PowerShop 6: Compelling Look at the Design Firms who are Changing Retail

If 2018 seemed like a bad year for retail, 2019 hasn’t been much better: since June of this year, over 7,000 stores have closed in the U.S. alone. In the U.K., last year’s record number of store closures hit close to 10,000, with many proclaiming the “end of the High Street.”

We know that online retail can’t possibly maximize a brand’s ability to create immersive experiences, but the cost of building and maintaining sell-through with brick and mortar is completely subject to consumer confidence and the fact that most shoppers typing in a URL before even bothering with visiting a store.

Thankfully, it is not all doom and gloom.

There are brands that are making the deep investment in bold retail statements that are laser-focused on delivering a rich customer experience.

For several years now, Frame Publishing in Amsterdam has presented PowerShop, an annual compendium that celebrates retail innovation and design and showcases the world’s most incredible examples of how built environments can successfully tell a compelling story, mirror a brand’s values, and build community with converts.

PowerShop 6: New Retail Design (2019, Frame Publishing) features some of the most exciting and impressive examples of modern retail to date, with insightful interviews with designers from around the world.

Here are just a few of the one-hundred projects that continue to inspire, provoke, and ignite our passion for visceral design experiences that engage.

Tokyo’s Moriyuki Ochiai Architects used aluminum to create a ceiling inspired by the kimono.

“As our lives become more driven by algorithms which are telling us what to do and what to buy, the idea of discovering something physically, through an unexpected shopping experience that surprises us, becomes very appealing.”

ALBERTO CAIOLA, Shanghai, China, Winner of the Frame Award for the 2019 Emerging Designer of the Year

Design firm Curiosity designed the Tokyo shopping complex Ginza 6, with intentionally short lines of site in order to encourage exploration.

“As interior designers, our goal when it comes to creating retail spaces is to harness a physical environment which tells the story of the brand in an unexpected way, to create a retail experience which captures one’s memory and engagement.”

ALEX MOK and BRIAR HICKLING, Linehouse, Shanghai/Hong Kong

At top, a store called Novelty designed by creative agency Anagrama harkens to the drawings of MC Escher; below, OHLAB designed the Miami concept store, IN-Sight with an optical illusion that also doubles as display space and storage.

“The key to establish customer engagement is to pursue an emotional, almost subconscious connection… In other words, designers need to establish a sensitive, well-informed, rational and contextual design strategy in order to carefully choreograph and control every feature of the retail experience.”

GEORG THIERSCH, 1zu33, Munich, Germany

At top, Amsterdam’s UNStudio created the futuristic shopping center called Lane 189 in Shanghai; below,Tokyo’s Curiosity design for a Moncler store in Dubai.

“Establishing flagship store locations on every street corner of the world’s metropolitan cities is no longer single-handedly the recipe for success. If they want to catch the attention of the new generation of consumers, luxury brands need to become a whole lot smarter in delivering their DNA in a much more experience-based direction.”

JOHANNES TORPE, Copenhagen, Denmark

A Celine boutique in Miami designed by Valerio Olgiati is lined entirely in Pinta Verde marble from Brazil, giving it a cloud-like atmosphere.

PowerShop 6: Retail Design Now is available on amazon.com and directly from Frame Publishers at https://store.frameweb.com.

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