My team all naturally gravitated towards activewear, and we felt that designing for San Francisco and its culture gave us our best chance at success. We then went about researching that area and what options we had for designing a retail experience. I personally took knowledge about human interactions with retail environment from the Human Factors class, part of the Industrial Design program, to start to envision the user experience.
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After our research, we decided on three different directions to possibly take the retail experience. We wanted these themes to center around certain values: community, interconnectedness, and nature. Focusing on these central values, the three themes were based on: the moon and its relationship to the earth, the Redwood trees that are native to that area of the country, and knots and their prevalence in Celtic culture.
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After receiving feedback, it was clear that two of the schemes, the moon and the tree schemes, were the strongest and most likely to set us up for success. During a discussion on where to go next, some of my teammates wanted to pick a theme and go really deep with it. I had a different idea. I felt that, if we try to stay rooted in those values that we wanted to show through these themes, we could combine the two strong schemes. This focus on the values and similarities between the schemes would also mean we would be less likely to be too literal with what inspired the schemes and allow the customer experience to remain the focal point of our efforts. My teammates agreed, and we set out to achieve this goal.
Below are the fixtures I designed throughout the process of reaching the final scheme.
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Physical model of the central dome in the final design made from the design of a geodesic dome.
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The final pin up was very representative, I felt, of the depth of thought the team went into with our design. This was evident by the amount of detail we were prepared to go into when we presented it. It was amazing to look back to the initial research phase and see how we created a detailed space and experience that we were all experts in because of our equal involvement and contribution. For example, my work with the fixtures both in both CAD and physical models required me to learn the dimensions and general shape of the space as well as the appearance of the fixtures that made of up much of visual experience. This work and my participation in big picture discussions taught me more about both the design we were trying to achieve and how to design interiors in general.
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