June 2010
1 post
3 tags
Morris Lapidus - Pioneer of Store Design
Hoffritz for Cutlery store - New York 1939 - Morris Lapidus, Architect
Morris Lapidus, an architect known for the flamboyant style of his 1950s Miami Beach hotel designs such as the Eden Roc and Fontainebleau, was also a first-rate, innovative store designer. In his 1996 autobiography, Too Much is Never Enough, he describes his early successes in the 1930’s in the field of retail...
May 2010
1 post
3 tags
Byte Me: Apple's Retail Religion
Who can argue with Apple’s success? This well conceived brand has created an almost religious following of consumers. For years Apple was the darling of the graphic arts world. It was a safe harbor for lost and frustrated computer users. Apple products looked good, were functional and didn’t crash. Lastly, and possibly most importantly, Apple products were not associated with Bill Gates’...
April 2010
4 posts
Perfect Booty
I was doing my morning exercises flipping channels when I came upon an exercise infomercial called “Perfect Booty”. Having just finished reading $20 per Gallon: How the Inevitable Rise in the Price of Gasoline Will Change Our Lives for the Better by Christopher Steiner, I was very pleased to see that retailing is alive and well on T.V. at least. A Perfect Booty for sale…only in America.
But...
2 tags
Driving Mr. Edison
Finding the correct lighting solution for your retail store has become a complicated project. In addition to designing lighting to perform as required for the illumination of the various tasks within a store (general display, individual product display, transaction areas, general circulation, storage, etc.), designers must do this within energy code requirements. These codes impose a tough...
2 tags
Why Design Retail Stores?
Designing retail stores offers many career benefits not found in other types of projects. These benefits might help jump-start a young designer’s career or could prove to be so enjoyable as to become the core of a continuing retail design practice. Either way the major advantages of designing retail stores over other project types are as follows:
Speed
Retail stores are always fast track...
5 tags
Five Ways to Keep Customers From Entering Your...
Locate your cash/checkout station so that shoppers outside make immediate eye contact with a sales person before they cross the entrance. This will instantly intimidate the potential buyer and give him the message “There’s no one here but me. Keep on walking…do not enter.”
Create a solid-wall storefront with no display windows or view into the store. This creates an air of mystery and...
4 tags
What is a Retail Store?
The basic functional dynamics of a retail store are simple: show product/sell product.
This activity requires a space to accommodate the show/sell transaction. The space could be a fixed location in a building, a more flexible location like a flea market tent, or a mobile space like an ice cream truck or street vendor. Obviously, the best retail spaces are located near people…potential...
March 2010
2 posts
“There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company...”
– Sam Walton 1918 - 1992 American Businessman, Founder of Wal-Mart