A Design Quick Fix

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Moving my office to a technology incubator has proven to be a very good decision in so many ways, most especially in the generous opportunity it lends to getting to know all the other entrepreneurs that are there, too. One day early on I starting chatting with Mark Laymon, founder of Caffeine Spaces. I had often noticed Mark working tirelessly as I came and went, finishing up his coworking space for a ribbon cutting. As I watched him build furniture and bring in plants and accessories, I noticed the very corporate looking wood and chrome reception desk at the entry, that he had inherited from the previous tenant, just did not work with the laid back, modern tech feeling he was working so hard to create.

Part of being a designer is having a deep sensitivity to space and what works and does not work. Each day as I walked past this reception desk, I felt an obligation to offer a solution to Mark, so his space would look cohesive for the ribbon cutting. One afternoon I took some time to go through my mental checklist of quick fixes, then approached Mark with the suggestion to face the reception desk with black adhesive backed chalk roll. He like the idea and the desk was resurfaced the day before the ribbon cutting.

Am sharing this photo of the reception desk, as it is today, because I love that the ribbon cutting attendees and others who have come to Caffeine Spaces since then, have made it a working piece of art. Now when I walk past, it makes me smile.

5 Tips to Make Your Pop Up Store a Success

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Hopefully you’ve visited Storefront and found a great space in New York City or San Francisco that feels just right for your pop up store. You find yourself thinking about the store and imagining customers mingling inside, checking out your products and buying up your inventory. This is an exciting idea. You realize that you’re seriously thinking of having a flash sale. Now, take a deep breath. Just how are you going to make it happen? Clients usually seek me out right about this time and I help them through the process. And if you’re at the point where you are thinking of opening a pop up store, here are some things you should consider.

Have a Strategy
Who is your target customer? What are your goals? When will your store be open? Where exactly will your store be located? Why will customers come by? How will they know about it? The strategy hurdle is a crucial step. Create your strategy and then tweak it with your team. Make sure everyone is clear on the details, then delegate and follow-up, often.

Collect a Team
To design the interior and coordinate all the details, you can DIY, work with friends and family or hire a designer. It’s essential to put a select team together. The important thing is to work with people that understand your goals and support your efforts. Usually, the property will have staff to assist you with certain tasks, too.

Keep Design Simple and Upcycle
In terms of design, keep things simple. You need a few display and seating pieces that make a bold statement and compliment the space so that it loses any generic look and feel. You can rent or buy these pieces. I like to accentuate any existing architectural detailing with uplighting. It makes the space feel warmer and can also be used to highlight product. Upcycling (converting a useless product into a new product of better quality) should be part of your plan. Mirrors are a great way to upcycle. They can be created by converting an old wood door or shutter into a spectacular standing mirror. Just visit an architectural salvage site, find a relique in need of some love then paint or refinish it and have a glass shop custom cut and install mirror. Add a sturdy but collapsible stand at the bottom back and you will have a very creative and useful decorative element. Antique stores and flea markets are great places to find unique signage, special accessories and decorative items, too.

Show You Care
If you plan to serve refreshments, continue the environmentally friendly approach and use glass pitchers with glasses and dishware or at the very least compostable cups and plates. It does cost a little more, but your customers will notice and appreciate your thoughtfulness. Also consider teaming with a non-profit to raise awareness, educate your customers and serve a good cause.

Enjoy the Experience
Your pop up store should be an enjoyable experience for you and your customers. Hold tight to this belief, work through the ups and downs, and smile. You’re living your dream and finally do have your very own store!

As always, leave a message to continue the conversation and feel free to contact me @gustiecreative or at www.gustiecreative.com to brainstorm some creative retail ideas.
- Gustie

Photo by @iStock.com/A-Digit

Thinking About Samsung’s “Experience Shops”…

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Call it what you like, but Samsung’s “Experience Shops” are essentially Strategic Stores and a smart next step after they tested the waters with Pop Up Retail. This is a brilliant move and great way to showcase the Galaxy S4. The Samsung operated mini-stores will be located at the front of Best Buy’s big box whales, offering an easy in and easy out. They will sell popular products along with the new Galaxy S4 and have highly trained sales people looking to educate shoppers. You will be able to buy within the mini-store, creating ease of purchase. You will not have to trek through the Best Buy checkout line. It sounds like the design is Apple-inspired and I am still looking for a game changer in technology boutique retail design. With so many creative extensions of technology available, a little inspired interactivity would be nice. Who will set the next benchmark for technology boutique retail? Curious what your thoughts are so please share here. – Gustie

Best Tweet Ever

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Still euphoric over being chosen to participate in Google’s Project Glass #glassexplorers program and am already anticipating how wearable computing will change my life. My true passion lies in experiencing how Glass will enhance collaboration, data gathering, and perspective, in terms of the way I create and execute design. To get a better idea of what I mean, be sure to watch the Google Glass video above.

Am now wondering if wearable computing will lead to designing in augmented reality. If you have any thoughts on this, please share here.

Life is amazing these days. – Gustie

Jump In and Pop Up

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Lots of activity in the Pop Up sandbox stateside these days. Storefront (www.thestorefront.com) is literally transforming retail real estate to make it easy to Pop Up. Republic Spaces (www.republicspaces.com) is launching The 99 Shop in NYC to make it easier for designers to Pop Up by offering a low price point.

On the design side, Boxman Studios (www.boxmanstudios.com) creates exceptional trade show displays and Pop Up Retail units with shipping containers. And all around the country, local businesses are taking the DIY route and Popping Up.

Gustie Creative (www.gustiecreative.com) is excited to be opening an office in Boca Raton, Florida dedicated to bringing Pop Up Retail to DIYers, web based and small businesses. We clearly see the interplay between virtual and physical space as a dynamic that shifts based on design, marketing, and retail strategies and we are passionate about taking our clients into the #future of retail.

It's a great time to jump in and play. - Gustie

Shop POP! at SXSW

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sceanrios

When Google alerts deliver a group of meta tags including “Fashion”, “Retail” and “Not for Profit”, I know that a very special event will be taking place. Sure enough, recent alerts led me to find that Goodwill Industries of Central Texas is debuting their first Pop Up retail shop, called “POP!” at SXSW in Austin, Texas. The shop will be open March 9 – 11 from 10 am to 7 pm. It will feature items donated at Goodwill locations around the Austin area like vintage and contemporary fashions and accessories, some with designer labels. Proceeds will help put people to work in the local area.

According to Jim Gibbons, president and CEO of Goodwill Industries International, Goodwill is embracing the Pop Up retail model as an “exciting opportunity to reach out to SXSW attendees to give them a unique shopping experience, along with education about Goodwill’s mission.” In addition to checking out and buying all the vintage clothes and accessories, shoppers will have a chance to meet celebrity Goodwill spokespeople and compete for mayoral bragging rights with a prize in Foursquare. You can follow on Twitter @GoodwillIntl and @AustinGoodwill.

Sounds very special, indeed. Pop Up retail is an excellent way to partner for a cause and raise awareness. For events like this, I am a big fan of adding a Pop Up meta tag. It will connect even more people to your event.

To learn more about Pop Up retail visit www.gustiecreative.com.

Take Your Stage

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Josh Runway Clothes 2013

I think Designers are fascinating people. They craft for their audience a singular statement of how they want something to be better by creating their own, unique vision. More often than not, they work tirelessly, agonizing over every detail and always anticipating what they could be doing better along the journey from execution to completion. So when they finally can revel in the appreciation of an audience who has viewed their work, why don’t they relish it?

At the Red Carpet Benefit Designer Showcase of the Fall/Winter 2013 Collections for Kansas City Fashion Week last evening, I was especially interested in catching that brief moment or two at the end of each collection when the Designer appeared on stage. Some barely stepped out from backstage, others walked hand-in-hand with a model and the veteran Designer in the show, he owned the stage.

The evening was extremely well coordinated. The venue (www.28event.com) had a SOHO vibe that was complimented by the DJ’s, who clearly enjoyed laying down an ultra hip beat that just got better over the hours. All of the collections shown were professionally presented and well crafted. It is worth visiting Kansas City to catch this semi-annual event. Now, I’ll share the websites for a few of the Designers that resonated with me.

Designer Katie McKenna of Pink Sheep Heiress www.kmwkatieandwilly.com. Her rock and roll inspired looks were perfect statement pieces. If you walk in a room wearing her label, you will be noticed. Her models walked the clothes effortlessly.

Designer Anna Friss of Blue Bird Apparel www.bluebirdapparel.com showed the edgiest collection by far. Her craftsmanship was flawless and her models clearly enjoyed working the attitude of their outfits. This show would have wowed in LA or Miami.

Designer Christian Michael Shuster of christianMICHAEL www.christianmicheal.com showed a men’s line that had exquisite detailing and a fresh take on blackwatch plaid. The collection had a conservative, buttoned up look nicely illustrated by gorgeous plaid wool overcoats and wonderful 4-button pea coats. His leather bomber jacket was stellar. Models showed his line well and gave a high caliber ending to this thoroughly enjoyable evening.

Christian Michael is the veteran Designer who owned the stage. And it made me so very happy to see him take it.

To learn more about Kansas City Fashion Week, go to www.kcfashionweek.com.

My Six Word Pitch

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Pop Up front (2)

If you’ve ever brainstormed an elevator pitch for your business, then you know that great feeling of satisfaction when you finally get it. The next challenge is to describe what you do in five words or less and for me, this was an agonizing task.

No matter how hard I tried, the five descriptive words I would connect and finally commit to paper just did not feel authentic enough. After weeks of brainstorming, I had a creative breakthrough and decided to go with six words that say exactly what I do. Gustie Creative designs Pop Up Retail. Now when I share my six word pitch with someone, they become curious and we exchange business cards.

After a few months of using my six word pitch and getting some buzz, I started thinking about a creative way to continue the conversation. Why not design a Pop Up card to mail as a follow-up to my pitch? As always, the idea was simple and the execution was anything but and, after having no luck with online and local printing sources, I was about to let this idea go. Then, by coincidence one day, I sat next to a graphic designer at a business event and explained what I wanted to do. She knew the exact custom printing company that had the means to fabricate my card. So here it is, the Pop Up card that conveys Pop Up retail. Simple, authentic and exactly what I do.

If you are working on a pitch and would like to brainstorm, let me know. – Gustie

Getting Creative, Yurt Style

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Pop-Up-Yurt Yesterday I had a design meeting to discuss retail expansion ideas. Do you kind of take for granted that we talked about standard footprints, lease terms and parking spots?  Actually, none of these topics came up. What we talked about was dramatically customizing a portable yurt or vintage Volkswagen bus.

I was meeting with the owner of a very successful web based food company who is looking to increase her marketing presence at weekly summer Farmers Markets where she is a vendor. And exploring creative Pop Up retail ideas was clearly on her agenda.

Specializing in Pop Up design has taken me to many meetings just like this one, where standard design solutions simply will not work. The clear advantage of a Pop Up is that it is custom designed to suit the particular needs of each client.  Pop Up design is creative, portable and functional. Cost is as much as a client is willing to spend. And, marketing is social media driven so designing a disruptive Pop Up is highly encouraged.

A Pop Up is a smart solution when you want to stand out in your existing marketplace or expand into a new one. And along with providing a really cool place to sell your product, it can be engaging, informative and very memorable.  Something people will be excited to share with friends through social media. And so the buzz begins. - Gustie

Madewell Denim Road Trip Hits Lawrence, KS on May 3rd

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Madewell

The Madewell Denim Road Trip is an awsome example of a unique Pop Up experience that engages consumers and creates new customers relatively close to the location of their brand new brick and mortar store in Leawood, KS.

The company overview for Madewell says, quite simply, “We’re jeans makers since 1937 and so much more (head to toe, we’ve got it all). Think of us as your best friend and personal stylist, all rolled into one.” It is inspiring to see a 75 year old company reinvent itself so well through social media.  I visited the new store and checked out their impressive selection of jeans, colorful tops and accessories and can’t wait to visit the denim truck when the denim road trip comes to Lawrence, KS on May 3rd. You can join in the fun and follow along at https://www.facebook.com/madewell.

So what exactly is a denim road trip, anyway? It’s a vintage Airstream trailer from the 1970s stocked with lots of denim pants and shorts as well as shirts, tanks, and tees. You can try on apparel and also have your picture taken for Madewell’s Facebook page.  A selection of scarves, shoes and other accessories will be available along with personal stylists to assist in putting your look together.

Say you visit the denim truck, try some clothes on, check out some accessories, and really like what you see.  Where do you go to buy them? Online. You can have them sent directly to your home or office address.  And the next time you’re looking for something denim inspired or that really cool accessory you saw on the denim truck, you can shop at the new Madewell store in Leawood Town Center.  A coincidence? I don’t think so. – Gustie