Wranglers Blue Bell
Great mixture of product, video and audio in this interactive site for Wrangers europe by Kokokaka.
Tag Results: retail
MUJI rhythm
Tokyo based interactive studio tha ltd. recently launched a site for Japanese retailer MUJI. The site combines products and video all to a catch rhythm. tha ltd. was also behind a lot of the UNIQLO sites and the architecture firm Wonderwall.
The Starbucks Evolution—Submerging The Brand
Local Design Experiments to Break
the Cookie-Cutter Mold
During the 1990’s Starbucks was opening locations at a feverish pace, and to maintain the growth they relied on a retail design template for all the new stores opening—mermaids, teak wood ceiling cutouts, rustic illustrations, and earth-tones. In many ways this initial approach helped them to create brand signals that people instantly associated with Starbucks. All of this began to change in 2007 when Starbucks stock began to drop, the company quickly realized that they can no longer treat every location around the world the same.
“The design of Roy Street Coffee opens up the store to the community.”
At one point there were two distinct cultural approaches mainstream (represented by Starbucks cookie-cutter approach) and avant-garde (represented by unique counter-mainstream local retail), but as explained in Grant McCracken’s new book Chief Culture Officer we’re now a culture that responds to a third category “restless creativity” based on thousands of creative experiments. This shift is exactly what Starbucks is hoping to capitalize on for the future.
For we are a culture with a third term, a restless creativity. If once we were a mainstream and avant-garde, now we are a great wilderness, with thousands of little experiments happening everywhere. Point, counterpoint is dead. The struggle between status and cool is over. We are now a culture over-flowing with variety and noise.
-Grant McCracken, in Chief Culture Officer
“15th Ave. Coffee & Tea, a new coffee shop design from Starbucks.”
In a smart move to break out of the mainstream, cookie-cutter approach to store design, Starbucks is experimenting with creating unique stores that are more consistent to their local surroundings. The design team is now attempting to removing the sameness that exist where your at a Starbucks in suburban Orange County, California or urban Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan, and custom create locations that complement the neighborhood.
“University Village makes its retail neighbors look slow and out-of-touch.”
The store design experiments go as far as removing the Starbucks sign to submerge the brand into the local environment. It’s not about tricking the consumer or even hiding the fact that it’s a Starbucks concept, but rather providing a unique and charming environment that is ultimately consistent with the brand.
Will the retail design experiments work? Only time will tell, but so far Starbucks’ effort to shift the focus to local has helped them turn around the struggling company which reported a first quarter profit of $241.5 million up from last year’s $64.3 million.
Read more about the specifics of some of the redesigns at the NYT - T Magazine and Starbucks success in thinking locally at Fast Company.
NikeID Evolved at Nike 6.0/Hurley/Converse Retail Store
This afternoon between meetings I stopped by Nike’s second combined action sports brand retail space, Nike 6.0/Hurley/Converse, at the Irvine Spectrum in southern Orange County, California (the first store is in Laguna Beach, CA - 225 Forest). I managed to take a few pictures on my phone before I was asked to leave the store (**more on that below).
The retail space was a brilliant move on the part of Nike to help gain further main-stream exposure to their 6.0 line to an audience that is quite familiar with the Nike owned Hurley and Converse brand. The most unique aspect of the store was the large area filled with binders of art, spools of colorful laces, screen printers, and high-tech printers for product customizations. At the NikeID station pair up with a “Maestro” who will help you as you customize your purchase with artwork from kidrobot, Jason Maloney (Hurley), Aero (Nike) and many others. Virtually everything you buy in the store can be customized—shoes, board shorts, teeshirts, hats, and jackets.
In addition to the Nike 6.0, Hurley, and Converse products the store also carried an array of other design-focused products like Skullcandy headphones and Kidrobot toys.
Personally I believe we’re about to see a surge of product customization as brands are starting to wake up to contemporary culture. Obviously this trend will take off in youth culture markets, but the opportunity is just as strong for brands in virtually all markets.
** I fully understand that taking photos in retail space has long been taboo for the reason of “protecting trade secrets and copyrights”, but in this day and age of Twitter, Tumblr, and Facebook the idea of shunning people of taking snapshots with their phone seems counter-productive. We’re living in a time where brands are integrating rewards programs with social media, location aware apps are taking off, and 850 million photos are uploaded to Facebook each month. It’s time to fully embrace the fact consumers play a massive role in cultivating and adding value to, even at the risk of “loosing trade secrets”. When I was very politely told I was not welcome to take photos, I apologized and left.
UNIQLO Interactive Projects Archive
Over the past several years the Japanese retail chain has come up with some of the most innovative interactive projects, many with the help of the interactive agencies tha ltd. and Bascule Inc. Some of the most interesting campaigns have bridged online interaction with real-time in store or ‘on the street’ content - UNIQLO Grid and Tokyo Fashion Map
via Jarred Bishop and Daniel Howells
Nike Flagship Store Harajuku
Tokyo architecture firm Wonderwall (featured last October for their amazing site) recently unveiled Nike’s first Japanese flagship store in one of my favorite districts—Harajuku, Tokyo, Japan. The store is full of well designed elements like the sneaker chandelier, “Just Do It” sign from foot molds, waffle iron wall-tiles (tribute to the first Nike soles formed in a waffle iron), and a turf track to test the shoes.
More coverage on the store opening at Cool Hunting, Kitsune Noir, Wonderwall Inc., Flickr, and the official Nike Harajuku site.
Ghosts of Shopping Past
Landscaping overgrows, walls develop mildew, ceilings cave in—a building can be shut down, but that doesn’t make it go away. Brian Ulrich’s photographs of closed-down malls and big-box retail stores reveal the potential ghost towns lying inside successful shopping complexes all across America.
