For project 1, the store that we were assigned to study and sketch was the H&M store. Right off the bat, the first things we notice were the awesome lighting they had. They had lights everywhere shining on different merchandises. It looked as if each clothing rack had it’s own spotlight dedicated to it. The high light of the store was this table of lights that was mounted on the roof in the center of the store. What was really sick, and I mean sick as in cool, was that the table of lights had clothing racks hanging down from it. Having the clothing racks hang from the sealing made it seem as if the racks were hovering off the ground, which I thought was pretty interesting. The lighting in the store and presentation seem to be very successful.
The floor plan of the store is laid out so that the customers can easily browse through everything. This is done by putting all the racks closer together in a row, by doing so it allows customers to move on from one rack to another. Since the racks are double sided it makes it even more easer to move on to the next rack with just a quick turn of your body. Basically you’re just weaving in and out through the row of racks until you move on to the next row.
The only main problem I saw was that they had so many clothing racks in the store that it seemed a little overwhelming at times. This is due to having too much merchandise out on the main floor. If they could add some space in their store I think it could help give a more opening feel to the store. They did a good job dealing with so many items; the placements of the racks were set in almost in a grid form, which may be the best way for this stores situation.