Opening Day

Working alongside designers Matt Jones and Debbie Nestvogel, my retail design peers and I put together some dynamic displays... and all in time for the grand opening!  This was a project by the community, for the community and the process was inspiring.  To set up the story, Matt and Debbie (UNCG interior architecture students) transformed an empty shell of a space into a modern boutique where pre-conceived notions of used goods are shifted and the benefits of recycling are celebrated with style.  To get the whole story (process pictures included), just click here.

Retrofit Furniture

It was a fall break of furniture finds and painting.  I purchased these pieces from an estate sale, Father & Son and Everything But Granny's Panties.

Check it out

Tom Dixon, FRONT Design, and 5.5 Designers all took part in Veuve Clicquot's "Out of the Box" installation at the Milan Furniture Fair.  They were asked to interpret Veuve Clicquot's new packaging concept "DesignBox" and the process is all documented here!  This inspiring display design applies a lot to the work my retail design course has been engaged with over at the Salvation Army Select Store.

Changing Rooms

Design notes

These are the some notes I took at the latest Salvation Select Display meeting.  The topic of our discussion was how to fuse the exceptional aspects of our various display ideas into one cohesive concept that could be modified to fit the three scales of display required (large window, medium end cap and small throughout).

A larger selection

This is an example of the kind of large scale assemblage that we would like to install in the window displays at the Salvation Army's Select Store.  First we created a composition of items found at the Salvation Army's Family store, taking care to use a variety of shapes, sizes and textures.  Next we affixed the items to a plywood panel with some serious glue.  Then it was just a matter of white paint. Once installed, we would dip a selection of choice clothing articles in red paint and suspend them in front of the panel to juxtapose the merchandise previously associated with The Salvation Army's Family Store, with the exceptional merchandise sold at the Salvation Select Store.  This art installation could stand alone or serve as a backdrop in any display.  The topographical quality provides shadow play and texture to a monochromatic plane, which is visually appealing from afar and up close.  On a moveable wall, this fixture could take part in many displays throughout the seasons with careful placement and re-working.

A smaller selection

Here's a selection of goodies found at The Salvation Army's Family Store on Lee St.   I'm thinking these displays could be hung up in the changing rooms like little windows into an intimate world of objects-- all white with the exception of one red "selected" item of interest.  In this case, I've singled out the nozzle of a ketchup container, an American icon easily recognized and associated with the color red.

Display

This collection of found objects featured in Tim Robison's blog reminds me of the installation work I've seen using items confiscated at airport check points.  Pocket sized treasures, lost in a changing world... victims of circumstance.  In the case of the Salvation Army's Select store, objects similar to these are given up voluntarily and tend to filter down to the dregs line as I call it.  But as Tim points out, it's often just a matter of purposeful assemblage to give new meaning and value to items of any sort really.  I would love to amass hundreds, maybe thousands of used pocket sized items, mount them with pride and showcase them either as a large scale installation meant to be seen from afar or as small cabinets des curiosites displayed at eye level for intimate viewing (perhaps in the dressing area?).

To learn more about Tim Robison, his thoughts on the virtues of assemblage with used objects and his creative work, click here.

Here's an assemblage of my own, comprised of items that live in my study.

Display

Cuban art duo Guerra de la Paz  puts wonderland to shame with their insightful and psychedelic installations.  I believe Alain Guerra and Neraldo de la Paz's working process and message directly relates to the resources we have and context that we find ourselves in as retail designers at S.A. Select.  Here's what they had to say:

"Using recycled objects as our medium and the guidance of the unrelenting amounts of information that fuel today's mass consciousness and it's subversive parallels. Allowing us to explore ways to reinvent historic themes and classic icons while still commenting on contemporary culture.

. . .Gaining access to an overabundance of discarded clothing - relics that once helped define an individual's personality and communally speak of environmental issues, mass consumption, and disposability - opened the doors for us to working with garments as a material. We often see ourselves as vehicles guided by their essence and silent histories."

As soon as I saw Guerra de la Paz's work, I began daydreaming about the kinds of unimagined landscapes that we could create with the "not so delicately used" clothing that comes into Salvation Army's donation station.  One landscape that I kept returning to was an autumn garden, marked by those seductively deep hues that come with the season's roots, tubers, squash, kale and cabbage.  Colors so rich you can smell the vitamins in them.  We could cultivate our own unique veggies, bulging and layered with fabric.  Shoes could be breaking through some rich Carolina soil like beets while rogue sock squash vines could be climbing the walls.

Here's my butternut squash.  It's a sock, fabric and some string. Perhaps not so striking on its own, but try imagining loads together... spilling over a display.

Display

This installation by Jim Hodges, in collaboration with The Fabric Workshop and Museum is titled You.  In my mind, I've linked Jim Hodges' artwork with a photo by fellow student Josie McKinney. There's a delicate tenderness that I appreciate in both pieces-- an attention to the character of each flower, captured not in the prime of its existence, but rather just before wilting.  You is essentially a curtain of old silk flowers, broken down and pieced together again.  I think a similar curtain constructed of old clothing remnants cut into flowers and sewed together could be a provocative installation in one of the front windows at the Salvation Army's Select store.  I'm imagining a majority of white flowers (stained, faded, bleached, or faintly patterned) paired with red flowers (in all shades ranging from pink to maroon), hanging up like an heirloom quilt, laced with the sentiment and character of worn clothing-- like old skin, bruised petals and fingerprints.

You by Jim Hodges

        Photo by Josie McKinney 

I constructed a 1'x1' prototype following Jim Hodges' process more or less.  I simply cut a series of flower shapes (layering my fabric for efficiency), then I pinned them to a paper towel being sure to overlap the petals.  From here it was just a matter of sewing across the overlaps and then tearing away the paper towel.