Retail design

Retail design is a creative and commercial discipline that combines several different areas of expertise together in the design and construction of retail space. Retail design is primarily a specialized practice of architecture and interior design, however it also incorporates elements of interior decoration, graphic design, ergonomics, visual merchandising and advertising.

Services offered by a retail design firm can include but are not limited to branding, visual positioning, visual merchandising, imaging, naming, logo and signage design, visual planning, interior and exterior design, fixture design, capacity and assortment analysis, design development, and uniform design. On a single retail design project there is usually a designated team that includes a creative director, 2-3 environment and graphic designers, and a project manager. While this is a typical team, there are always exceptions, as each client and project requires their own “set of rules”. This number can grow if the firm includes in-house architecture or other related services. If not, the firm works in collaboration with other sources such as brand strategists and architecture firms and thus focuses it’s services on the front end of design. Retail design is a collaboration and most firms work together with the client’s marketing, operations, and construction management teams to ensure that all needs are being met in each group.

Retail design is a very specialized discipline due to the heavy demands placed on retail space. Because the primary purpose of retail space is to stock and sell product to consumers, the spaces must be designed in a way that promotes an enjoyable and hassle-free shopping experience for the consumer. The space must be specially-tailored to the kind of product being sold in that space; for example, a bookstore requires many large shelving units to accommodate small products that can be arranged categorically while a clothing store requires more open space to fully display product.

Retail spaces, especially when they form part of a retail chain, must also be designed to draw people into the space to shop. The storefront must act as a billboard for the store, often employing large display windows that allow shoppers to see into the space and the product inside. In the case of a retail chain, the individual spaces must be unified in their design.

History

Retail design first began to grow in the middle of the 19th century, with stores such as Bon Marche and Printemps in Paris, "followed by Marshall Fields in Chicago, Selfridges in London and Macy's in New York." These early retail design stores were swiftly continued with a new innovation called the chain store. The first chain store was opened in the early 20th century by Frank Winfield Woolworth, which quickly became a franchise across the US. Other chain stores began growing in places like the UK a decade or so later, with stores like Boots. After WWII, an new type of retail design building known as the shopping centre came into being. This type of building took two different paths in comparison between the US and Europe. Shopping centres began being built out of town within the United States in order to benefit the suburban family, while Europe began putting shopping centres in the middle of town. The first shopping centre in the Netherlands was built in the 1950's, as retail design ideas began spreading east.

The next evolution of retail design was the creation of the boutique in the 1960's, which emphasized retail design run by individuals. Some of the earliest examples of boutiques are the Biba boutique created by Barbara Hulanicki and the Habitat line of stores made by Terence Conran. The rise of the boutique was followed, in the next two decades, with an overall increase in consumer spending across the developed world. This rise made retail design shift to compensate for increased customers and alternative focuses. Many retail design stores redesigned themselves over the period to keep up with changing consumer tastes. These changes resulted on one side with the creation of multiple "expensive, one-off designer shops" catering to specific fashion designers and retailers.

The rise of the internet and internet retailing in the latter part of the 20th century and into the 21st century saw another change in retail design to compensate. Many different sectors not related to the internet reached out to retail design and its practices in order to lure online shoppers back to physical shops, where retail design can be properly utilized.

However, retailers are now creatively incorporating the cyber age with their retail design strategies through available technology from social networking apps to QR codes. Atlelier Lole in Montreal is on the cutting edge of this trend by using facebook as an element of the planned retail space.

See also

• Architecture
• Brand
• Branded environments
• Brand implementation
• Customer engagement
• Display case
• Display window
• Ergonomics
• Interior design
• Marketing
• Merchandising
• Planogram
• Retail chain
• Retailing
• Visual merchandising

Further reading

• Rodney Fitch and Lance Knobel (1990). Fitch on retail design. Phaidon. ISBN 9780714825625. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |isbn10= ignored (help)
• Catherine McDermott (2007). "Retail Design". Design: the key concepts. Routledge key guides. Routledge. pp. 195–197. ISBN 9780415320160. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |isbn10= ignored (help)
• Stephen Doyle (2004). "Retail store design". In Margaret Bruce, Christopher Moore, and Grete Birtwistle (ed.). International retail marketing: a case study approach. Butterworth-Heinemann. ISBN 9780750657488. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |isbn10= ignored (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: editors list (link)
• Sean Nixon (1996). "Menswear and retailing practices: the case of retail design". Hard looks: masculinities, spectatorship and contemporary consumption. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9780312163334. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |isbn10= ignored (help)

External links

• Association for Retail Environments
• Retail Design Institute
• Kesslers International