night, I get to observe the colors and the shapes. And it's my job to do that."

Bisker founded her visual-design company a year ago, specializing in eye-catching retail exhibits that use the Photo Floor process she invented to create everything from realistic floor and wall surfaces to oversize posters and Christmas decor.

Now, Bisker splits her time between Denver, where she loves to live, and New York, where such national names as Saks Fifth Avenue, Sears Roebuck, The Gap, Calvin Klein and Sony love her work.

Bisker's work is so realistic that customers thought they were walking on water in Neiman-Marcus swimwear shops, where she covered the floor with a water pattern. For The Gap, she affixed lifesize cutouts of jeans and jackets to the floor to grab attention for the denim goods. For Lord & Taylor, the look of plank floors and cobblestone helped create a Dickens Christmas village.

Display & Design Ideas, a leading retail trade...