A Most Unusual Display

As I was going through all my retail display photos from Italy, this one stood out from the crowd. It definitely caught my eye as I was walking along the street. Is it a shopper-stopper? Yes. Is it innovative? Yes. Is it effective? Maybe. Does it help to sell frames? Maybe.

I think it works better with sunglasses. The dark lenses give them more mass so they stand out from the display. The other frames get lost in all the twists and turns of the metal rods.

What is your opinion?

Fed Up With Spam? This can help!

Are you as frustrated as I am with Spam? This week I got an apologetic message from a client who was thoroughly embarrased by a spammer who stole his e-mail address. This creep sent everyone in this doc's e-mail address book a solicitation for porn, complete with a smutty photo! And somehow it was sent from the doctor's e-mail server so his address was in the "From" field. How horrible!

Luckily I hadn't checked my e-mail account that morning, so when I did I recognized the spam and trashed it. In the last few weeks not just one, but TWO of my e-mail addresses have been hi-jacked by spammers. One of them was a new address I had just set up! I hadn't even used it yet and in just 3 days I received 185 spams!

I thought using a contact form on my website would be a safe way for people to send me an e-mail without exposing my e-mail address to spam-bots that crawl around websites harvesting addresses. Boy, was I wrong!

I called my webmaster because I thought there might be some security breech on his servers. He explained to me that some spammers now have automated programs that will take your domain name and try dozens of name and initial combinations derived from the domain name when your real name appears in it. Sometimes they stumble on an address that works!

So, what can you do about spam? My webmaster recommended this book to me and it delivers good value at very reasonable $9.95. We've added the recommended security measures to my contact form and I now have a strategy for setting up hard-to-guess and "disposable" e-mail addresses.

World's Narrowest Optometry Office

This little shop made me shake my head in wonder when I happened upon it in Florence, Italy. I thought I had designed a few incredibly narrow spaces in my time, but this one has me beat. It couldn't be more than 8 to 10 feet wide!

It must be an optometrist's office because you can see the equipment in the back room. The marble floor looks like it might be centuries old. But then EVERYBODY in Italy has marble floors!

The displays are nice–simple openings no more than 12" deep with beautiful wood frames, some with sliding glass doors for security. The "trade-show" style halogen lights are also a pleasing design element as they march down to the back of the office.

The two-tone wood reception counter is good-looking. The display on the back wall is brightly-lit, which helps draw your eye to it.

I can't help but wonder why they didn't switch the positions of the display and the door to the exam room. Where does your eye go when you look in this door? Straight back to the exam room! If the display was in that position, you'd be looking at frames instead of equipment.

This is a good example of designing almost everything well in a very difficult space, but missing the boat on the back wall design. I hope you never have to deal with a space this narrow for a new office, but this is proof that it can be done.

An Architect Confesses!

You have probably read my views on the trouble with architects. (See Disasters article.) They tend to make their design more important than the merchandise.

Now here's confirmation in print from an architect who agrees with me and has seen the light.

The following is an excerpt from the May 2007 issue of Visual Merchandising & Store Design magazine featuring an interview with David Kepron. He is a principal at the Philadelphia based architecture firm, SPG3. Kepron earned his architecture degrees from McGill University in Montreal and is an active member of the American Institute of Architects.

What has been your biggest challenge as a designer?

"Early on, it was understanding that store design wasn't all about me, the design and the architecture. I had to learn to let go of a series of messages learned in college that, as an architect, I should be saving the world from itself. I've learned to see the customer, the merchandise and the brand as the stars and that the things I design play a supporting role in their show."

How do you measure the success of a store design?

"When walking in the store, if the customer can understand the product assortment, navigate the space with ease and have the brand environment resonate in a corporeal way, while the cash register rings constantly, then you've got success."

Kudos to Mr. Kepron. I'm thrilled to see that there are some architects out there who do understand what their role should be in retail design.

Productivity Zapper: E-mail Overload

Are you or your employees in the habit of constantly checking your e-mail?It's become the all-American pastime for many of us. But it's more harmful to our productivity than you might think.

Download this excellent article and talk about it to your staff. I have instituted the solution the author suggests in my office and have noticed a significant gain in our productivity and ability to focus.

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The Low-Information Diet: How to Eliminate E-Mail Overload and Improve Productivity By Tim Ferriss

It's Monday morning and your To-Do list for the day is lengthy. You turn on your computer, log into your inbox, and spend the next six hours starting, stopping and backtracking, your To-Do list untouched. Tim Ferriss offers immediate solutions to improve your productivity and quiet the constant information interference.

http://changethis.com/34.04.LowInfo
http://changethis.com/pdf/34.04.LowInfo.pdf

Is Your Dispensary Suffering From Poster-itis?

Talking about overload I recently paid a visit to three offices that I designed some years ago. The owners were all very happy with the design and the increased growth and profits they were experiencing.

But two out of three dispensaries were suffering from "poster-itis"—too many posters standing all over the place. There were posters on the shelves, posters on the dispensing tables, on top of showcases and even on the floor!

All these posters made the dispensary look cluttered and crowded. Clutter is the enemy in the dispensary and poster-itis is usually the main culprit.

Posters on the floor or on top of showcases or displays are an absolute NO-NO! This does absolutely nothing to help you sell frames. So if you are guilty, lay down the law to everyone who works in the dispensary—no more posters on the floor!

The only place to use posters is on a shelf next to the brand of frames depicted. Here is the rule: You may only use ONE poster per shelf. Spreading multiple posters across the same shelf is another NO-NO!

Now if you don't care about selling more higher priced frames you can ignore this advice. If what you are after is a dispensary that looks like a bargain basement, go wild with the posters. Jam them in and don't leave an empty spot anywhere. It will look cheap and communicate to patients that they should expect bargain basement prices.

There is only one cure for poster-itis: Take them ALL out! Then pick out only ONE per brand name and put it back in next to that brand of frames.

The dispensary will probably look bare to your eyes when you get all those posters out of there, but believe me, the patients won't think so. Less posters means less distraction for the patients. They will be able to focus better on the frame styles and colors without a jumble of posters vying for their attention.

Best of Paris

These two photos show one of the best optical shops I found in Paris. It couldn't be more than 10 or 12 feet wide, but the curving walls and soffit above help to distract the eye from the long narrow shape. The window display on the left is small but very eye-catching. I often use these type of cubicle displays in my designs because they work so well for upscale eyewear.

The use of light maple and dark cherry wood for the interior is nothing new, but balanced very nicely. Using dark wood at the back wall makes that wall seem closer than it really is. A bevy of halogen lights in the ceiling give the whole place a warm inviting feel. I'm sure this place is a magnet for shoppers looking for high fashion frames.