DI retail design magazine May Issue 2008
Pink in retail design
An Excerpt from New retail formats take flight at London Heathrow
Technology is also apparent at Thomas Pink, where a “Pink Business Bar”
shows the latest stock results and news on a pink LED display. Customers
can listen to music on a pink iPod, drink Pink-branded water and write on
postcards with iconic London images.
June 18, 2008
An Event Design Magazine excerpt, September 2007
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF EXPERIENCES
SENSE AND MARKETABILITY
T A S T E
Taste Bud Trickery Nothing against taste buds, but about 90 percent
of what we call taste is really smell. The scientific term for it is synesthesia.
Designers can capitalize on this phenomenon by using scent to inspire
food-based buying decisions. Hirsch suggests putting scratch-and-sniff
stickers on marketing elements. “When they smell the scent, the customer
will perceive the flavor and will be more inclined to buy the product,” he says.
To go for a pure taste bud assault, Hirsch suggests appealing to fat receptors
in the mouth by serving sugary drinks and spicy foods. “If you want to make
people more placid and compliant, go for a sugar and fat taste,” he says. You
can get the opposite effect by stimulating the system with tastes like horseradish
and bitter herbs. The powerful spiciness registers as pain in the mouth and nose, creating a state of alertness.
DO: Want to make a tiny footprint seem larger? Leverage the synesthesia.
Hirsch says hints of green apple and cucumber scents can do the trick. Want
to make a huge space feel more intimate? Think ribs. “Barbecue roasted
meat makes people perceive a room as smaller,” says Hirsch.
DON’T: Exhibit near highly polluted areas. The air makes people aggressive.
“Studies show that the more air pollution in an area, the more auto accidents
there are because drivers drive more aggressively,” says Hirsch.
S M E L L
Subliminal Scent In his research, Hirsch found that introducing certain
scents got people to buy more in a retail setting and gamble more in a
casino. Scent also increases learning potential and attentiveness. A mixed
floral smell, for example, increases the speed of learning by 17 percent.
But pumping scent bombs into crowded convention centers or at outdoor
venues is about as effective as tossing money into the wind. If you’re going
to pump in fragrance (see “Aromatherapy” on eventmarketer.com), try
pumping in a scent at a barely-there level, just above what the fragrance
industry calls detection threshold.
“It doesn’t knock your socks off,” says Craig Warren of the Sense and
Smell Institute. “But if someone cued you, you’d say, “oh, I do smell
something." Companies like ScentAir Technologies and Aromasys formulate
and sell scents for branded environments.
Do: Pick stimulating notes like citrus and mint. “peppermint is a good
performance booster,” says Warren. Most Floral scents make people
happy. Vanilla takes the cake for most universally liked scent.
Don’t: Go for a rose scent, Warren says. “It reminds people of funerals.”
S E E
Color Currents Every color has inherent psychological and emotional
meanings, says color specialist Leatrice Eiseman. Her “rich” palette,
for example, combines brown, claret red, and olive green to convey
quality and taste. Old school rich tones like purple an black have given
way to hues of espresso, red wine, and martini olives. One way marketers
can make the see-then-feel connection is to let go of the connotations
and embrace new color trends. When a new color combination comes
on the scene, about 10 percent of people will immediately adopt it, says
Eiseman. For the other 90 percent, “what happens is, over time, the
eye becomes more accustomed to seeing that color and even the person
who is resistant to it when it first comes out ultimately starts to absorb it
out of peripheral vision.” Being first on the scene to effectively combine
current colors is an opportunity for designers to make a brand statement.
“A lot of attendees are people who will say, ‘this is interesting,’ says Eiseman.
“They will look at what you have to offer as something intriguing because
they think you are very aware.”
Remember that no one uses each of the senses without the others. You
can get the benefits of scent-induced environment without the odor by
using color. Want the hypnotic, happy-making effects of a punchy lemon
or lime scent? Try creating a vibrant yellow or green environment. “People
can match colors and odors, and match both with moods almost
spontaneously,” says Warren.
Do: Get three for the price of one. Bright tones like this season’s greens
and yellows not only “smell” fresh, they get you greater visibility plus tap you
into one of the hottest color trends. “You would be perceived as having the
latest approach,” says Eiseman.
Don’t: Use your logo as the sole inspiration for your exhibit design. “You
don’t have to remove the equity you have in that color,” says Eiseman.
“But surround it with other [current] colors to give it a fresh new perspective.”
H E A R
Sounds Personal Sights and smells can remind us of happy childhood
memories, but sounds can be stimulating, too.
Matthew Suttor, a composer and lecturer in sound design, says, “Visual
memory can be faulty, so sound is very potent way to localize someone
physically in a space, but also [a good way to create] a certain kind of
environment.” Delivering sound to one person at a time can be especially
helpful for making an emotional connection in an otherwise overcrowded,
over stimulated environment. “We live in this iPod culture not where everyone
can control not only the volume at which they listen, but what they’re listening
to as well, “says Suttor.
Museums and galleries, for example, use interactivity to personalize the
experience. (See the bird in the diorama and push the button to hear it chirp.)
“It’s the difference between a individualized auditory tour and a one-size-fits-all
sound experience,” Suttor says. “ We’re a society of individuals and we want
to be in control.”
Do: Remember that sound is more than music. Auto brands often experiment
with unique sounds in their TV ads, a practice called conceptual sound design. The audience makes an association between the known object, the car, and an
unknown or playful sonic effect. “We’re able to make an association between
sounds and images that we read as being innovative,” Suttor says.
Don’t: Turn up the volume. Says Suttor: “People use volume as a way of
selling things but it can also be a repellent.”
June 9, 2008
Do Fashion Trends Trickle-Down or Bubble-Up?
The influence can trickle down or bubble up, however, the trickle down effect
is still the most-used way, especially as so many high-end looks now have
become aspirational.
For example, I saw a kid of about 17 on the ferry yesterday that runs between Bainbridge Island where I live and Seattle. He had on a pair of jeans, not
His style sense ‘on the street’ might inspire a designer who saw his look
to do other looks like that, still his clothing is already out in the marketplace,
so it is not the individual pieces of clothing that is so inspirational, but the
way that he put it all together. Very individualized, incorporating high, mid
and low. It was the bag that he held very proudly— and wanted everyone
to see.
Lee
June 2, 2008
Summer fashion trends from New York
Desicribed by Lee
The summer season 2008 has some really fun colors to chase the winter
doldrums away. The Spring forecast from the fashion collections shown in
New York has some vibrant tones guaranteed to lift every mood.
Included is a lively blue, a refreshing alternative to navy, while the sunniest
possible yellow, sparkles with vitality. A yellow green, the color of a lime,
brings a splash of citrus, while a delicious melon tone adds a special
deliciousness. A brilliant tango red instills a scintillating energy and a
pinkish-purple color, like typical bright spring flower injects some magic
into the mix.
Lee states, ‘while it is fun and inspiring to look at the trend colors, the
ultimate challenge for most people is creating combinations for a ‘real-life”
wardrobe.
As explained in Lee's book More Alive With Color: “We all know how the
denim blues work with every other color. Another alternative hue is a
shade of blue that looks like the sky on a gorgeous spring day that is a
backdrop to every color that appears in nature. Think of any color of
flowers—from cheerful daisies to pink roses or exotic purple orchids
against the beautiful blue of the sky—would we ever say Mother Nature
made a mistake is combining her colors?!
Sky Blue blends beautifully with cool tones and adds a balancing touch
to warmer combinations, especially in the expected warmth summer.
You can’t help but create beautiful combinations using nature as the
inspiration. Variations of green, from the deep forest shades to pale
khaki, also make a wonderful background to many other colors, just
as they do in natural surroundings.
The deepest black or midnight blues as well as earthy browns also
contribute to the shades that Lee refers to in her book as the Crossover
colors. These are the hues that become the background shades in the
wardrobe and are fashion classics.
Lee also explains how so many neutrals that are found frequently in
nature will blend and harmonize with so many other colors. Think of the
comforting shades of warm sand; imagine the quiet grays of stone and
pebbles. But the Crossover colors are not all neutral or dark. Think to
Mother Nature and she uses vibrant reds as accents in berries and flowers
or ripe fruit, or the warming touch of sunshine yellow to make your day
brighter.
Summer 08 includes neutrals like toasty tans and silver grays. But again,
as Lee advises: “In this season of renewal, punch up those dependable
basics with the vibrant bright tones to bring a sense of vitality to you and
your wardrobe’.
For more information about Lee’s color concepts, her books, fanguides
for matching and combining, online career training and enhancement
training program utilizing color, please visit morealivewithcolor.com.
