Branded retail interior concept spaces

technical realisation report

wei zhang

5895242 dMFr-F

Store design

is one of the most important strategies for store retailers in fashion industry. In such a dynamic and competitive market, development and innovation are always crucial. With the revolutionary internet business and other diversified retailers in the current market place, retail market has no longer been just for exchanging products and services, but also a place for sharing fashion tastes, pleasures, and business cultures. The design of the store is driven by the changing consumer. People go shopping because they want a 'memory'. Stores are becoming 'retail interactive theatres'. As a result, stores must have their own identical features which reflect the brand philosophy, in order to secure themselves competitive advantage. The design of store can add value to the retailer, and differentiate one from another (Mc Goldrick, 2003). In short, retail store design involves interior and exterior atmospherics that present a retailers merchandise, which is exhibited by an assortment of physical elements within the store, in order to stimulate consumers sensory systems of atmosphere, reveal visual presentation of merchandise. The aim of this project is to design an interior retail space concept with any existing fashion brand. The concept is to design an 'oriental impact' modern atmosphere for the Spainish retailer 'Mango' to enhance their market in Asia. The idea also concerns certain levels of environmental issues which is critical in the present. The main design contains window promotion, interior wall graphics, floor and decors, product display units, lightings, point-ofsale displays, 3D freestanding units.

is an internationally famous multinational which designs, manufactures and markets womens and mens clothing and accessories. With its origin in Spain, it also has a design team in Barcelona, which is the biggest group in Europe. MANGO currently has a total of 1,220 stores in 91 countries worldwide. The MANGO concept is based on an alliance between a quality product, with an original design and a coherent and unified brand image. Dressing the modern, urban women for her daily needs is the formula the brand has analysed, adapted and applied in the stores worldwide (Mango official website). Market positioning Mango exudes colour and fashion differentiation in an enticing window and in-store display that will attract fashion-conscious women aged 18-30. It focus on casuals and less on tailoring, though it has been making its offer more aspirational with capsule womenswear collections from designer Osman Yousefzada and celebrity actress Penelope Cruz and her sister Monica. All merchandise is branded Mango, with sub-branding loosely seen with MNG Basics (key items) and MNG Jeans (denim), but these are not grouped separately to the main offer. The key development has been the introduction of MNG Limited Edition, which are more premium-priced special day dresses and separates (though again these are not separated out) and two womenswear designer/celebrity ranges which are: Osman Yousefzada for MNG, Penelope and Monica Cruz for MNG (Mintel 2008). Advertising and marketing Mango attempts to emulate luxury brands through its advertising. The marketing is notorious for high-fashion photography by some the worlds biggest names of a variety of the worlds most glamorous and beautiful women (Mintel 2008).

MANGO

Inspiration

The whole idea is inspired by Chinese traditional cultures. The painting in traditional style is named 'native painting' in China. The main types is freehand, loosely termed water colour brush painting. This main image will be used to create the wall to demonstrate the oriental theme in store. Chinese paper cutting was first invented from Han Dynasty and spread to spread to other parts of the world with different regions adopting their own cultural styles. The silhouette is traditional but is also popular in nowadays modern fashion. In this project, it is applied to some small object, e.g. cusions, new MANGO labels and carrier bags.

There are other elements in store inspired by traditional objects as well. Antique screen is normally used to prevent light and wind going into rooms straightly, and for more important to seperate the space. It reflects as shoe rack and fitting rooms in this project. Clay bricks is the mostly used materials in construction for centuries. Bricks have the added warmth benefit of storing heat energy from the sun during the day and continuing to release heat after sunset. Paper Lanterns is made with transparent or semi-transparent papers and worked as light source in ancient China and Japan. It is made from tough paper and recycled paper, thus can be viewed as an environmental friendly product.

Technical realisatioN

The techniques used are : Google Sketchup 7 - helps to develop the 3D model for architecture. It also includes features to facilitate the placement of models in Google Earth. It features integration of SketchUp's Component Browser with Google 3D WarehouseIt was designed to be easier to use than other 3D CAD programs. Adobe Photoshop & Illustrator packages - commonly used to edit 2D graphics, it has strong ties with other Adobe software for media editing, animation, and authoring. It is used to support this 3D project by processing photos and images to more appropriate effect. Processing graphics in Photoshop

store CONSTRUCTION

Use rectangular tool and push/pull tool to create a base. On the base, draw the walls and pillars and pull them up together. To join them together, right-click and make component so that they can be move to make any change together when needed.

Draw a circle and copy a same one to other side to build up the pillars in front door. Push up the circles to make the pillars besides front door and group them. Use rectangular tool to draw the window and paint with translucent glass blue.

WATER FOUNTAIN

Draw a big circle and offset three more to the centre. Set the diameter by typing 2, 3, 4, 5 cm. Use Line tool to cut the curves.

Push the middle circline under the surface and set the depth to 5 inch. Double click other four circlines so they will be arrayed automatically to make the steps. The outer curved surface is pulled up to be the product display bar. The second curved surface is to be the seats.

Use paint tool to colour and give texture to the object. Steps: Concrete aggregate smoke. Width and height of image is set to be 1' to 1'. Display bar: Pure black and Mango pattern. Seats: Tile mosaic multi, size 1' 8" to 1' 8". The centre water pool is created by draw a same circle and apply on translucent colour. The stones:Groundcover_Rock_Crushed_Multi, size 2' to 2'. By these steps, it is found that colours can be changed in the colour wheel, while the size and opacity can be adjusted. The effect of materials is not limited by the existing style, but can also be changed to a more appropriate effect. The water spray is loaded from the 3D model warehouse and I have combined two styles of them into one to make it looks more full boom.

Product Display

The products are designed to place on three main areas, wall racks, the 'MANGO' wireframe, and glass shoe racks. The wall is simply created by importing the traditional floral image to show the main theme of oriental impact. In order to maintain the whole floral image, the rectangle is pulled out after the image already applied onto the wall. So this made the shelving.

Select offset tool and click on the edge of the rectangle, drag to create an inner outline and push to cavern it out. Then draw a rectangle on the inner edge to create a glass shelf. Finally, draw a circle and pull it to the other end of the frame to create the pole.

The clothes are download from 3D model warehouse and I have made some changes on the colour. To hang the clothes onto the pole, it is important to move it from a point on the edge to the face of the pole.

Use same method to place other products onto the shelves.

Use line tool to draw the MANGO shape on a rectangle surface. Offset the outline and pull out the face to 3D effect. Then right click and choose soften edge to a certain level of degree so it looks more smooth.

Paint with fencing-diamond mesh and adjust the colour to more darker grey. The idea of this rack is to let hangers going through the small holes of the net stracture.

Draw an rectangle and push it to a 3D box, then use line tool to draw some irregular shapes on the surface.

Push the shapes to pierce the box to make up the shoe cabinet. Paint with .

Download these obejcts from 3D model warehouse. Move the edge of the object to the face where wanted to place on.

Rotate the object to the right angle that fits the displaying surface.

The models can also be exploded and edited if necessary.

The size of the products can be adjusted to fit the racks and shelves. Objects can be moved and copied easily to fill the shelves. Movings can be in blue axis, red axis and green axis to enable precise movement. Similar methods is used on these objects as shown below.

The shirts are displayed using the same way by copying (type in *4), then create a set of objects, and rotate to more suitable angle along the curved bar. The flowerpots is transformed from existing models by changing colour and copy (*3).

LANTERN

These traditional lantern is designed as a lighting and artistic decor for the store. First, draw a circle, and use arc tool and line tool to draw a curved surface upright to the circle. Use follow me tool to drag the curved face around to make the lantern ball.

Makeing three lantern balls by using move/copy tool (typing *2). Scale them differently. To make the lantern line, simply draw a circle and pull it up. Move to gro,up a nice position and paint with different colour.

Screen fitting rooms

Drag a rectangle and use pull/push tool to bring it to a 3D object. Use Offset tool drag a inner rectangle. Pull the outter surface with 0.150m. and Make the other side the same depth.

Copy the object to four as a group. Use rotate tool on blue axis, and turn them in different level.

Move at the point of root to joint them together. Paint the outer side with wood_bamboo_dark, and adjust to a suitable colour. import the bird paiting and colour it to the inner face.

Decors & PLANTs

Draw a circle on the red axis on origin point. Use arc tool and draw a line on blue axis to bring them to a face. Then Use follow me tool dra the curved face around to the final rounded surface. Copy and turn it around to make them together.

There are three main steps used here in this model: drawing, rotate and grouping. First, draw the flowers using circle tool, leaf using polygon tool. Then copy and rotate them to different angles to make a group of objects. Copy to more groups and rotate them in random effect. Paint with approriate colours and patterns. The pot is simpley made up by using line tool to first draw an trapezium and pull it solid.

Store exterior

As explained before, the brics is one of the design factors and is applied on the basic construction of the store, such as the parastates. There is another function is that clay brics bringing warmth indoor so it act as a kind of environmental concern. 'A customer's first impression of a store is based on what can be seen or heard from outside of the store', Schlosser, A.E., Professor of Consumer Psychology (1998). 'Retailers try to make their stores clear, distinctive and memorable brand identities', pointed by Bruce and Cooper (1997) & Moore and Lochhead (1998). The transparent exterior convey message of what the store is about. Windows are designed openly to allow passers-by to see what is inside of the store behind the displays and give them a lot of information. Research has denoted that customers enjoy surprise, innovation and intrigue, so retailers try to make their stores clear, distinctive and memorable brand identities (Bruce and Cooper 1997, Moore and Lochhead 1998).

Store interior

Newman and Cullen (2002) emphased that the use of lighting is crucial in retail design and is an integral part of the stores interior. It can work as a strategy to highlight racks of goods or areas of the stores interior and attract customers. Generally speaking, warm colour possesses strong excitement and high arousal potential (Bjerstedt, 1960 & Aaronson, 1970 cited in Bellizzi &Hite 2006). Shelving the different materials used for shelving will create different feel, such as glass, stainless steel shelving bring maximum effect to express expensive and high level of fashion (Newman and Cullen 2002). The main floral image shows the concept of the store thus it is set as the background on the wall to delivery this message. As the glass shoe shelvings and water fountain are supposed to be the centering area amongst other shelfs, the lanterns help to emphase them.

CONCLUSION

This project aims to design a retail store space for an exsiting brand which contains window promotion, interior wall graphics, floor and decors, product display units, lightings, point-of-sale displays, 3D freestanding units. The brand chosen is MANGO, a high street brand from Spain. The brand spirit is modern, young and dynamic. Thus the retail place designed for mango should reflect its brand image. Through research, it shows that stores in some Eastern countries, the stores are not designed to fit the market and the environment does not really embody the fashion level of the brand. As a distinctive and unique atmospherics enables a store to position in the right market, match the right customers, and fulfill their lifestyle and attract more potential customers. Thus, the concept is to design a modern construction with oriental elements for the Spainish retailer 'Mango' to enhance their market in Asia. The idea also concerns certain levels of environmental issues which is critical in the present. The design process is more about exploring the software and technique realisation. There are several points should be made, The Tape measure is critically used on the basic construction of the store. It is helpful to guide the drawing and avoiding any error in further detail things. Zoom in tool and orbit tool are the most fundamental tools used most frequently. When drawing an object, they help to precise it from every view angles. Move/Copy tool helps to locate things on the right surface or point. It is also convenient when copying objects by simply Ctrl and hold to drag. Typing figuring can make the object more accurate. Pull/Push and follow me tools are used for making 3D models. It is interesting to create some unexpected models while exploring. Paint Bucket has limited choices but importing texture is a good solution. These are the most common tools to build up the store although other tools are used as well. This project is an integration of brand research, idea development and software exloration. Google Sketch Up and Adobe Creative suite are used to designing the store and windows media maker will be used to develop the store as animation video with relavant background music to enhance the overall effect.

References
Academic Books: Bellizzi J A& Hite R E. 2006. Environmental color, consumer feelings, and purchase likelihood. Psychology & Marketing. Volume 9 Issue 5, Pages 347 363. Bruce, M. and Cooper, R. (1997) Marketing and Design Management. London, International Thomson Business Press. McGoldrick, P. J. (2002), Retail marketing, 2nd Ed. London, McGraw-Hill. Newman, A J. & Cullen P. 2002. Retailing: environment & operations, London : Thomson Learning, Pegler, M (1995). Visual Merchandising & display, third edition. New York: Fairchild Publications. Schlosser A. 1998. Applying the functional theory of attitudes to understanding the influence of store atmosphere on store inferences. Journal of Consumer Psychology. Vol. 7, No. 4, 1998, pp. 345-369. Mintel Reports[Online], Retail Store design-UK-June 2008. [Accessed 2000-3-12] Mango official website http://www.company.mango.com/in/index.htm