Project 1

The trip to Stonestown really helped to see how certain stores lay out their presentation. I went with 3 other students to check out J. Crew. It had a really excellent presentation in the back of the store. The presentation had three manikins in the back that each had an individual spot light on them to highlight it. The main problem was that the focal point was the presentation in the back and it was completely being blocked by the main presentation. The store split up into two sections, the Men’s section and the women’s section.

The Women’s section was very well organized, and had a great amount of flow. There were only a few tables that blocked the paths and had a most of the clothes were aligned along the wall. The section was smaller than then men’s section but the organization was what helped the presentation. The men’s was completely different; it was completely crowded with tables. The layout had some type of flow, but with the limited amount of space it just looked like they were over doing it. They had a nice support beam that helped simulate the division between the men’s and the women’s side. But because of it, they lost a lot of open space. The men’s side had most of their clothes folded, but also had some free hanging sections like the women’s section.

I must say the best part of the design of the layout was also the part that hindered it the most. The middle section which highlighted the clothes of the store forced consumers to either choose the path towards the women’s section or towards the men’s section. This allowed for an easy flow to where you needed to go to. But there were two problems: The main section only showed the women products and took away from the focal point design in the back. Only having women products only catered to one group and automatically kind of makes the other group category loose interest very quick. Then it taking away attention from the focal point of the store also really hurts the place. You should be walking by the store and see the three manikins in the back and think I want to go in there. But instead it looses its look because it was being blocked by the main section.