Merging an Optical Experience with In-Store Design

Merging an optical experience with in-store design

So what is the real competition? What is the real difference between on clothing store and the next? Well, for me the answer is simple, and I can answer it in one word, design.

I’m not speculating about the abstract concept of why one store is better than the next. I’m writing from experience. Only a person who owns a clothing store and has the full pressure of trying to make a profit can truly understand the impact that the slightest change in a store makes on profits. From the store theme to the customer service, onto the obvious and most important clothing you are selling, it’s all about how you are going to stand out as a store that will make the difference between growing as a business, or going under like so many others.

So I thought of a design that struck me in a brilliant stroke of inspiration which I implemented in my store to great effect. I merged two common concepts and not only is my store a completely different place, the level of customer satisfaction and the amount of times customers come back to my store, let alone the business I’m doing, is living proof of the effectiveness of my idea.

So what did I do, you are wondering? I blended optical illusion with dress forms. Display mannequins and dress forms are very common ways clothing stores use to show people what the clothing they are selling looks like on a person, as well as adding to the general look and feel of the store. This works, but it is not novel by any means.

So I mixed it up. The inspiration struck me when I was playing with my nephew and came across a book his father got for him. It had page after page on the most amazing optical illusions that I had ever seen! So we sat there on the floor flicking through the pages and marveling at the eye games. Finally I came to one particular illusion which in a flash made me think about how I was going to redesign my store.

It was a picture of lines going into the distance and other lines sort of coming out of the picture in like a 3d kind of way. The illusion was whether the lines were popping out or going in. so I took this concept and applied it to my store.

I won’t spent time writing about all the difficulty of making this idea a reality, but what I will say is that my store looks like and optical illusion. I have two rows of dress forms on both sides of the store. The dress forms come in different sizes so it looks like they are getting smaller (which they are) but the store is not a big as the dress forms make it look. It is very difficult to describe the way this works its tricks on your eyes but suffice it to say that with a few dress forms or even display mannequin for the same price, you can really transform you store into an imaginative and interesting place, that not only make working in it fun, but makes a real impression on customers.