Associated with this week’s subject, I will go a little backward to the presentation of Ms. Alison from DDI Magazine. With abundant examples that she provided in her speech, color and lighting will reveal their important roles in retail designs. Moreover, we can know more about other factors that designers needs to keep them updated with contemporary trends.
Alison started the speech with the emphasis of the explosion of facebook and social web pages has significantly influenced on commercial design. Besides, technology using is gradually applied in new designs. During the presentation, there was much helpful information about retail design provided by professional speaker. According to those spread out knowledge, social changes can be seen as soon as when you walk into the stores. There are five new trends that have been applied lately in retail design.
1. Retail theatre “Expect the unexpected”. This trend is shown by examples of H & M Paris with runway style display; Cosmopolitan, Las Vegas (figure 01), and Gareth Pugh, Hong Kong with enormous digital screen.
2. Controlled Chaos: “Repetitive in nature”. For instance, Alter, Shanghai(figure 02)
3. Rugged & Rustic “Pre-fab vintage rule”. Ex: Faye Toogood, Centre commercial, Paris (figure 03); Lodge Hair Salon, Hiroshima, Japan; Water House Hotels, Shanghai; Studio East Dining, London.
4. Dialogue: “Community Masters”. This idea is about social connection. Shops are the places for not only buying goods, but also meeting people, hanging out. Ex: Delta recharging stations. Mussa Shino Art University Museum and Library, Tokyo; Café Marc Jacobs, Milan; Tokyo Baby Café. Another interesting idea is Bloomingdale Santa Monica with movable fitting room, which is hung from the ceiling (figure 04).
5. Pinwheel: “Color and light take flight” Ex: Favela Painting, Santa Marta, Brazil (figure 05); Streetology, Sydney, Australia; Sugamo Shinkin Bank, Tokyo; Anthropologie, Chelsea, NY; Grapy shop, Roosendaal, Netherlands (figure 06); Pantone Hotel, Brussels, Belgium (figure 07). Throughout those designs, window displays were designed to attract clients to see the products and enter to the places.
Besides, design trends are associated with economic situations. It reflects how the market going up and down. For instance, there are many ways to design for cut-out budget such as reflection floor to reduce lighting. Wal-mart is the leading in using energy saving solutions. Attending the event, I was updated with contemporary information for retail and commercial design in the understanding that design should commit with other social factors in order to create well-accepted and effective solutions for those specific designs.
Reported by Chi Nguyen.
This lecture was so interesting! I never knew so many innovative things were going on with retail design. It was also interesting to see how simple some of the concepts were in the spaces.