On the Streets, Berlin

The very often wrongly named Point of Sale or POS as its usually known is often so bland.  We love to find these kinds of things along the high street which dont feature unreal glossy images of dull celebrities.  OK, well these things are often used because of lack of money but so much more fun and interesting, dont you think?

Nespresso, Berlin

If you happen to be along the Friedrichstrasse do go and check out the Nespresso store.  We're not sure if we have one of these stores in London, but we've definately seen these stores in New York and they always seem to produce such creative schemes.  Here, of course we have references to the German bear, which incidently we have seen abslutely everywhere here in Berlin in a three-dimensional format.  We'll show you images of those soon.  In the meantime what incredible stores for such small products, hey?

Idee, Berlin

This store grabbed out attention while meandering the streets of Berlin seeking out all those places not in a guide book already.  Anyway, we were very intrigued to see what this place was all about and it is actually a 'craft' store.  Fixture after fixture of all the stuff you need to knit, sew, create and produce your crafty bits.   Its all sounds a little 'naff' but actually this is quite an incredible store filled with all sorts of stuff to let your imagination run wild.  If you need to make props, you could do no worse than check this place out.  The fabrics are quite incredible too...!  The exterior lighting is also wonderful to view as the lighting flickers and changes.

On the Streets, Berlin

Oh those Germans and their funny fashions.  We had wondered if we would find the obligatory 'mullets' and 'pony tail' hair styles and Voila..!  or rather Los Gehts...!  Ok we are poking fun, but we couldnt resist people watching and identifying our awful stereotypes.  We dont normally stalk unsuspecting Germans....just a bit of fun....honest..!

Berlin, Germany



Image copyright cosmicadventure.com

Für den Rest der Woche und alle nächsten sind wir die Erkundung der Sehenswürdigkeiten von Berlin hier in Deutschland. Wir sind für die neuesten und größten in Trends, kommerziellen Umgebungen und spannende neue Dinge, die mit euch allen zu teilen suchen. Nur watch this space .......

For the rest of the week and all of next we are exploring the delights of Berlin here in Germany.  We're looking for the latest and greatest in trends, commercial environments and exciting new things to share with you all.  Just watch this space.......  Our German is a little rusty.....ok well, non existent.  Flicking though our German dictionary, we hope the above translates ok?

Canali, London

We're not sure why, but we've never included Canali on this site.  However, monochrome scheme, chess pieces, a playing card (Ace, of course, possibly for Alpha male) and a die.  The dressing is always superb, the store looks great, but what a dull scheme.  Men have a sense of humour too, don't we?

Hugo Boss, London

Contrary to our predictions that Hugo Boss would produce 'all things underwater' schemes for the next few months, they have swiftly changed direction and, well...erm...here we have lots of clocks really, albeit representing the various time zones.  Soooooo, we could wax lyrical about the levels of hidden meaning behind these and how they represent the internationalism of the commercial market, and so on.  Or we could say that they we simply repetition of radiating forms of the same size, if we were to apply some product dynamics.  But anyway, we're so incredibly bored with seeing clocks representing various time zones.....because we-haven't-seen-that-before-have-we?  At least the dressing is decent, the product is great, we saw one of the team working on this scheme last week clearly checking out the detail.  BUT, this is as dull as London weather in Winter-time.  Cu'mon guys inject some fun into these schemes.  Menswear can be fun, ironic, interesting etc. without being Neanderthal, dandy and plain old camp.  Do all men really want Black, Brown and Grey all of the time?  No we don't.  You heard it from the source.

Diesel, London

We really quite like the current scheme at Diesel.  OK well it is the usual marketing malarkey, although of course their scheme is produced to their usual high standards even though it is marketing led.  The Diesel Island promos photography is quite stunning although the campaign is a little cringe worthy for our tastes with its re-written philosophical Island laws.  For example "the best part of learning from mistakes is having made them", we are sure was once one of the hundreds of versions (possibly by Smiles), "those who never made a mistake never made a discovery" or another Island Law, "Experience only tells us how things were done in the past" was possibly taken from Santayana's misquoted "those who cannot remember the past are condemned to fulfil it".  Unfortunately it all reads a little like poor translations into 'Engrish'.   Still, the windows look great.

Chanel, London

We have been searching absolutely everywhere for a TV in a handbag.  If you have too, the search is now over.

Tiffany, London

Wow, if you happen to be along Bond St. soon, do go and check out the new Tiffany scheme.  The scheme has probably gone around the globe, but what fun is this hey?  Delicious ice creams with the most incredible names, and just one piece of jewellery.  Its fun, its romantic and simply superbly and beautifully produced.

Max Mara, London

All change at Max Mara, London

Store Fronts, Hong Kong



Images Copyright Angel Ko



The wonderfully kind Angel Ko who is based in Hong Kong and a very talented and enviously young designer has kindly sent us some of her images of current store fronts in Hong Kong.  We haven't ventured there ourselves yet, however we wanted to share these with you in order to whet your appetite and view some of what is happening on the other side of the world from London.

Henri Lloyd, London

Oh God help us.  If you happen to be along Carnaby st. this week then avert your gaze from Henri Lloyd and its suspended headless corpses.  Cu'mon guys invest in some decent equipment.  Strangely the side window to this site actually looks fine with its small step ladder, the kind we can see all around town right now so they are clearly aware of some of the current trends.  But these windows.....?  Even the shutters are down, possibly in case some hideous looter or ram raider is looking specifically for the corpse-look - simply bizarre, undesirable and we just wonder how they are possibly making any money here?