Store front window display

The store front window display is the first thing customers see, and it can make the difference between someone going inside or someone who keeps on walking.  So it's important to make a statement, tell a story or have some kind of interesting feature that will make a person stop and be intrigued.  

This week the J. Crew store had a clever visual play on words.  Elements of style. 

In the world of fashion the phrase seems innocuous enough - "elements" of course, referring to the parts that make up the look.  But when paired with the elements of the periodic table, it takes on a whole new meaning.

To take it a step further, the creative team at J Crew created their own scientific elements and highlighted them in red or blue.  For example, Bp is defined as the Bowery pant and Ch is for Chambray.  Being defined as "elements" they are presumed to be essential parts of a wardrobe as well.  So clever.

 Be on the look out for other creative window displays and and I'll do the same! 

Design does matter

Design is in the details of just about everything you can imagine, from where we live and work, to where we play.

The cars we drive and the roads that form our communities were designed (auto designers and urban planners), and so were the clothes we wear (fashion designers), the restaurants where we eat and the stores where we love to shop (architects and interior designers). Even technology has its foundation in design.  Just think, the computer monitor you are now looking at and even this font was designed (industrial designers, computer designers and graphic designers).  The logos we are attracted to, the products we know to reach for on the shelf without thinking twice about, and the marketing strategies that surround those products are all intertwined in the world of design.

product and logo design

Urban design and city planning is design on a huge scale.
courtesy of ALaCarteMap.com

interior design

Design can also affect how well you perform a task, how quickly you arrive from point A to B, and especially influence which products you buy.  It's a powerful concept that influences many decisions you make by connecting your emotions with logic. Somehow when we experience or look at something, we just know it works because it's good design. And how quickly do we disregard something when it fails because of bad design?

If you have to think about this for more than a few seconds... it's bad design!
Just like the written word, we tend to read graphics from left to right, so the down arrow to the left of the top button (going up) may make you hesitate which one to push.

The value of good design is indispensable because it makes a difference in how we move and operate and interact with the many aspects of our world.  Good design eliminates the frustrations that we have when something doesn't work and we can't seem to do anything to change it.  I think I might have opted to take the stairs with the example above, rather than having to second guess what the designer's intention was.
The value of good design is indispensable simply because design matters.