Apple Store

I went to the Apple Store on my own time since I missed this day. Anyways, the Apple store's design is very simple, with a modern feel to it. There are displays at the main entrance that can be seen as you walk by the store as well. The display on the right was very appealing because it featured iphone or ipod touch applications and it had a sense of depth/3D look (sorry, I completely forgot to take some photos). But I did take some quick sketches. Customers are allowed to interact with all products displayed and were very accessible due to the simple table setup. The store seemed to be designed to fit a good number of customers at once. The customer range was mostly college students with a few older in age. The "Geniuses" were very helpful and answered every question we had. It was good to ask them questions about the store design because they did have knowledge behind how and why the store looks the way it is. For example, the lighting contained of square fixtures with fluorescent lights and circle fixtures with halogen lights. One genius found that they were designed that way to create an environment that feels both "indoor and outdoor." It was an interesting discovery. Tables resembled workstations, walls contained large ads of new products. Organized accessories section, store looked like it had a lot of space, preventing a sense of clutter. Very simple and straight forward store.

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.

Project 1

  

 

Swarovski

The Swarovski store is a jewelry store dedicated to showcasing and selling Swaovski Crystal jewelry.  I found the plan of the store to be very open, because the store is so small, displaying the majority of the products are inside display cabinets near the wall.  The store has a jewelry box theme, the walls were red similar to the red velvet located inside most jewelry boxes.  The displays were mostly make of glass or clear plastic. Overall the layout was spacious because they kept floor displays to a minimum.  

 

Project 1

Photo by: Laura Munos


A: Location of Swarovski


Swarovski is a small crystal shop, which is located on the second floor of Stonestown Galleria Mall, at 3251 20th Ave in San Francisco. The size of the store is about 24’ X 18’. The entrance is about 6’ wide. The storefront signage is above the door in a rectangular format with the white type on background. The main color of the store is mostly in orange-red and some black. The space between the wall display cases and the counter is a little tight when two persons are standing back-to-back. The display cases have the glass/transparency windows for visibility and protection purpose. The traffic can be flowed to the right or left depending on the habit of the visitors. But, placed the 24” X 36” poster on the left hand side of the entrance might be the first thing that the store wants their customers to see when they ‘re entering the store or the poster might function as a traffic director. The circulation might start from the right then exit from the left because of the poster’s placement. The poster stand is simple and easy to build. Extended two sides of the frame to create the legs for the stand. Attaching the horizontal bars on the bottom of these legs to keep the poster stand and sturdy. The two larger size posters and the lighting system are hanging with the silver wires. Both of these posters can be used as the attention getters. They are easy to see from a distance. That’s an easy way to display the artwork with the little use of materials. The flower-like petal counters are very unique. The shapes of the counters add the soft and feminine look and feel to the store and their products. The pattern can also convey the message of the store since their target audience is mostly woman. The cool circular format lighting system on the ceiling above these counters looks like the stars in the sky. Overall, the display of the store is simple, clean, organized, contemporary and unique.

Project 1

The store that my group was assigned to was Zumiez. Zumiez currently caters to teenagers and young adults offering gear and clothing for the skater, snowboarder, and surfer enthusiasts. The store is the shape of a rectangle. It is long and narrow. It has a lot of clothing racks and boxes everywhere which makes the store a little too cluttered. This "clutterness" made it difficult to walk around. Overall, Zumiez is a chill store and has a lot to show. I think they had a good amount of hanging techniques that we may find useful. 

Project 1

H&M

This is my general sketch for the layout of the H&M store at Stonestown. It was a bit intimidating at first because of the shape of the store is very different from other ones. I never thought about how interesting their layout was. I did my best to get all the angles. I think this can help us understand the space at Jack Adams Hall because it is also a strangely shaped area. I only drew out the main part of the store. There is an additional "young adult" section on the left side of the store, but it was similar to the main part so I didn't draw it.


The most interesting part of the store to me was the central lighting board in the middle of the main part of the store. It was hung a bit lower than the ceiling, and it has various moveable lights built inside it. They hung metal clothing racks from this and focused the lights on the clothing or mannequins that were underneath it. I thought this was a simple yet visually interesting way to display their clothing.


They had these metal tables throughout the store that were places in various configurations (sort of like Tetris style) to put clothing on. These seemed like an easy and practical way to display items that people might want to walk around.

Here are some pictures I took with my cell phone before the manager yelled at us:



I have always liked H&M because of how industrial and modern their stores look. All their displays are very angular, even their mannequins. They only have a black, grey, white, and metallic color pallette and they stick with it all year round. It displays the clothing very well and it is always undoubtedly H&M. I have been to various other H&M's around the US and in Europe, and they all keep the same look. Most stores in Europe look like this, but it looks different when it is in a US setting. It gives the shopper a feeling of shopping in a hip European store.

Project 1

Bath and Body Works:

This project was very interesting for me because while I am used to walk into stores and look at the typography and label design on the products, I am not used to looking at details in the layout of the store at all. When I walk into a store, I sense the type of atmosphere that it is trying to give off with it's layout and decor, but I never look at the details that create that mood. I was very interested in taking apart a store layout like that because it is fun to see how a few simple elements create the entire feel of a space.
Here's what I noticed about the store:
Bath and Body works uses lighting, materials, and layout in their stores to make their store look like a spa. When you enter the store, you find yourself in a very clean-looking, relaxed but still fun environment. The floors in the first section are marble and the walls are all white. The walls are covered with shelves of bath products and the tables in the front of the stores are stacked with hand soaps-the promotional items this week. The white shelving is illuminated by track lighting -also white- and color-coordinated to make attractive color patterns on the shelves. Overall, the entire store is lit by track lighting on the edges and recessed lighting throughout the center of each room. There is a wood-panel border above all the shelving that is painted white and that gives off a “country bath” feel, which I believe is left over from a few years back when the store identity was had more of a rustic countryside feel than the cool new “spa” vibe that it gives off today.

Project 1

It’s imperative that the exhibits area be both aesthetically pleasing and functionally sound. Wheel chair access as well as items must be viewable for people with various heights. Things need to be in an order rather than a scattered unorganized mess. There needs to be a clear entrance and exit of the exhibit area so that the viewer does not feel trapped. If colour is to be used in the painting of fixtures it must be colours that are easy on the eyes.

Welcome to 524 Spring 2010

Hi all, just a few guidelines when posting. Please keep it short if possible. Very important: include "labels" by typing them in or using existing labels. Make sure you check before adding a duplicate label, the label you want to use may already exist. For example, for assignment 1, use the existing project 1 or Stonestown labels. Please respond to the blog invite so that you can be an "author" on the blog and be able to post entries. Thank you and look forward to a great semester.

DAI Show website

http://daishow.sfsu.edu/

This is the current working prototype of the website. It will be expanded in 2010.