“ Are You Paying Attention”

Assignment # 2

Tina Seelig’s Crash course on creativity

offered through Venture Lab

Submitted by Alisa Dworsky

Main Street, Montpelier VT

I live in the countries smallest

state capital- population 8000

I Know the owners of all of the stores

visited for this project with the exception of the

Rite Aid

I visited and observed 5 stores on Main

street: the art store , a book store, the

stationary store, a clothing store and a

drug store.

Downtown is defined by the streets “State”

and “Main”

Most of the buildings date to the 19th

century and have brick facades.

The art store smells of pencils, the

books store of dust, the stationers of

candles, the clothing store of incense and the

drug store of cleaning agents.

Signage

Pink and Red are popular signage choices in this

town.The Rite aid building and

signage Breaks with the pattern of 19th century storefronts

in town.

The door is always open except at Rite AidIts unusually warm

for October. Rite aid is “climate

controlled” and therefore the door is closed- everyone else is enjoying the

effects of global warming and

keeping the door open

The store window seasonal theme

Halloween!Storefronts reflect back messages to the community.

Most stores will be welcoming kids trick

or treating on Halloween.

Packed and ClutteredEvery store in

downtown Montpelier

Vermont is packed with things. The

stores are relatively small. They have very little storage

because their basements flooded

in “Irene”.

There is an opportunity to

bring more clarity and elegance to the

presentation of products through improving display

strategies and improving storage

options.

Featured Products …buy buy buy

Xmas gifts, best sellers, Xmas

wrapping paper and Candy….tis the

season!

Featured Items are always placed in the path of the customer near the front door.

The opportunity is to design a changeable, elegant platform, a

stage set for featured products, that can be adjusted and viewed from all directions.

In the backWhat I found in the back of the stores

were books on sports

Incensehallmark cards

and frames. Does that mean we like

these things less or are we more private

about them?

Perhaps we are more persistent and directed in finding

those products and the retailers know

this?

Impulse Buy

What do Stephen Colbert, Candy,

Moleskine notebooks and

bracelets have in common?

Opportunities

Efficient, affordable and elegant storage

options because small stores need to reduce clutter, increase storage and streamline visibility in the

space.

The design of a display system for featured products that •can be viewed from all directions •Is simple and elegant• can change its configuration, like a stage set, to add theatricality, allow flexibility and keep customers engaged.

Take the flexibility and drama in Robert Lepage’s sets and apply it to retail

display systems.

Charles and Ray EamesShelves- flexible storage and display all in one. A good precedent.