Packaging is in the news more and more these days as looking after the environment and being green is in the forefront of everyone’s mind.
Environmentalists are campaigning about the amount of packaging used on many products that once had no packaging at all and supermarkets have encouraged customers to use reusable shopping bags.
The birthplace of Apple is set to become a testing ground for their new retail design ideas.
The testing ground will be used to trial new design ideas for the company’s future retail outlets.
Current idea’s in the pipeline include indoor trees and a large commons area for business and consumer training.
The new Palo Alto store will feature a completely transparent front and an indoor atrium feel.
Though Apple is not named in the filing, uncovered by Silicon Valley Mercury News, the architect for the project is Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, who also designed the 5th Avenue Apple Store in New York.
That store is well known for its large glass cube entryway for the underground retail area, open 24/7. Palo Alto planning manager Amy French told the Mercury News that it is her understanding that the location will be a new Apple Store.
Following on from the success of the restaurant in Popham, thanks to a revamped menu by Michelin-starred chef Heston Blumenthal and new restaurant design by award winning architect and designer Ab Rogers, Little Chef re-lauched two new restaurants in York and Kettering West.
As is our curious nature here at D4R, we couldn’t resist popping in and trying out the new menu…
But was all the fuss worth it? In a word, yes. The restaurant interior has managed to retain the traditional Little Chef feel but avoided the cheap and dreary elements that might have put off diners in the past. The restaurant was bright, fun and friendly, and the toilets were hilarious, playing “food glorious food” or an excerpt from a Spike Milligan poem as you walk through the door. Small details such as butterflies on the ceiling beams, 60s-style pendant lighting and food-based quotes on the walls and staff unifoms really finish off the fun atmosphere.
And the food? Superb. We will definitely be going back!
Opening its doors for the first time in the land of leeks, John Lewis has made a serious style statement with the arrival of its second largest store in the Partnership. The Cardiff-based four-floored flagship store stretches across 170,000 sq ft and does exactly what it says on the tin.
As a flagship, the John Lewis Partnership has made a bold shift in terms of retail design and presented a much more fashion-focused layout, re-establishing the company as a serious contender in the department store fashion stakes after years of being sidelined by the likes of Selfridges.
Disney have been “dreaming big” after receiving support from Apple big-wig Steve Jobs during their latest rebranding exercise. Jobs’ “dream big” mantra is responsible for Apple’s hit retail design concept of iconically styled stores with vast glass and granite surfaces.
Disney will be remodelling its 340 American and European stores following their consultation with the Apple boss and providing a visionary “Imagination Park” in place of each store, and bucking the trend of simply refurbishing and churning out old hat concepts.
Here’s a really novel idea.
You’re the producer of high-end designer style carrier bags and how do you promote yourself?
Well, this packaging company have taken what they know about their end users and used it to profile themselves as a serious contender on the high street.
Very clever, they’ve lifted and copied the white fabric back lit look so often imitated for its synonymous style connotations and simply added into the foreground an array of figure outlines carrying bags they would produce themselves and printed with statements like “We make your shopping bags” and “Custom Design”.
Incredibly simple retail design approach, but more importantly this raw window display hits all the right notes in establishing the company amongst the masses.
A cunningly useful piece of self-promotion and some nice PR that Design 4 Retail would do well to mimic!
As our old Design Technology teachers used to say, “it’s not copying, it’s research”. Well, there’s no need to reinvent the wheel, is there?!
No joke, Louis Vuitton knows how to make a scene stylishly.
Check out this YouTube snippet of their designer window display with a difference.
Taking the average woman on the street as an innocent bystander, you can’t help but watch as your eyes are drawn to LV’s Speedy history conveyor belt around the perimeters of the store.
This clever conveyor installation pushes the iconic Speedy bags along through time mimicking the belts you find in airport arrivals.
Zipping back and forth between the years to showcase a rich history of what has become one of the most classic and notorious “It” bags of all time, easily rivalling Chanel’s infamous 2.55 style.
This is retail design with a difference, as rarely do luxury brands manage to pull off presentations of their archives with such style without appearing overtly arrogant in doing so.
The dynamics of this particular window display is what we at Design 4 Retail really love about Louis Vuitton’s showcase, and one that’s guaranteed to make a lasting impression upon anyone who sees it.
Exciting times are afoot; always a fan of the beautifully presented window and in-store displays offered by international jewellery powerhouse, Tiffany, Design 4 Retail are pleased to hear that the established brand is moving in a less formal direction to engage a different type of consumer.
This new style is reflected in a new Tiffany store opening this month at University Village, Seattle. With doors constructed from glass rather than the formidable stainless steel monolithic entrances usually seen at Tiffany, the hope is that the relaxed retail environment will remove the intimidation some customers feel when entering the statuesque store.
The more casual approach is in tone with the change in sales technique Tiffany is experimenting with. Take for example their new tactic of displaying pieces on table tops, allowing customers to freely touch without asking permission, and their use of “organic” large sculptural figure displays to present their collection.
It’s leaps away from the fusty image of locked glass cabinets that used to come to mind when thinking of Tiffany jewellery. Fortunately, now the “look, don’t touch” attitude has disappeared to be replaced with a much more inviting “please look and feel free to touch”.
Retaining the upscale brand identity and achieving mass appeal as an approachable style house for fashionable jewellery can’t have been easy, but the retail design presentation now offered promises to clinch the deal for them.
It is expected that Tiffany will open as many as 70 stores in the style of Seattle’s University Village retail unit by 2020. If only there were a few more over in the UK!
We’re not shy about blowing our own trumpet at Design 4 Retail, especially not when our window displays look as good as this.
Tasked with promoting the urban clothing mover and shaker G-Star RAW’s new footwear collection in downtown Barcelona, we rose to the challenge with an innovative product display at the RoyAlty Shoes Gallery on Portal de l’Angel.
Garnering some serious fashion kudos, G-Star RAW has showcased at New York Fashion Week and been used in runway modelling in recent years. The high profile fashion brand is renowned for an industrial and construction focused styling.
Using lit acrylic cubes which house the new footwear collection and are set upon office chair structures, the product display is certainly an example of Design4Retail’s ability to enhance a brand vision while producing unusual window displays.
If your displays could do with a facelift, give us a call on 01455 203 352 or email enquiries@design4retail.net
Bangkok, perhaps surprisingly, is becoming a bit of a world leader in where truly innovative retail design concepts are headed. The key to this country’s success has been in creating environments that the public willingly revisits.
Named the “humanscape”, the idea is one that makes sense really – create spaces that people enjoy to be in and the retail dimension of the environment becomes part of the wallpaper.
Many who experience the humanscape retail design concept may not be aware of its subtle yet penetrating impact, what they do find however is the impulsive impact to their wallets they have little control over.
The future of retail design is clever and customer experience focused rather than drawing upon product lines and standalone retail displays in order to create an impact.
The key to its success is in positioning with other companies who have sympathetic retail lines but who do not detract from your own company’s unique offering. Not rocket science you’d think, but taking the right opportunity to position your business in the right environment for subliminal sales takes time and planning.
The essence of the humanscape is in recognising that design and business are no longer foes that pit the fluffy arty types against go-getters who’d sell their granny given half a chance.
Instead, companies need to accept that successful business strategies view retail design as being an essential component that adds value to their existing brand recognition, or in establishing an appropriate tone and reputation for new businesses with retail design doing the hard work for them.
A fantastic example of this is the open-air retail design J-Avenue shopping centre development in Soi Thong Lor, Bangkok, where dining spaces become comfortable lifestyle hubs to lazily browse the internet whilst eating for an hour or so, extending the home experience out of the house into a more social arena.
This customer-centric approach sets a new tone for shopping spaces to enable consumer engagement by considering the retail design environment as a factor that will sustain business in the future.
We at Design4Retail adore this concept, but it’ll only start to become reality when property developers see the value in creating clever customer experiences.
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