Braganza House, Chandor, India

No visit to Chandor, India could ever be complete without visiting the Braganza House. This stunning old mansion dates back to the 17th Century and is in fact two houses owned by the same family - although as I understand it they haven't spoken to each other for generations. The mansion overall is furnished with priceless artefact's which include Ming vases, crystal chandeliers, fabulously hand carved furniture and its very own religious artifact - the finger nail of St. Francis Xavier. I was fortunate while on on my visit to meet Mrs. Braganza (who was at least 90 years old at the time) who lives in the West wing of the mansion and who told me stories of how during land reforms they had escaped during the night to Bangalore and were in hiding from the Portuguese regime in the 1960's. Of course, today it has an air of faded glory about it, however this is such a fantastic example of colonial living from a by gone age.

Harvey Nichols, Knightsbridge, London

Thankfully, London 'Sale' windows are gradually being replaced with more creative narratives which always bring me so much pleasure. Walking through Knightsbridge, here in London, I came across the new installation at Harvey Nichols. What is so interesting here are the links that can be identified between yesterdays blog and these windows. My students used 2mm plywood and began to visualise their two dimensional drawings into a three dimensional outcome. While the creatives at Harvey Nichols would not necessarily have produced these thinking or working in the same way, the end result illustrates how potent these ways of working can be and how they can have other applications, but ultimately, as is my intention, how we can move these concepts forward.

Working from 2-D to 3-D

During my students first term of their Design course I take them on a series of site visits t0 such places as Kew Gardens, The Science Museum, The Victoria and Albert Museum and the Imperial War Museum over a series of several weeks. This enables students firstly to work on their observational drawing skills and also to begin looking at recording the information with the theory of three dimensional Design firmly in their minds. During this time we also begin a series of model making exercises and translating their drawings into a variety of materials that they have never used before. Here are some examples of students work using two millimetre plywood which my students experimented with using their drawings from Kew Gardens, looking at Repetition, Radiation etc.

Central St. Martins, Interior Styling (Lifestyle Boards)

There are many types of presentation boards, each with their own titles and purposes. Essentially, they show all visual information relevant to a project and represent and Interior scheme or concept with the aid of product images and samples. It is far easier to 'sell' your concept to your client through visuals rather than through words alone.

Types of Presentation boards :
Sample boards - Illustrating surface finishes
Colour board - Communicating a colour scheme
Mood board - Similar to colour boards, although using inspirational imagery
Trend board - Defining and predicting a look or scheme
Lifestyle board - Depicting a look or lifestyle of your target market.

London College of Communication, Student Guest blogger Kathryn Kane

Kathryn Kane, Fda Display Design, Work Placement at Marks and Spencer.
In June I had the opportunity to gain some work experience at Marks and Spencer at the new Westfield Shopping Centre. It was a very busy time as M&S were celebrating their 125 year anniversary. The first week was spent making sure we had all the decor for the store and the right outfits for the mannequins in the window, and over a very long night shift it all came together. The windows were unveiled the next morning, revealing vintage inspired window displays for each department. Marks & Spencer had decided to go back to their roots as inspiration for these displays reflecting different decades from the 1920’s onwards. I like the vintage inspired idea, reflecting the many changes in fashion and lifestyle. I think that Marks & Spencer 125 year celebration is reflected well in these windows.

Central St. Martins, Interior Styling Course (Editorial Photoshoot)

Trends and Photoshoot Project:

Working in small groups students had to create a product based editorial for an Interiors Magazine. Students identified trends, created a backdrop with a limited composition, avoiding large objects and focused in on detail They then worked with professional photographer Austin Hutton to create these images. Each group were allocated just 40 minutes to create their composition while thinking about lighting, colour, focus and viewpoints. Inspiration was gleaned from existing editorials, however, each composition was informed by students own research rather than plagiarising existing concepts.

Central St. Martins Interior Design for Retail, guest student blogger Rahayu Darmastuti

Rahayu Darmestuti, Architecture Student, Indonesia:

While I was passing through Copenhagen Street in the King’s Cross area of London, the window display of The Guardian and The Observer office caught my eye. Its waving façade also added to the unique value of this building. However, the most unique thing here was the window display. An arrangement of big letters of the brands (The Guardian and The Observer) displayed in the large windows of this building. What I found interesting about this was that it was arranged in such a fantastic composition by putting these out-sized letters hung in a 'back and forward' composition so that I was able to see them in different positions and in different angles. The genius part was instead of putting them at the front facing the main street, they put them in one of the side windows of the building facing an alleyway, so that everyone who passed the main street could experience the different views and different angles.

Central St. Martins, Interior Styling Course

These are good examples of how retailers have used these spaces as a type of catch-all for samples of several products from everything in the store. This way of displaying items, by removing the fourth and in some case the third and fourth wall, retailers use this as a strategy which is intended to capture the buying public through a contrived setting which gives the illusion that we can buy all of these products for our tiny homes and still have a sense of space - which of course is a premium. Naturally, we would never be able to see the rooms in our homes from these angles but we are drawn in anyway. What these kind of retailers do so well is show us, sometimes perhaps confidence lacking public how to choose what we want without looking foolish.

What I have also tried to do here is to break down the dynamics of the space in an attempt to identify the vanishing and focal points of the space. Of course the space may not have been created with this in mind, however neither did I originally photograph these spaces originally with the intention of trying to do this, however it does present the idea of how we can.

Interior Design for Retail Course @ Central St. Martins, student guest blogger Beverly Chan

Beverly Chan, Environmental Designer, Vancouver, Canada:

Over the last two weeks, having visited factories, learned from artisans, and seen all that goes on behind the scenes of Visual Merchandising, the experience I am most grateful for has been the opportunity to witness works of truly captivating craftsmanship – crafts that have been made even more beautiful by their modest nature and understated importance in the worlds of Retail and Design.
For instance, although the Mannequin manufacturing industry was the last place I would’ve thought to find such a unique craft, it was during our visit to meet Tanya Reynolds at Proportion-London that I discovered a newfound appreciation for the interdisciplinary world of Retail Design. In particular, Proportion-London stands out in my memory because I admire their consideration and care for the finer details. I think their approach to implement antique, innovative, and global influences is very successful: they preserve older techniques that have been passed down from the early 1900s (to create their signature papier-mâché mannequins), they are experimenting with eco-friendly methods and materials, and they continually source inspiration from artefacts from around the world. Companies like this give me hope for the future of Retail Design!
Thank you again, Jonathan, Aarti, Ayu, Barbara, Elsa, Nimet, Sezen, Youjung! It has been an honour getting to know you all… (Next time: World Tour!)

Interior Design for Retail Course @ Central St. Martins, Guest Blogger

Sezen Umitli, Interior Architecture student, Turkey:

I thought that I would spend my Summer vacation doing something useful that would help my future, would be an advantage to me, but also to have fun too. After some research I found Central St. Martins College but still I was worried about the way that the lessons would be delivered. Our tutor, Jonathan Baker sent all of us an e-mail explaining about the course beforehand which was so welcoming and friendly. In fact from the very first day, I made really good friends from various countries such as Canada, Malaysia, Spain, Korea, India and also from Turkey which is my own country. We travelled all over the City of London together and listened to Jonathan's lectures which were not merely just beneficial for learning all kinds ideas about design, but also enabled us to socialize and to prepare the basis of our future lives. We had the chance to visit the back stage of every best place under the subjects of Lighting, Graphic Design, Brands, Exposition, the Mannequin industry (and so on…) at places such as Iguzzini Lighting, Concorde Graphics, The Museum of Branding, In-store Show at London's Olympia, Proportion-London Showroom, Adel Rootstein's and Madame Tussauds’ Factory. These places are very serious in the Design field and normally not everyone can have these opportunities or be allowed to see them. Thus we all are so grateful to our tutor Jonathan Baker for guiding us and also for being so caring with great patience too.
Barbara, Nimet, Beverly, Youjung, Aarti, Rahayu and Elsa, I am so happy to have met you all!!!
Hope to see you again as soon as possible. Our tutor Jonathan Baker, I would like to thank you for everything.

Interior Design for Retail @ Central St. Martins, Guest Blogger Student Aarti Mittal

Aarti Mittal, owner of Bloom, New Delhi, India.
As a student of the Interior Design for Retail course at Central St. Martins it was pleasurable to learn about Visual Merchandising and the impact it can have on its customers. As a retailer in India I have always felt the need to be creative in my store but now I know the importance of visual displays. These Mannequins (below) might not seem very important in a visual display but they give a customer an idea of a brand image even before they enter a store. The kind of Mannequin, its size? shape? colour? features? all need to be like the target customer that the brand is targeting. A Mannequin might seem to be the secondary object compared to the accessories and clothing but without it, the picture is incomplete. These are my favorite Mannequins as my style is bohemian and these Mannequins and bust froms from Proportion-London definitely give my brand an identity.

Interior Design for Retail @ Central St. Martins, Student Guest Blogger

On completion of the Interior Design for Retail Course I asked students to present their projects and to reflect on their experience of London. Here, Nimet Bekar, an Architecture Student from Turkey presents her new concept Shoe Retail experience and offers her thoughts about London. I wanted to photograph the students individually to give them the credit and ownership that they deserved for their hard work. We decided that rather than photograph each other against a White background we would project images from our favourite Artists, Designers, Architects etc. onto ourselves. Following howls of laughter students began giving each other projected moustaches and coloured make overs - the above right image of Nimet is just one of the results.

Nimet Bekar:

This is my second time in London but my first time as a designer in this city. One of the things I like about London is the harmony between past and present and even future. While I was walking around in London during my time here, so many things caught my eye like the contemporary bridge leading to the historical St. Paul's Cathedral. Our class has seen so many neighbourhoods in London on our journey that have been rebuilt after World War II, so you can see lots of buildings which belong to different historical periods. One of the most intriguing scenes I saw was the reflection of an old church in this modern building. Actually I had to take this photo several times because everbody in London is in a rush!

H&M Oxford Circus, London

On an unusually quiet morning I managed to photograph Hennes in Oxford Circus before the crowds of shoppers arrived. Hennes provides a very good example here, where we are able to identify front of store layouts which I have identified as Lakes, Trees and Mountains. There are of course many examples out 'there' of retailers that do this using a low table, fixture and mannequin combination which enables the shopper to view the variety of products at a glance in a small space.

The image below identifies the shoppers flow through the space from the front door to the escalators. The male mannequins are placed at the base of the escalator indicating that menswear is on the first floor. Again the heads and poses of the figures face the customer flow, following the customer as they move through the space.