Week 2 Case Study

To Further enhance our knowledge of retail design and to help inspire and guide us as designers week 2 will be spent doing a multitude of case studies.  The first case study assignment is to look at 5 different retail stores that are interesting to us.  We are to be studying things such as materials, textures, how different parts or rooms of the stores relate to the rest, etc. 

For the first case study assignment I chose to travel to 3 stores.  Although all three stores were unique in their own I wanted to find a store with more pizazz.  I did a lot of research online and in books and found the store Test Tube.  Test Tube is a home wares store in Mt. Lawley, Western Australia.  This store sells contemporary and quirky products.  The store is a great example for retail design that reflects the product they sell.  One of the stores main features is a multicolored timber wall.  This extends from the ceiling and down onto one of the walls.  The wall opposite of the timber walls is made up of built white shelves that house the stores products.  Each shelf/cubby has products of like colors in them.  This cubby system is a unique way to house and display the products.  From the outside of the store you can see the multi colored timber wall and ceiling, which definitely draws the customer’s attention to want to enter the store.  The shelves are a glossy white wood finished with some glass.  This material and texture seem to be a dominant one in the retail design world.  

Perch, Swoozie, Strange Fruit, etc.

Perch is a store I've never been into before and when walking into it for the first time I thought wow I can't afford this place.   The materials and textures that the store uses gives off the feel of high class.  The walls are printed with a pattern that is very Victorian.  The colors ranging of different shiny and dull grays.  The shelves that displays shoes and accessories are a glossy white.  The same pattern that is on all of the walls is also repeated in the rugs they have on the floor.  Glass chandeliers hang every couple feet are very glamorous.  On the far back wall Perch has their logo written above a display of beautiful ceramic bird sculptors.  These sculptores are in a row and the first 4 and last one are white, while the fifth one is blue.  This blue bird is the only bright color in the decor, the rest of the colors seen in the store are on the clothes.

 

  

  

  

Swoozies is one of my favorite stores here in Greensboro.  Their products are very personal and original.   Swoozies seems to use two main colors in their store which are orange and pink, almost the same shade as Duncan donuts.  These colors are used heavily in the window displays but are placed very strategically and subtly around the rest of the store.  One of the nice things about swoozies is that they define different spaces by theme.  Wedding and special occasion items are on wood shelves, where baby items are displayed on white shelves.  Also the more eclectic and vibrant pieces sit on glass shelving.  Another thing that is different is that the font about each space differs from one another.  When going to all the stores I found that font is so important in branding.  Even something as simple as declaring a space baby versus wedding.  The lighting in this store is very bright and is not directed on any particular product.

 

 

  

  

  

Strange Fruit is a very unique store in Berlin that I found while researching online.  I chose this because I feel it is a great example of a store that uses a different method of designing retail spaces.  I think that the architecture of the shoe displays itself is very well designed, however even looking at this picture you can barely see the product.  Myself personally would walk into this store just to take a picture and wouldn't really be attracted to buy the shoes. 

 

The next picture is of a store in LA on Rodeo Dr.  I can not remember exactly which store it is but I think it might be Dolce and Gabanna, if I'm wrong and you seen this please leave me a comment so I can have the correct information.  When in LA last summer I saw this on the sidewalk outside of a store and thought it was very interesting.  It's basically a tunnel that angles down under the sidewalk and at the very bottom is a mannequin with the stores clothes on it.  The glass covering the tunnel was tinted yellow and had designs on it.  Their were lights at the very bottom of the tunnel shining on the mannequin.  This much light alone was enough to grab anyone who was walking by attention.  

 

  

Object of Persuassion

Voluntary Simplicity; The Hive; Hipster Haven

Since spring break my 2nd year studio class has been working on a project entitled Hipstar Haven. We were given a warehouse off of spring garden st. that is owned by UNCG. We were told we needed to redo the warehouse to fit as many 900 sq. ft. apt/units. We also needed to included a community center/coffee shop. We also needed to keep the beams and columns already in the space. Things we were asked to keep in mind when designing our layout of the warehouse and our individual units was:
*XY generation
*single and couples 25-30 yrs. old, making $40,000 to $50,000 a year
*cost effective
My partner Katie Reynolds and I designed our units so that they looked like bee hives. So we called our warehouse community "the Hive."
Below is a rendered image of what the coffee shop/community center would look like.
When designing my own unit I found the term Voluntary Simplicity. This is a growing movement of people who have discovered that happiness and fulfillment does not lie in have lots of money or new and bigger things, but rather in loved ones, and a connection with the community. I thought this term described the xy generation fairly well. As we get older we find that we loose touch with people and the things that matter. Being a part of the Y generation I realize that while I need money to survive, there is no need to have an abundance of objects. So for my space I decided to keep it as simple as possible and include only the things necessary. Also while designing my space I realized that there was a regularity in linear elements, so I decided to stick with that throughout the rest of my design.
North wall elevation of loft:
south wall elevation of 1st floor:
Wall Section showing 1st floor, stair landing, and windows to ceiling.
When designing my stairs I new what I wanted them to look like but I didn't know how to support them. I wanted the riser and tread to be visible so the stringer was out of the question. I decided to attach steel cables to the landing and ceiling to help support the landing. I also created a beam in the center of the second set of stairs to support them. The space below the first set of stairs was only 5'3" from floor to landing. I thought that it was a waste of space so I pulled back the first 5 set of stairs to create drawers. This solved one of my design problems which was the idea of having room for storage without having to create closets.
sketch model of staircase:
This is the floor plan of my first floor. The dotted line in the middle is the one beam I had in my space. To the right of the beam the ceiling height is 11' and on the left side it is 12'.

Loft floor plan:
Perspective looking at living space, stairs, and dining area. The clear story windows on the right wall are made of translucent Plexiglas that has a light blue tint. This allows for natural light to flow from one unit to the other without being able to clearly see the objects in the neighboring units. The couch is the only piece of furniture that I didn't design myself. Everything else in the unit including the bed in the loft I designed myself.
Perspective of kitchen. Clerestory windows repeated on this wall also.
Perspective of bed in loft area:
Perspective of balcony:
Another requirement for the project was that we needed to include at least 4 universal units. I designed my own unit so that if need be it could easily be transfered into a universal unit. All the red circles are 5' diameters, showing that space that look tight are actually accessible.

Save the Innocent

My reinterpretation of a WPA poster with a modern day issue that I feel very strong about

Disruptive, Weathered

For my Visual Communication class we were each assigned a mood and a descriptor. We had to create a composition that showed the mood using the descriptor..so my mood was Disruptive, and my descriptor was weathered. The first two i'm content with but the third one is perhaps my favorite.

Podium images