UK 0845 3016747email: pont@pontcreative.comweb: www.pontcreative.com

24Imagine the endless possibilties of a new brandscape.....

We are the storytellers. The creators of Aspirations, Dreams and Desires. The everyday environment is where the story is told. From Shopfront to Community Spaces, creating imaginative alternate thinking. Story telling is everything, captivating people for eons, it gives us purpose, history and social connection. Within the environ-ment narrative and information needs to be conveyed so that the space can be fully digested and understood. Regard these spaces as a book from page 1 to the last page....

We are the storytellers.

1 Intro2. We are the story tellers3. Telling the story4. Story5. Conversation6. Conversation7A Individual7B. Brand9. Experiental Retailing10. Experiental Retailing11. Modular Retailing 12. Modular Retailing13. Organic14. Organic Retailing 15. Connections16. Connections17. Pace of design18. Pace of design19. The Market Place20. The Market21. Work and Live22. Work and Live23. Controlled 24. Environments25. Which Way26. Which Way27. Social28 29. What happened?30. What Happened?31. Common Sense32. Common Sense33. Contact34. Contact

Telling The storyWatching passers-by on a Saturday afternoon, its easy to see that people are looking to be entertained. They want to discover for themselves places within the townscape they can call their own. It is still evident however that the car has won the battle over the town centers and peo-ples thinking. The general population seem happy to be enclosed in bubbles of existence, the first real experience and conversation is with the Town Scape. Roads happily dissect pedestrian avenues and cut-off certain retail zones. The sense of “retail rhythm” can be lost and the “pace” of the town misunderstood.Therefore we really need to look at the town environment as a whole journey, where story telling is key. From turning the ignition in the car though to parking, shopping and engaging with the environment. Story telling is about Flow, Architecture, Brand Mix and Social Mix. Story telling is enabling people to understand their environment and how they connect. History and PaceWhat ties us to a sense of place is memories. The cogs of time create habit forming in-teractions. To get people to accept a new development or retail environment is to tie the design intrinsically into their everyday lives at the pace that they can understand. Human Scale InteractionWhere the space around the Architecture has a sense of connectivity, belonging to the built environment and the people. People connect to these spaces at their own personal level, building a relationship and understanding to that environment.Organic Creative ConnectivityA sense you have added to the thinking to create something owned, personal and adap-tive. Maybe social , political , different that forms connections within yourself and the com-munity. You ask the question?Enabling TechnologyTowns to be regarded as a Brand, utilizing Technology that can be used as an enabling tool to inspire and engage. Giving people the right information at the right time, use of way finding technologies, such as iphone apps, information points and Wifi Hotspots.

Almere, North HollandTypical multi-billion euro architectural redevel-opment where large architectural statements, grande vistas and expensive use of materials is prevalent. These structures look great in an Ar-chitectural Journal but in reality fail abysmally at a human level and interacts at the wrong pace. Architectural statements rather than community zones where it is obvious to anyone that people come second place to pounds per square meter. Watch out as people still vote in numbers and will turn their back on this bullish architectural ap-proach and still shop the old town center. Melboune Docklands What a shame, where Architectural monuments and corporate gratifications compete in a mud-dled unconnected mismatch of a development. Forgotten people scale structures, they only serve the buildings. What will be the outcome... Beware we are a product of our environment.

ConversationMany towns seem devoid of spaces given over to social interaction, enlightenment, and places to con-nect with the environment. Diverse, Tangible, Or-ganic entertaining spaces that create conversation, reinforcing the brand of the town and connecting people to the retail offers.Typical towns are littered with dead spaces where potential for exploration is huge. Large open format paved areas with poor seating options, sparse plant-ing, areas devoid of a story create black holes in the streetscape, these areas should be addressed as opportunities to tell stories rather than forgotten. In general Retailers, Architects and Town Planners turn their back on these areas not understanding their real potential, why don’t they connect? Even in todays difficult times dormant shops create oppor-tunities. Why haven’t Pixar, Paramount or computer gaming companies seen the real potential for roam-ing exhibitions within these spaces. Town Councils should embraced these environments redefining the Brand of the town rather than being intimidated by them.

Why has Brand become key to the design of environments?Can we escape the suffocation of the term the “Branded Environment”. Why is it that we hang all design on the brand? Brand is used as a trigger mechanism, probably one of the first things thought to us at school, i.e. A for apple, B for Banana.... This helps us to identify our needs, aspiration and emotion. Brand is what an object stands for and on what personal level you “feel and understand it”.

The Term “Brand” can feel like some overstated 80’s throw- back. The 80’s was the time of the Brand, but look back and this was when the big 3 Branding companies came to light, is it a conspiracy! The ques-tion is there Brand loyalty these days? Brand seems to be changing, ever adaptive, chattering at an emotional level, rather than authorita-tive, it wants to be my friend.

Brand is relevant though, its order in chaos, its tying down a creative force, an energy, something felt and emotional to a set of rules. Watch out though as its not an equation as everyone is an individual, hope-fully. But does this pose a question about homogenized Brands and Brand saturation? Everything is Branded these days, Marketed and Packaged.. Any room for some individuality?

Why haven’t larger brands embraced the cultural diversity ethos in Retail, aiming the offer at local retail avenues, more culturally aware, rather than placing shops in homogenized shopping malls?

7A 7B

Everyone is An Individual

The Shop becomes an Experience, rather than fully dependent on a sale - the shop is there as a place of learning, meetings and interaction. A place to explore customer needs and bond.

Experiential Retailing

9

Modular RetailingUtilizing a kit of parts ethos. The dif-ferent orientations and demograph-ics of a store can be narrowed down to a mechano kit, one size fits all anal-ogy. Different parts of the kit can con-nect at different paces and suit dif-ferent personalty types. Brand heavy thinking, as the Brand is key here to reinforce the look and feel.Modular design may seem the easy option to a roll out solution in Retail and in Exhibition design, low cost per m2 and simple to construct. The problem with modular design princi-ples is that it can seem cold, inhuman and alienating, maybe a fools gold? Why not use the modular principles in Retail and design a flexible adapt-able solution that connects to people at different levels. A design for Exhibi-tions that embraces bespoke but can also be a rollout, that is the key.

Modular R

etailing

11

A New wave of thinking where the retail environment adapts to the social and de-mographic changes. The space echoes the customers needs framing and evoking new spaces to engage at different levels. .

A shop, street, architectural environment has to adapt to change... A bank situated next to a coffee retailer... A book store next to a sandwich bar. Adaptive and fluid the next step is for the brands to cross-over, enabling a hybrid solution. A bank becomes a place to meet, a bookstore a place to eat.. Brands that have the vision, where we can exist in the crossover.

Organic Retailing

13

Always looking for new areas of retail development opportunities, travel hubs lend themselves as the one common connector. The main question is how do you connect with someone travelling be-tween A-C and has no time for B. Yes its a question of pace but also a question of offer. Travelling by ferry recently it was easy to see hoards of families in poorly thought out seating arrangements, with lack of facilities and entertainment. Could a book store/ bank cafe zone be a solution or various interactive, seasonal exhibitions for Playstation or Xbox? Just as an example. The same applies to Mo-torway Service Stations, surely the offer there can be more imagina-tive?Banks have really been at the forefront of change recently, utilizing Stations and High Street, from HSBC Mega Bank Retail to Rabo Bank central Station coffee offer. If we look at the changing offers here it can be applied to other retail situations. All travel connec-tions can be utilized to offer different services at a level to connect with the traveller.

Connections

15

In our everyday lives we set a pace. Whether we are rushing to the station, on the school run or flying off on holiday, everything we do has a pace. Take for example, the difference in stroll-ing down the High Street on a sunny Sunday afternoon or rushing to catch the 7.20 Cannon Street train to London, each scenario completely different and your aspect, outlook and con-nection to the environment completely changes. What is interesting is, people will change to circumstance but the demographic wont. We therefore have the ability to change the pace of an environment to echo the pace of the street, a faster or slower pace, dependent on the offer and level of experience you want to convey.

The same rule can apply to the Exhibition Environment, very much aligned with the fast pace of the station example. The key here is mirroring what the delegate feels and needs at that time and then changing the pace of design accordingly to echo this.

Pace of Design

17

Driving in the car for 20 minutes to be greeted by huge formatted car parks, to shop in sterile, stagnant, bland customer flow led environments which only goes to reinforce the sense of social isolation and aliena-tion. Finally, to be greeted by a row of self-scanning counters that emphasizes the mechanical and proc-ess driven shopping environment. It is obvious that way finding, pathfinding and navigation has taken over here.The sense of touch and smell is replaced by rows of filtered plasticized over promised products. What has happened to the markets? The sense of theatre, buzz, excitement and social interaction, the “learning experi-ence” of food and cooking.

The traditional high street food offer, the Baker, the Fishmonger, The Butcher, they all give a sense of con-nection to the social mix and demographic. Why not embrace the High Street not so much Tesco Metro but Tesco the “family” Butcher or “local” Grocery store, also utilizing the shift to organic local produce and fair trade goods. This would go to reinforce the Brand and social connection at street level and can also be incor-porated into larger dedicated shopping outlets.

The Market Place

19

Corporate workplaces are seen these days as an ex-tension of the Brand, featuring green star accredited ESD workplace environments. These spaces feature beautifully designed receptions and showcase meeting rooms, but should the company in question ask you to sit with the employees then its a completely different sto-ry. Poor lighting levels, glaring reflections on computer screens and high level of people traffic by work stations just some of the bug bears. We should not forget that these are spaces for people to work and interact. Cre-ate highly finished environments that cannot adapt to suit change in needs after a year and the radical design turns out to be a complete waste of time and money.Areas to consider in the workpace where flexibility and alignment to workers needs are:- Breakout spaces,Bump Zones,Dedicated Work Spaces,and flex zones.Areas to consider reinforcing Brand are:-ReceptionMeeting Zones

Work and Live

Live and workExtensions of everyday life, why aren’t offices condusive to the way we live today? Today heiraches are still formed by where we sit. It seems many offices today follow the old 50’s ethos, as you work your way up the ladder you eventually get to sit behind a large oak desk and bark orders at your subordinates, access to natu-ral light surely only for the Managing Directors of this world. However social interaction and ways of work-ing have changed drastically over the last 10-15 years, such as flextime, Videoconferencing Technology and flexible working with laptops. Fundamentally the Workplace Environment should embrace this to align with everyday society.We cannot forget that the core fundamental denominator is business, however also enabling the individual to work according to their personality traits, rather than shoehorned into an environment that is not conduisive to their working ethos is paramount. Everyone is an individual and has different ways or working. Employees shouldn’t have to change their personality to fit the built environment but the built environment adapts and changes to suit them.

21

Rows and Rows of blue Exhibition carpet, poor lighting and tired delegates. The Exhibition Environment can seem a rather bizarre place to try and convey all of your companies ideas and offers to a prospective client. Exhibitions can seem like Brand competition pieces in competition with the neighboring stand. Who has the best stand? Who wins with the largest formatted graphic display and shiny stainless steel detailing.Overload of information, floor to ceiling graphics, reliant on handouts and goodie bags. How do you stand out from the crowd and relay the necessary information in that first encounter with the delegate? What is the story you want to convey about your Brand Values. This is at the forefront of any marketing strategy. If every brand is shout-ing how will you get noticed above the rest. The marketing should start to tell the story long before the delegate even sets foot on the stand.Differentiate from the rest, dare to be different. Simplify the information on offer from the design of the stand to the information hand-outs into understandable bite-sized chunks.Branding pace is key to any Exhibition. Where graphics, material selection, stand orientation and design is key to convey an under-standing of the product and company offer. Reusability ?Is it all about” Wow Factor”, a Brand Piece? Or a usable stand where product is the hero.Consider the Street Scene... What can be interesting is the Retail/ Exhibition crossover, where the shop/exhibition wants to focus on a stronger Brand element conveying information about the product. The sales of the product are secondary, twin this with a normal High Street Retail offer and this adds another dimension to connect the Brand with the prospective customer. Rather than a crossover, why do we not see the arrival of dedicated exhibitions set into the street scene?

Controlled Environments

23

which way?

people need social space and interaction. Townscape Architecture needs to address this. Environments where people can purchase, meet, think, chat and just be. we all must be well aware that the processed bland brand fed environments create souless people with little or no connection to the built enviroment... we need to understand the consequences....and develop as designers a social consciousness within the design space.

Social

27

So where do we go from here? is it time to reconsider?these are important times, there areendless possiblities.We need to recreate connections with the built environment,where people are understood.. where roll out architecture and brand is reconfigured to meet the needs of the community.Where the town scape environmentmirrors the people it is there to serve.

What Happened?

Common sense is specifying locally sourced environmentally sustain-able materials. A design incorporating Reusability, its a disaster to see an Exhibition junked purely because it is cheaper than reusing it again. This is where design has failed.Design to company requirements, however flexibility should always be a main factor, the design in question such as a retail outlet therfore will not have to be ripped out every 3-4 years as it can’t adapt to change.

Common sense

Branded Environments

Contact 0845 3016747 for a free consultationemail: pont@pontcreative.com