Top Brands of 2010

Although 2010 has been a tough economic year, we have seen some great brands doing outstanding things over the past 12 months.But who comes out top for you in 2010?

Supergroup? With its now established high-street-cool brand Superdry, it has gone from strength to strength, seeing 60% increase in sales in their 3rd quarter and stores popping up everywhere!

JD Sports? They saw an amazing 64% increase in profit and continue to expand their empire of sports/fashion brands whilst keeping their boutique brands such as Size uniquely defined from JD Sports in a time where many retailers are co-branding stores to save on rent and operational costs.

Aurora Fashions? They have continued their brave drive in the fashion sector and posted EBITDA up 36% establishing itself as a true player in the fashion market. An amazing result considering its rocky past.

Apple? With its record quarterly results of $20bn in revenue, its no wonder they can open a second London store to become once again the mecca of all things electro-cool.

All of these brands have achieved amazing results and growth over the past 12 months in what has been an extremely tough market. But for me, there is a quiet winner that creeps on to the top podium for top brand 2010.

Nespresso.

Now I'm not a coffee drinker, but wow! In the words of Seth Godin, what a truly remarkable achievement.

Every major city I travel to around the world now seems to have the upper slices of social society quivering at the very mention of the word, Nespresso. The Limited edition blends helped raise sales by more than 20% and UK sales growth are steaming ahead at 35.5%.  And I can see why.

Check list:
1. Celebrity endorsement by one of the coolest men in show biz. Ooooh factor, check!

2. Coffee packaged in metallic capsules merchandised like precious jewels, with something to suit every taste. Mmmm factor, check!

3. Super cool and extensive range of Nespresso machines to choose from. Wow factor, check!

4. Sexy packaging that you just have to have. Addictive, must have, must have factor, check!

5. Stores (or boutiques as they like to call them) that crave your attention and make you want to buy everything. Destination factor, check!

Lets be honest, Nescafe was not a cool brand. Its market place has seen the biggest activity in retail terms in the past 2 decades and is now flooded with orange-mocha-frappacinno brands and is a market that is hard to survive in. Hats off then to Nescafe for fighting back and coming up with something amazing that has captured the imagination of coffee lovers worldwide! 'What else' could you want from a brand?!

Email us and tell us which brand was Top of 2010 for you and we'll put them up in the next blog to see who comes out top!

steve@theyardcreative.com

My placement year at The Yard Creative

My time at the yard the time has come to the end and I have to go back to University and finish my degree, but first I would like to thank The Yard for their time effort and support in starting my career as an interior designer. 

I think the experience I gained this year could not have been replicated in a University setting and will be invaluable to me and my future in the design world. The level of support and guidance by colleagues who have been nothing but inspiring was second to none.

The Yard has given me opportunity to observe the full entirety of the business and work in a strong team of experienced interior and graphic designers. I've learnt so many things that I couldn't have learnt at university, like how to talk to clients, the struggles with deadlines and so much more,  I'm sure there are things I've learnt that I'm not even aware of and probably won't realise until next year.

I thoroughly enjoyed the different projects I got to work on in my time at The Yard, they were all quite different and each of them challenged my skills a in different way but nether-the  less they were all interesting and in the process gave me new skills, skills that I thought I would never be able to achieve.

Desserts Sir?

So this may not be anything new but it certainly is a lost art!

The dessert trolley is reserved for the most exclusive of restaurants and ones that are steeped in tradition and history. Imagine our surprise yesterday when, after enjoying a simple meal at Aubaine and all pretty full up, this arrives instead of a dessert menu.....

Having already decided that it was a big-fat-no to desserts, seeing the real thing was to much to resist. The easiest £15 that the restaurant has ever made......time and time again. It happened over and over again to everyone around us.

It just proves we buy with our eyes and it's a good learning for all retailers and F&B operators!

Now, where's that treadmill?!

Wish you were here

After a short break the blogs are back with something a little different but topical - holidays!

We all love them. Long for them even. But how many of us are really prepared to take the risk on something different when you only get 4 weeks a year?

As we send out this blog to receive 200 auto-out-of-office-replies, we've found what must be the craziest hotels in the world that will certainly challenge the norm!

Fancy a staying in a 2 storey high dog in the middle of idaho? Well now you can by staying at the Dog Bark Park Inn. Think how much the kids would love it!

No, not your thing, well what about the largest treehouse complex in the Amazon Rainforest? The Ariau Amazon Towers Hotel is located 35 miles from Manuas, Brazil at the confluence of the Rio Negro and Ariau Creek. Built entirely at the level of the Rainforest Canopy, Ariau's towers are linked together by 4 miles of sturdy wooden catwalks.

What about something for people with a head for height? The Euromast tower is a feature of the skyline of Rotterdam, and has been a regular tourist attraction since it was built in the 60's - 100m's above the city, it houses 2 luxury suites ready for you to gaze across the architecturally wonderful city of Rotterdam.

And lastly, my particular favourite, ever felt like your holiday doesn't start until you get off that plane?! Well how about turning that on its head and staying in a converted plane with the ultimate in luxury? Once the transport for top bosses of the German Democratic Republic government, this 1960 Ilyushin 18 has been converted to a single luxury suite for 2. 40 metres long equipped with a Jacuzzi, shower, infrared sauna, mini bar, 3 plasma screens, full entertainment suite and more, it truly beats queazy-jet!

So next time you're looking for a memorable holiday that your companions will truly love, check out Unusual hotels of the world.

Send us some pics of the craziest places you've stayed and we'll add it to our Flickr site.

Have fun!

ROI - Return On Innovation

Following a talk attended last night by our creative friends over in sunny SA, here are a few inspirational extracts on the topic:

'Inspiration is the New Investment;  If businesses want to engage the new consumer, they need to reconsider innovation'.

All credits for content go to Rudo Botha and Rexcreative.

'The information revolution has produced a market in which consumers are ten times more informed, a hundred times more exposed and a thousand times more jaded. Never before has competitive edge been so important to the survival of businesses. But the days in which a deodorant brand, for example, could slap a cool new metallic paint and nozzle on their can, call it innovation and market it to death in the hope of gaining a competitive edge, are long gone. Generation Y has seen it all. They’re bored, disinterested and disengaged, which has caused no small amount of panic among those marketers who only know how to reach an audience in the traditional way. After all, how is one to gain a competitive edge if the consumer chooses to ignore you?

The secret lies in the ability to inspire. If brands want to be attractive to the new breed of consumer, they’re going to have to forget all about push marketing and start looking at ways to pique their interest and turn their heads.  Bombarded by marketing that for years has been sadly lacking in essential integrity, most consumers are cynics by the age of 8. They’ve seen, been sold and bought it all. They’re not interested in hearing brands bang on about how cool they think they are. The softer, ‘intangibles’ are what dominate this market and influence their decision to sell. So ask yourself not what the consumer needs, but what he desires. And know at the outset that what he’s waiting for is to be inspired.

It is here that brands are really missing a trick. To inspire, you need to innovate. But what most businesses call innovation is the mere shifting of existing metrics in order to deliver a slightly enhanced version of something that already exists. For years businesses have been geared towards the manufacture of products that they can push onto the market so they naturally look at what they already have and can make, and ask how they can do it better. Invariably they find their answer in technology and so technological advancements become the only exponent of innovation. What these companies forget to ask is the most simple of questions: will the products we are producing meet not the needs, but the desires of the market? And so finally at the end of the long production process, they give a product that nobody desires to a marketing, packaging and branding team and ask them to dress it up in such a way that will make it attractive. But Consumer Y, who’s seen it all before, stifles a yawn and walks off in the opposite direction.

The brands that understand true innovation are the ones that genuinely identify with the new consumer, make a real attempt to understand their desires, and then take as their end goal the delivery of a product that touches, inspires and moves that consumer. This perhaps is the single biggest reason for Google’s meteoric rise to success. They pioneered a way to give the world what it wanted with an open-source philosophy applied to the internet and information.

The lesson? Raw creativity and skilful design application are revolutionising views on innovation across industry sectors. Innovation with an absolute focus on the end consumer has the ability to create a competitive advantage greater than technological advancement alone. For too long, a premium on tangible metrics has meant that the potential of the ‘softer’ more emotional and human instincts have remained grossly underutilised; this needs to change if brands want to touch new consumers. When companies start inventing ways to fundamentally engage the drivers of these ‘softer issues’ in consumers, it will bring about meaningful paradigm shifts in industries that will unlock a value far superior to the metric equations we have been optimising. As the examples illustrated here clearly show, design innovation that appeals to the human instinct can yield rewards not only in terms of revenue but also in terms of brand value.

Unsurprisingly some of the best examples of successful consumer brand engagement use the universally inspirational properties of music, art, design, creativity and science to touch consumers. And instead of just a product, they use these elements to deliver an integrated experience that bundles the full marketing mix to surprise, delight and engage consumers, and in so doing, change their current habits and perceptions. This is the realm of designers and creative thinkers, and it is essential that these right-brain thinkers join their left-brain counterparts in a company’s strategic brand and product innovation discussions much earlier in the process. Design has almost unlimited potential to deliver that longed-for competitive edge to a brand and designers have a great deal to add to the understanding of what will inspire a consumer.

If we’ve learnt nothing else, it’s that inspiration needs to be the starting point. So begin with this end in mind. “If you want me to listen to you, don’t tell me – touch me,” consumer Y challenges. Which means forget about putting your money where your mouth is and start putting your money where their hearts are.'

A big thanks to Mike Lewis and Origin Interactive for sharing this inspiring content with us.

If you liked this topic then you'll love these reads:

Emotional Design: Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things by Donald A Norman

The Design of Everyday Things (Paperback) by Donald A Norman

Subject To Change: Creating Great Products & Services for an Uncertain World: Adaptive Path on Design

Trends 2010 - Final part

The final section on the 'Trends for 2010' is an extract from our article in the GDR trend book launched at the beginning of 2010.

Global Design Resources provides the world’s leading consumer facing companies with the thought leadership they need to remain ahead in retail and hospitality. The following highlights the current trend, Convenient Consumption:

Convenient Consumption

In today’s increasingly fast-paced world, time is a precious commodity. As such, the convenience market is one with increasing relevance, as retailers continue to find new ways to catch consumers on the move, offering targeted and time-saving solutions. By understanding the consumer mindset and the growing value placed on ease and speed, intuitive solutions will position forward-thinking retailers ahead of the game.

We will all pay for something that we feel will make our lives easier and more enjoyable. It’s not that we are lazy, but time has almost become a currency in its own right. Selling the consumer’s time back to them is a winning proposition.

However, getting the customer’s attention can be a tough challenge. We move so quickly that just telling people you can save them time may be wasting their time. And today’s savvy
consumers can spot a good offer worth stopping for and know when to keep walking.

The UK convenience market is worth £29.1 billion and is set to increase by 36% over the next five years, according to IGD and William Reed Business Media 2009. In the US, meanwhile, profitability of convenience stores increased by 54% in 2008, reversing a two-year decline, and sales in this sector are expected to grow at around 5% between 2009 and 2013, according to industry research firm RNCOS.

Convenience is all in the eye of the customer. What is convenient for me may not necessarily be convenient for you. However, many retailers and brands have identified opportunities to provide convenience and are getting it right.

Best practice



In Norway, Sunkost has done well in the health foods and health products market, with its bright, clean-looking stores, branding and merchandising. Product information is placed at eye-level and is conveyed through digital signage systems around the store. Staff are well informed and purchases can be made using interactive terminals. The on-site food preparation area draws attention to the freshly made food, while producing enticing smells that attract customers into the store.



In the hospitality and travel sectors, Jumeirah Hotels in the US, the Middle East and the UK recognised that airport security restrictions were creating problems for customers travelling light and in response created the online shop-ahead Pre-Arrival service. This allows customers to request products through the brand’s website from retail outlets within Jumeirah hotels – providing everything from toothpaste, sunscreen and baby wipes to a selection of holiday reading. Items are simply left in the guest’s room and added to the room bill.

The US, of course, has come up with many concepts to make life a little easier. Text ordering is becoming commonplace, so your food or coffee from Papa John’s, Subway and Starbucks can be ready when you pass, or on your doorstop when you get home. This involves setting up an online account and specifying favourite meals, which are each allocated a number. They can be ordered easily, by sending the meal number to the brand’s dedicated SMS number as a text message.

Understanding consumer mindset
Many factors can help to create a successful convenience offer, but one of the most important is customer knowledge. What are the customer’s day-to-day habits? What are their needs? Where do they go? Why do they travel? Why are they near the store? Knowing the answers to questions like these will help identify areas of opportunity and ensure the retailer’s offer is positioned correctly in the marketplace.

When it comes to shopping behaviour, what customers say they do and what they actually do are sometimes two very different things, which is why ethnographic studies of customers can be so valuable.

Getting it right
Key performance indicators and sales statistics, which are often left in the boardroom, should be shown and explained to the designer. Product categories should be defined in such a way as to maximise efficiency and sales. The key categories we use are:

Hero category
– this is generally the core category and what the customer knows the store for.
Key categories
– usually two or three that contribute a significant amount of total sales.
Growth category
– a breakthrough category, or one that is perhaps under-performing in its current location.
Transient category
– ones the customer has to walk through, which provide good opportunities for improvement.
Nodes of interest
– areas of the store that will divert customers from their usual course and draw them into unexplored areas.

Good planning is key to getting customers in and making their convenience shopping as easy as possible. The retailer has only a second to grab the attention of a passer-by, so as well as using the shopfront to maximum effect, it is important to clearly communicate the name of the business and what it is selling. Communications should be angled towards the direction of approach or upwards, since Western consumers tend to walk around looking 30° down from their eye level and getting them to look up is a huge challenge.

Winning solutions
Technology allows us to maximise our time and be far more efficient – from iPhone Apps and text ordering to paying by fingerprint or swipe card. But technology will only work if it is integrated rather than an add-on. The iPhone has proved that if you remove the conventional method of use and make technology more intuitive, people will willingly interact with it. Touch-sensitive shopfronts now allow customers to browse product information, download mobile phone content and make purchases without entering the store.

Giving customers something for free – either via a points-collecting card or directly – helps to build loyalty. Free wi-fi is always a winner, as are charging points for mobile phones and laptops. Free taste testers are another possibility – or content that can be downloaded to mobile phones.


To get a free download, read the full article and to see examples of how these combination's have proven successful, click here.

We hope you have enjoyed reading these trends for 2010 and are hopefully putting some of them in to action.

Keep a look out for our future blogs that focus on new concepts from around the world, thoughts and talking points within the design industry.

Many thanks
Steve

Trends 2010 - Part 4

Following on from our article with Design Week, here is the fourth part of the upcoming trends for 2010.

Permission marketing
It's Saturday morning and your store is empty. Whilst staring out of the window watching potential customers wander by, you wonder why they aren't in your store. If only you could get them in through the door, they'd realise what they were missing. But how?

The futurist film makers would have us believe that whilst walking through a shopping mall of the future, cameras will recognise who we are and then interactive video screens will talk to us directly about stuff that interests us. Thus making us enter their store.



This is essentially permission marketing (PM). Theorised by the marketing guru Seth Godin, permission marketing is the ability to send your customers personal messages because they have given you their consent to do so. It has been widely used by online marketers but not so much in the real world.

In today's world, cameras may not be able to recognise our eyes just yet (thankfully) but there are other forms of PM. The simplest form would be through use of mobile phones. 85% of adults in the UK carry a mobile phone and it has become one of the closest technologies in our day-to-day lives.

If you can get your customers permission and their mobile number, then you can send them a text message that contains a driver to encourage them to visit your store. This could be a discount code, the launch of new products or a celebrity signing. It could be anything that would interest that person.



With the recent launch of The Voucher Cloud app, there is clearly a demand for this type of decision-driver information. The Voucher Cloud allows customers to search their surroundings through a GPS phone for any restaurants that are offering discounts off food and drinks. Just show the restaurant the screen and you'll get your discount.

This GPS ability would allow retailers to go one step closer to the Minority Report with 'live permission marketing'. Through active IT systems you would know if a registered customers was about to walk past your store and it would send them a personalised message. For example "hello Steve, we see you're about to pass our Oxford Street store. Pop in and we'll give you 10% off any purchase".

This type of marketing is to be treated with respect thoguh. It is a privilege to have such one-to-one access to your customers and it must be used effectively. If you start to annoy customers with the technology then you'll lose them forever.

However, get it right and your store may never be empty again!

Trends 2010 - Part 3

Following on from our article with Design Week, here is the third part of the upcoming trends for 2010.

Selling time
The one thing we never have enough of. Time.

If you could 'actually' sell time imagine how the World would change....! You'd never be late for work. Never miss a plane. Always hand in your home work on time. Never be late to your own wedding!

Unfortunately we haven't come up with this world changing technology but some brands are doing the next best thing - saving us time. More time to spend with the family, to get fit, to see the world, or simply to take time out for yourself.


One brand doing this just this is Slowly by Da Dolce in Hong Kong. This cafe-come-bookshop-come-live Radio station invites people to slow down and take time to enjoy a moments rest from the craziness of HK living. Offering a programme for emerging musicians and creative forums on design, advertising, books and films, Slowly gives back to its customers offering a haven whilst becoming an authority in its own right.



Back here in the UK, a new German chain of Italian fast food has touched down in London. The Vapiano concept is a totally self-serve restaurant where staff are only really on hand to keep the place clean and answer any questions you may have. Thus making it quicker to get your food and more time to spend eating. The innovative part of Vapiano is the use of a chip card to order your food from the 'food station points' and then your Barclay swipe card to pay. Their aim, to change the way restaurants do business whilst saving their customers time.

The Barclay contactless swipe cards is a new innovative that is allowing retailers to think differently about payments and we will see more clever uses of this technology over the next year to make our lives easier and quicker.

Possibly one of the biggest, most successful product innovations to have hit the high streets over the last few years, the iPhone, has been a great example of selling time. The biggest benefit of an iPhone is the ability to do things on the move, easily, that would otherwise take up precious time through the wonders of apps.



Fed up of shopping the aisles, standing in queues and finding your car has a huge trolley scratch down the side of it? Then get the Ocado app and do your food shop on the train home. A great app that is easy to use and saves you travel expenses and journey time.

But it doesn't stop there, oh no! Social media junkies can twitter and facebook till their hearts content with their respective apps allowing one to keep up with the virtual world without forgetting those in the real world.

It is this type of time-saving that brands have realised that, although in the grand scheme of things is so relatively small, it makes a difference in a positive way and helps build strong connections with their customers.

On a different scale, we have seen a huge increase of self-check-in and self-check-outs. One actual saves you time, the other just saves brands money...

Self-check-in at home or at the airport have helped companies like BA dramatically reduce their queuing times making it possible to get through a terminal to your gates within 15 minutes! OK, so others haven't got it quite right (ie Easyjet) but if a brand can do it in the right way it helps improve their customers journey ten fold! More time to relax, shop and eat - all great for retailers on the other side.


A new introduction by Transport For London in 2003 called the 'Oyster card' would allow customers to touch-in-touch-out without having to insert an actual ticket moving people through the system quicker. Now, over 80% of all TFL journeys use the Oyster card and it has become part of London life. The developments such as topping up online have continued to save us all time by avoiding queues on a Monday morning and I'm sure we'll see it develop further by allowing us to make smaller purchases with joint venture-retailers in the coming months.


And lastly there are the retailers who just make us stop and take five. Brands like Princi in Soho, just have that special magic which makes us forget about rushing back to our desk for lunch and just stop to catch up with friends and enjoy some great food. It's hard to put your finger on what makes this happen but clearly, with the right mix of product, location, staff and design, anything is possible.

So how can you save your customers time? Is it by adding new technology? Is it by giving something back? Is it a totally new business model? Or simply by finding that special magic....?! A good starting place is 'be the customer'. Live their life. Understand them and what they go through. This way you'll gain a view of your product or service through new eyes and you may find the answer if very obvious.

However you tackle this challenge be sure that, if you get it right and save your customers time, you'll be on to a winner.

Just don't get it wrong!

PS To see the Design Week article, click this link and scroll down to the news article '12/09 TYC predicts the shop of the future' and download the PDF. Happy reading!

Trends 2010 - Part 2

Following on from our article with Design Week, here is the second part of the upcoming trends for 2010.

Ease and Logic
This is going to be a big winner for big and small brands alike and simplicity is it's key.

Think of all the things that annoy you, frustrate you or generally waste your time when you're out and about. These are the items that brands are starting to tackle head-on as they have realised that if they can make it easier for us, we will show loyalty and spread the word.

We all like it when we feel that somewone has really thought about 'me' and made our lives easier. That's what 'Ease and Logic' is all about.

Take a restaurant for example, why is it that asking for the bill always seems so awkward? May be because it interrupts the fun that you are sharing with friends, you know you're going to have to potentially split it 5 ways, which is going to test your mathematical skills (never the best after consuming several bottles of red!) and it spells the beginning of the end of the night. So how does and brand tackle this as you can't just let guest walk out without paying? Up pops Inamo again with their interactive tables. You simply request the bill through the projection and whether you're paying individually or as a group and voila! over comes the waiter.



What about spending an evening in a bar/pub? What's the most frustrating thing here? Ordering another round perhaps? After all, you have to leave your friends, potentially miss out of the next joke and try desperately for the next half hour to catch the attention of the barman who will serve you when he is good and ready! Well next time you go to Amsterdam, visit Mini Bar. Here you get your own personalised minibar with you're own code, loaded with all your favourite drinks right next to you. At the end of the evening you simply hand back your code and settle your bill. Genius!



OK, something totally different, a toaster. Ever burnt your toast in the morning because you don't trust the dial and have popped it up too soon, only to put it back down then forgotten to recheck? If only you could see the toast as it is being cooked....Eureka!



For anyone that is a parent or has had the pleasure of baby sitting for the day, you'll know how important it is to get out and about. You'll also know how hard it can be! Public Transport, store layouts, even toilets can be a nightmare. John Lewis have for a long time realised this and have ensured it is part of their brand. Offering great changing facilities and generally being children friendly has made it a clear favourite amongst shoppers with children.

Consider new innovations such as Visa Contactless payments and Oyster. These offer new and easier ways to pay for products and services and could definitely speed up queuing times for both low and medium spends. But how else could they be used to create a unique experience that differentiates you over your competition?

Generally, ease and logic can be applied to every strand of a brand's touch points. People want larger, easy to read text so they can make their choices or navigate quicker. Brighter lights so they can actually see what they are eating or wearing. Hooks on the underside of a bar for customers to hang their coats on. Seats to rest on and toilets to... well, you get the idea.

Whether it's clever use of technology, retraining of staff, a change in operations or simply opening our eyes to the things we try so desperately to ignore, these can be quick winners with little cost implications that will help make your brand stand out. And more than likely, you're the one who needs to look around to realise what these opportunities are. After all, we all know our own businesses and probably already know the questions.

Remember, the best ideas always seem like they have been around forever and are so simple that surely someone must have already done them. Chances are, they haven't and that's why they are the best ones!

Trends for 2010

Following on from our article with Design Week on upcoming trends for 2010 we have expanded and added a few more and will continue to update these over the next few weeks.

This is the first:

Growth in digital elements
Digital development is massive! No new news there. Close your eyes for 2 seconds and the next big technology will pass you-by leaving you feeling like an 82 year-old talking about the good old days.

But this is the main problem when it comes to introducing digital into the real world of retail and F&B. It changes so quickly, by the time you've gone through the process of incorporating it within your business it is out of date.

Few have been brave enough to take the plunge though and they have created incredible experiences that go so much further than just a flat screen:

Inamo - for anyone who hasn't been, GO! Serving oriental fusion food in a fully interactive dining space, they have truly made the eating experience here unique.

Food Secret - a lunch time offering that has used technology to capture your attention as you walk by then wowing you with nutritional information as they make your bespoke lunch right in front of you!

At this point I'm struggling to think of any great retail experiences that go further than touch screens, games consoles and projections. Which, considering that the design industry has been talking about technology and retail theatre for the past 10 years it is amazing to think that there aren't more examples that pop to mind.

For those who have been visited the Decode exhibition at the V&A will agree it is surely only a matter of time before the high street as we know it will change forever.

The new technology on the edge of every retailers mind should be Augmented Reality. This technology in simple terms transforms a code, that when exposed to a camera will show expose what is hidden in the code as a visual delight on a screen! Watch the video below to see a great example.



But this technology has so much more to offer.

Imagine being able to offer your customers the opportunity to stand in front of an interactive mirror and try on any of your clothing range without having to remove any of their own clothing. This could be done through a shopfront which shows the customer in your clothing even without intending to shop and shop!

What is the biggest driver to a major propotion of retail purchases? Aspiration perhaps? Why not then make this connection at the point of purchase when your customer buy those new Nike trainers endorsed by Cristiano Ronaldo. When the customer checks themselves out in the mirror make him appear behind them as if standing right there in the store!

Of course these are purely for fun and a talking point to create excitement. But AR could also be used to help make informed decisions about products and compare them to other alternatives. The opportunities are endless.

So, who will be the first to take the leap and use AR in an effective way or will it again just pass us all by? We'll be watching and hopefully suggesting a few ideas to our clients.


PS To see the Design Week article, click this link and scroll down to the news article '12/09 TYC predicts the shop of the future' and download the PDF. Happy reading!

A work of art!

This has just been sent to me and I am truly amazed this morning. So much so, it's word-for-word as the article states. Min-Kyu Choi, we salute you!

The Royal College of Art's graduate show has opened, and this year, the show-stopper was actually - a plug. Min-Kyu Choi impressed every passerby with his neat, apparently market-ready plug that folds down to the width of a thin mobile computer. "Many of today's mobile computers have become wafer thin but here in the UK , we still use the world's biggest three-pin plug," says Choi. Enter Choi's slimmed down British three-pin plug wonder.






Choi's plug is just 10mm wide when folded. To unfold it, the two live pins swivel 90 degrees and the plastic surround folds back around the pins so the face of the plug looks the same as a standard UK plug.

The idea produced a spin off, too. Choi created a multi-plug adaptor, which is a compact standard plug sized unit with space for three folded plugs to slot in, as well as one that charges USB devices.



The multi-plug adaptor has an ultra-compact sandwich design that enables three compatible plugs to cohabit side by side to take up a remarkable small amount of room.



The USB-pluggable three-pin plug adaptor. It's so plausible and so obvious a product that it should produce a few red faces; how many more years are we going to endure attaching our palm sized mobiles and wafer thin laptops to an object that's barely been touched since its first design in 1946? Choi picked an everyday product that most other designers might have found too mundane to dabble with and drastically improved it - exactly the kind of thinking that we should be celebrating right now.

A very clean and elegantly simple solution to an age-old British problem. Choi's full menu of uber-ideas for revolutionising the archaic British plug.

Something different

On a day-to-day basis its rare something stops us in our path and makes us pause. Whilst on my last trip to Rome my attention was well and truly caught by Nara Camicie, a shirt shop for men and women.

In fashion retail, statistics show that you will sell 10 times more product when displayed on a mannequin than the same product hung on a hanger. So what have Nara Camicie done....not a hanger in site!



Fair enough, it is a boutique and they don't have quite the volume of say TM Lewin but the design is clever and most importantly eye-catching. Each bust is attached to a frosted door panel that opens up as a cupboard stocking all the sizes behind it (very reminiscent of the Levis concept on Regent Street 8 years ago). The VM is fantastic and really has that Italian crispness that we have come to expect from our Roman friends.