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INSIGHTS: A DISCUSSION ABOUT “PUBLIC SPACE” DESIGN
Gaddis Architect specializes in all phases of commercial and commercial retail design, design management and construction. If maximizing the success of your business by optimizing the performance of your store, or commercial space design is a goal, then attending the following “Insights” could provide some very real benefits. Many common, and some not so common, design challenges are analyzed. Solutions aimed at increasing retail traffic, creating visual presence in various environments, and expressing not only a particular shopping experience but also the business’s brand, are presented. We think that all design is, on some level at least, retail design. Please scroll on, start a dialogue, contact us anytime.
Bright is Basic
Speaking of the perfect daytime storefront, this photo, actually taken with a smart phone by one of my clients, could not be more instructive. Daytime storefronts almost always have a double image and often a triple or more. Here there is a perfect picture of the surrounding area reflected with varying degrees of clarity on the storefront glass, and amplified by the fact that retailers keep their windows clean. The row houses across the street and classical entry to the building on the corner are reflected perfectly on the glass. Add the images of a passing car and bus, with pedestrians and trees in the street scape, and the entire reflected scene, freeze framed in the photo, becomes animated in real life. How does a retailer make the passerby look past the action on the glass long enough to see what is in the shop window? One way is to somehow force the storefront into shadow, providing of course there is something that is decidedly not shadow in the window. Observe how the banners become a simple colorful graphic on the top half to the photo where the window is in shadow from the awning. Impractical as this is, it does point to the often written about here, bright colored high contrast graphic as an effective solution. Landscape artists know that distant images in their paintings appear less saturated in color and lower in contrast than those close up in the scene. It is an observation taken from real life visual perception. We see detail by dint of contrast and color on that which is close. Exaggerating this concept can be a useful way of attracting visual attention. To the passerby very high contrast, colorful and larger than life images jump out of the normal field of vision. They attract attention, a basic function of the successful storefront.
More Right than Wrong
Don’t be fooled by the dirty outdated canopy, fluorescent lighting, bad or non existent signage, and muralstone finish. This is a very effective storefront and I bet the shop owner is not, even a little, interested in an update. I was across and down the street trying to get a good night time view of the place, when a middle aged guy passed. Realizing what I was doing he began to tease and pretend to wear a wig. It was a telling test of the shop window. Even from some 75 feet away a slightly tipsy guy could easily see that the shop was selling wigs.
What makes this work?
- The window is full, from top to bottom, with product.
- The size and shape of the product is literally human in scale and therefore recognizable.
- Repetition reinforces the single product presentation.
- The angled plan of the window increases the width of the storefront (by the difference between the height plus the width minus the hypotenuse of the triangle), a really efficient way to increase visibility.
- The angle also presents a straight on elevation of product to both pedestrian and auto traffic.
- There is light directly on the merchandise.
- The overall presentation is so strong that on a secondary level it begins to suggest a brand, i.e. “that place with all the wigs.”
Visual Cognition
Close inspection will reveal that these two storefront views have something in common. By amplifying the peripheral they draw attention to the particular. The textured glass used in the top panes and transom of the quilt shop have the effect of sending the viewer in search of visual clarity, which she quickly finds in the detail of the merchandise displayed in the main window below.
Something similar is happening to the shopping center facade, only on a larger scale. The reflective facade material creates an impressionistic image and implies that there is more detail which is only revealed when the shopper follows her natural inclination to identify and assign meaning. This she finds in the store signage and entries below. I call this visual cognition. It takes place in a second; just long enough to get the shopper to take note of the store and maybe even decide to go in.