"Wear black" said the invitation, and several hundreds of Creative Nail Design's closest distributors, educators, and friends obeyed. Celebrating Gotham's edgy urban style, Creative's annual BBSI party was held in a dark, dank cement room underneath a parking garage. You were allowed to enter only if your nails glowed eerily under a black light (made possible with specially treated polishes concocted by a certain CND chemist who shall go nameless, and given out at the press event the day before). Cold beer and Chinese food in to-go cartons were served and a table flanked by twisted candelabra offered various hot and cold appetizers. Amidst the familiar scrawl of graffiti on the wall, one could spot the characteristic "C" of Creative's new logo.

 [photo 1] Clean-cut Creative folks take on a whole new look at night. (left to right) Samantha Bye, Doug Smith, and Linda Nordstrom show their wild side in black leather and punk do's.

[photo 2] Handsome trophies bearing Creative's new "C" logo were given to top distributors, including the Aerial Company. (left to right) John Caspole, Check Salewsky, Jan Arnold, Diane Vandenlangenburg, Jim Nordstrom, Betsy Yaefer, Ryan Hmielewski, Sloan Smith, John Heffner.

[photo 3] From the two coasts, meet the powerful women in black: R.G. Shakour's Terri Taricco and NAILS publisher Cyndy Drummey.

[photo 4] Stephanie Price of RDA accepts the award for Innovation in Store Development. Cheering her on are (left to right) John Caspole, Shelly Tubbs, Jan Arnold, Jim Nordstrom, and John Heffner.

[photo 5] The masks comes off at midnight but for now, NAILS managing editor Erika Kotite and Creative R&D director Doug Schoon try to guess each other's identity.