Retail Design

Continuing Study Programs - Milan

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The professional in charge of stores should be able to perceive and understand the strategies that companies develop in order to grow the market: strategies that spring from the values and image the company wants to communicate to customers that then reflect on products, retail spaces and communication. These aspects have to be, in turn, translated into a project or into a strategy by the store whereby the customer picks up on these values and recognizes products communicated through the media. The point of sale should therefore be an accurate and refined synthesis of those values that can interpret the company image. The new frontier is in fact the ‘Concept Store’, where new strategies for customer relationship introduce new features and services in the store.
The professional involved must be able to interpret the brand image of the company in order to synthesise the choices of shop image with the strategies of visual merchandising, from careful investigation of current and future trends, in order to captivate the customer with the quality of the design.

WHO’S IT FOR?
The Retail Design course is open to all those working in the field, such as designers, companies, operators and managers who wish to further their knowledge of the subject. The add-on module Project on retail spaces (the sales room, the showroom, the flagship store, flagship store chains) is open to students who wish to elaborate on the rough layout defined in Module 1 (graduates in architecture or interior design) or a system/piece of furniture related to the world of retail (graduates in product design). 

Admission requirements: professional experience in the sector proved by CV and portfolio, basic IT knowledge of Windows platform. Students attending the Design add-on module are also required to know AutoCAD® 2D.

Language: The lessons are held in Italian language; to attend the course, is required a good knowledge of Italian language reading and oral comprehension.

  • Start date
    January 2020
  • Duration
    120 hours
  • Attendance
    evening
  • Language
    Italian

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Didactic Structure
In order to meet the specific needs of the individual participant, the course will be divided into two modules, consisting of both a theoretical part and a project/workshop element.
In the first module lectures on industry trends and specific contributions on brand strategy are delivered, followed by a design workshop that sees the concept through to the preliminary project, via a deeper definition of the language of design.

Retail Trends
The identification of current trends, including the experience of Cross-channel digital interaction, is crucial to understanding the complexity of the Retail project and will be taught in the form of lectures and research activities in the classroom on industry trends in order to create on- and offline mood boards which aid the subsequent project phase.

Brand Strategy
The definition of a proper brand strategy is inevitably reflected in a proper retail strategy. Since business communication takes place at all levels, direct and indirect, we can say that every moment of contact with the brand is a time of communication of brand values. Traditional communication bases itself on consolidated advertising instruments, to which a number of new tools are available to be added. Experiential marketing is particularly important today, that is, the particular moment in which the customer comes into contact with the brand at distribution level. The point of sale is therefore of strategic importance both as an extraordinary confirmation for the customer already informed about the brand, as well as a moment of communication for the potential customer who will be drawn in by the retail space itself and inside it will find, next to the products, this “special” communicative and emotional atmosphere that the brand has been able to create.

Workshop project
Based on the mood boards produced, the Language/Scenario of the project (macro-scale) and the Scope of detail (micro-scale) will be identified as a basis on which the Concept and preliminary Layout will be defined.

The lessons of the second additional Project module will be aimed at the definition of the project, aimed at creating a retail space in its multiple forms as a space for the service of content, with the aim of emphasising the shopping experience upon which big and small brands base their existence. The shop is not only a functional space but should also be an “other” space in order to transform the shopping experience into a “unique” one: it must be “dressed” and “set up” so that it can become a store, a place of representation, exhibition, culture and sale of products and services. The meaning of “Concept Store” in particular aims to emphasise the absolutely innovative and conceptually proactive edge via which new material or sociological relationships with the merchandise are offered, which need to be invented, dramatized, communicated and “staged” for an audience, on the stage of the new features offered. The course will also involve lectures on Visual Merchandising, a discipline which has become crucial in the design of retail spaces, which provides useful information to the designer to understand consumer behaviour on entering a store.

Remarkable is that teacher who accomplishes himself what he teaches to others.
(Italian proverb)

IED faculty are professionals that daily face the market. Here you can read their bios.

Andrea Bulgarella

Andrea Bulgarella
After earning a degree in Architecture from the University of Palermo, he specialized in the areas of Interior and Retail in Frankfurt, obtaining ascholarship from the Leonardo programme (EU). He developed his skills over years of work experience in various architectural firms in Italy and abroad, where he worked as Designer and Project Manager. Among his various collaborations, a notable one was with the Brugi-Messi studio for the development of a number of projects for the brand Etro. Since 2006 he holds the position of Senior Designer and Project Manager for Giorgio Armani SpA, as head of Emporio Armani (EA) travel and retail projects worldwide, managing the development of the concept of EA stores, designer of EA and Giorgio Armani projects. He also gained a Master’s degree in Management and Business Strategy at the Business School del Sole 24 ORE.

Francesca Perani

Francesca Perani
Architect graduated at Polytechnic of Milan, she co-founded Spectacularch!, architecture, interior, brand, web and app design studio. She studied in Australia and Belgium and worked in London, Brisbane, Turin, Bergamo and Milan at Enzo Mari's studio. She’s currently vice president of Bergamo Chartered Architects Association. Linkedin      

Jacopo Bargellini

Jacopo Bargellini
He is a Strategic Design Consultant, dealing with innovation and trends research for international companies, among which: Philips, Panasonic, Swarovski, JVC, Versace, Sharp, ING Direct, Guzzini, Candy, Versace Casa, San Pellegrino, 3M, Morellato, U-boat, Samsung, Verallia Saint Gobain, LG, Indesit, Ceres. As a Journalist he wrote I 12 principi del design management: costruire un’azienda design oriented and Design Trendsetting: capire le tendenze per creare prodotti innovativi both edited by Franco Angeli.