Hello candy lovers and faithful Dylan’s Candy Bar followers!

Quick, what’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think Dylan’s Candy Bar?

Let me guess… candy?

True, but there is so much more to Dylan’s Candy Bar than our delicious candy bars and eye-popping Color Your World display. Our mixologist Marc works hard to create deliciously original cocktails upstairs in our bar for those looking for a more adult alternative to candy buttons and gummy bears.

Remember Katrina Brown, our super cute model from our summer catalog photoshoot?

She and some of her friends spent Friday night at Dylan’s Candy Bar sipping candy cocktails and were sweet enough to share some stories from the night with us! Their experience was so sweet that we wanted to share it with our readers.

Katrina and her friends pose with a Dylan's Candy Bar bartender on their night out!

A couple weeks ago, Katrina met up with a few friends for happy hour drinks on a Monday night (2 for 1 candy cocktails!) at our flagship store in NYC, but made all their other friends so jealous that they decided to return the following weekend for the Dylan’s Candy Bar movie and popcorn night on Friday night.

The movie of the night you ask? Mean Girls!

According to Katrina, between the group that was there almost every line in the movie was quoted, and made for a fun and interactive movie watching experience for the group of friends.

But of course, the favorite part of the night was sampling the delicious candy cocktails that Dylan’s offers. The favorite drink was by and large the Pop Rocks Explosion, followed by the Root Beer Floatini in a close second.  If the drinks weren’t sweet enough, the bartenders certainly were.

Our Pop Rocks Explosion cocktail in front

Our signature Rootbeer Floatini

According to Katrina, “We had a wonderful experience with our new favorite bartenders in New York City who were super fun and had personalities to match the colorful, inviting decor inside the candy shop downstairs AND the bar upstairs.”

For this group of young 20-somethings, a night at Dylan’s Candy Bar was the perfect way to bring out their inner child AND have the same great experience that they would at any other Manhattan bar on a Friday night.

Katrina’s friend Joanna summed up the evening perfectly when she said, “Dylan’s Candy Bar is the most amazing place in New York City! It is the only place I feel it is acceptable to embrace your childhood as an adult!”

From cupcake booths to delicious and uniquely mixed cocktails, Dylan’s Candy Bar undoubtedly makes for a rad night out in Manhattan!

Thanks Katrina for sharing your Friday night with us!

Have you tried our signature candy cocktails? We would love to hear your favorites! Tweet us with your best-loved sweet drinks at @DylansCandyBar with the hashtag #CandyCocktailLove

Xoxo,

Katelyn

Copywriting Intern

It’s that time of the year… time for a beach trip!

Last weekend I went to Coney Island with two of my fellow interns, Ellie and Laura, and we got all of our beach essentials – from sweet snacks to the perfect cover-up – from Dylan’s Candy Bar! I began this internship knowing that I’d be learning so much about candy and colors, but I didn’t realize how many amazing non-edible products Dylan’s Candy Bar had.

Everything is so colorful, bold and fashionable – it made walking the boardwalk and laying out on the beach a blast! My favorites from the summer 2012 collection are the logo towel and the canvas tote – a perfectly-sized beach bag that got me several compliments! Oh, and don’t forget to keep hydrated with our candyspill twisty cup, because it is HOT!

Want to see even more must-have summer items? Check out my list of beach essentials below!

Interns Laura, Ellie and Emily sporting a Dylan's Candy Bar t-shirt and towel!

Beach Check List:

• Dylan’s Candy Bar Towel
• Striped Canvas Tote
• Logo Tank Cover-Up
• Flip Flops
• Under the Sea Mix
• Unwrap Your Sweet Life
• Ice Cream Cone Pillow

Make your beach trip sweeter with Dylan’s Candy Bar! See you at the beach!

<3, Emily

E-Commerce intern

Hello Dylan’s Candy Bar fans!

Are you ready for the Fourth of July?

Dylan’s Candy Bar sure is!

In typical Dylan’s fashion, we went all out when it came to designing and executing our summer window display at the flagship store in NYC.

The most impressive part? Our gigantic gumball flag, the brainchild of our very own Crafty Katie,  that was assembled with painstaking care by our marketing team.

Our delicious gumball flag!

As an extra special treat, we held a “Guess How Many” contest on our blog last week in which we asked our readers to guess how many gumballs went into our flag.

Today, we are happy to announce our winner, Jen H. who guessed an astonishing 2,886 gumballs. The real number is 2, 878, gumballs, only eight less than Jen guessed!

Congratulations Jen! Please email marketing@dylanscandybar.com with your address and contact info to claim your prize!

Today, I want to take you behind-the-scenes on our gumball flag mission, if you’d like to see. Our challenge: transport our flag from our corporate office to our NYC flagship store.

While I wouldn’t compare it to moving the space shuttle Enterprise up the Hudson River, transporting the gumball masterpiece down the uneven streets of Manhattan was quite the spectacle.

Not only does this eye candy weigh a TON, its fragile character made it necessary to have FOUR of us gals from corporate act as gumball bodyguards and accompany it from the Dylan’s Candy Bar corporate office to the store.

Mayumi (Creative Director) and Katelyn (Copywriting Intern), help Sarah (our awesome-all-around lady) transport the gumball flag to the store.

Upon arriving at the store, Jewel, our Assistant Manager of Facilities, helped us hoist the gargantuan flag up into the window display,  as wowed Dylan’s customers stood by and watched. Picture climbing over railings, hoisting gumballs in the air, gesturing from outside to make sure the flag was perfectly even, the whole nine yards. This was no feat for amateurs.

A proud Jewel poses next to the gumball flag.

The result of everyone’s hard work? A deliciously sweet summer window display that captures the excitement of all the warm weather activities coming up! From the Fourth of July, to the Summer Olympics in London, to a backyard BBQ with friends on Memorial Day and the upcoming elections, Dylan’s has got you covered.

A sweet summery picnic complete with Dylan's signature paint can fillables!

No BBQ is complete without tasty gummy burgers and hot dogs!

The most delicious flag you'll ever see!

Our window graphic says it all!

Come by the Dylan’s Candy Bar store on Third Avenue and 60th Street to check out our work of art yourself and grab those last minute items for your Fourth of July celebration tomorrow!

A special thanks to the creative geniuses behind this project:

Katie and Andrea for designing and executing the display

Sarah and Jewel for being the helpful hands on set and risking their lives for the sake of candy aesthetics

And of course, Mayumi for art production and directing the designers, Sue and Tiffany, in creating the graphics and art for our window display.

xoxo,

Katelyn

Copywriting Intern

Creative genes run in the family! Dylan collaborated with her cousin, Jenny Lauren, to create a colorful, candy colored inspired jewelry collection exclusively sold at Dylan’s Candy Bar! As a CANDY and ACCESSORIES aficionado myself (or at least I’d like to think I am), I was so excited to have the opportunity to write about the wonderful line and see the baubles first hand!

The exceptionally chic jewelry line, perfect for layering, ranges from $20-$75

Jenny Lauren first dipped into beading and jewelry making after a family trip to Santa Fe when she was only 15 years old! On that trip, she collected beads native to the Southwest of all sizes, shapes, textures and materials. She returned home to New York City with a vast assortment of beads ready to begin her first collection. Jenny went on to receive her B.A in Art History and Fine Arts from Barnard College, and continued to study Native American art and literature at the University of New Mexico. And as some might say, the rest is history!

Jenny’s love of travel and culture has given her the opportunity to collect international treasures to craft one of a kind, handmade, earrings, bracelets, and necklaces. Jenny Lauren’s collection is a  different aesthetic for Dylan’s Candy Bar and we couldn’t be more thrilled about it! Her chic creations effortlessly combine Dylan’s signature candy stripe colors with silver beads and charms, staying true to her style, to make fantastic arm and neck candy for sweet lovers of all ages!

My absolute FAVORITE pieces are ones with charms boasting adorable phrases like, “Sweet as Candy”! After all, who can resist wearing jewelry that looks good enough to eat?! So unwrap your inner fashionista and head over to our NYC and East Hampton locations to discover the undeniably stylish and vibrant jewelry for yourself!

<3, Elizabeth (Marketing Intern)

We are always having a blast in the office, especially when new sweets arrive! Everyone tested our new sour candy and I got to go around and snap people’s reactions (life is so hard – haha!), and these are some of the best pictures from the lemon flavor! Which sour face is your favorite? Mine is Kristin’s

<3 Elizabeth (Marketing Intern)

From top left: Elyssa (Everyday Buyer), Lauren (Non-edible Buyer), Kaitlyn (Seasonal Buyer), Sarah (Executive Assistant to the President), Hassan (Inventory Planner), Kristen (VP Merchandising)

Hello there faithful followers of the colorful world of Dylan’s Candy Bar!

Ever wonder what it’s like to go behind the scenes at a “Vogue” cover photo shoot?

Me too.

I’ll keep you posted when that becomes a reality.

I can check off my bucket list, however, being a part of a Dylan’s Candy Bar photo shoot! (Which, in case you are wondering, is just as important as Team USA on the cover of this month’s “Vogue” if you are a candy addict like me.)

Summer Catalog Photo Shoot in Central Park!

This was my first photo shoot, and I spent the days leading up to the shoot geeking out about everything from pulling candy and accessory samples from the Dylan’s Candy Bar store on Third Avenue and 60th Street, to making sure that our models were on board and knew all the details.

Finally, the day arrived and as I excitedly carried two dozen brightly colored balloons down the crowded Manhattan streets accompanied by Ren, our photographer, who wheeled our bike, I was probably beaming with excitement.

Our small but mighty team comprised of six playful art & candy lovers – 3 models, our photographer, our art director, and me! We certainly added color on site at Central Park. If our arms stuffed with bags of candy didn’t draw enough attention, our bike filled to the brim with flowers and balloons certainly did!

When the models arrived early in the morning, we went right to work dressing them in Dylan’s Candy Bar’s colorful new summer apparel and setting up the theme for the day – a day with friends in the park. The picnic food we picked out looked so good, it took all our willpower to save it for the shoot.

We had so many lovely model submissions for our casting call contest that it was hard for our team to choose, but we settled on three fun-loving girls with completely different looks to be the faces for our 2012 Summer Catalog.

Our three models were so much fun to spend the day with! They helped carry bags upon bags of colorful clothing around the park, and didn’t flinch when we had them change outfits in our makeshift towel dressing room. They were so professional. I’m not sure that I would have been able to pull off such a stunt in such a confined space.

Sam and Katelyn help Katie make a quick wardrobe change between scenes.

Samantha Jaikaran, one of our models, was so enthusiastic all day long. She kept us going with her energy and bubbly personality despite the long shooting hours outside in the sun. Not to mention she loved carrying the balloons.

Katrina Brown, another one of our lovely models, is also a dancer! She wowed our team with her grace and poise throughout the shoot. I hope some of her incredible dance shots make it into the catalog. They were jaw-dropping.

Katie Klausner, our third model, is a graphic/packaging designer who uses candy and candy colors as her primary inspiration… right down to the dessert-studded shoes on her feet! Katie was constant inspiration throughout the shoot just through her own personal colorful style.

From a picnic, to splashing in a pond and riding a carousel, I can’t think of a more fun way to spend a Friday afternoon!

Wondering what happened to the balloons after the shoot? We handed them out to wide-eyed little kids who were more than elated to take home the colorful, helium filled treasures.

The team from left to right: Katelyn, Katrina, Sam, Ren and Katie. Mayumi, our dedicated team leader, isn't pictured. (She took the photo)

Are you excited to see more colorful candy magic when our summer catalog comes out?

I sure am! I will surely keep you posted.

As we prep the photos and start working our catalog magic, we want you to get started dressing yourselves like our models by checking out our new summer apparel at www.dylanscandybar.com, following us on Twitter and liking our Facebook page.

xoxo,

Katelyn

[The ever enthusiastic] Copywriting Intern