VMSD - February 2012 - (Page 17)

Double your project management budget, then double it again. The reality of digital/physical projects is that even internally, these teams are not naturally aligned, and the nextgeneration nature of projects means that far more communication and project management is necessary. Meetings are twice as long, get half as much done and need to be done twice as often. So plan accordingly in your budgeting to ensure that there isn’t a bad feeling at the end from people who didn’t participate in reviewing the project management budget. Everybody needs to change their perception of their role. BEHIND EVERY GREAT PRODUCT IS A GREAT WALL: PANEL SLATWALL You won’t find a wider variety of finishing options for long- and shortdirection slatwall anywhere else. Combine our stock or custom colors, laminates, veneer, woodgrain print, or even our digital printready coating, with our endless matching capabilities and you have a solution for success. Call us. We will help you fulfill requirements for current and future projects throughout the year. We are your slatwall solution. We talked a lot at IRDC 2011 about digital paint, which is the digital projection of content into a 3-D space. It’s a great example of how creating an amazing experience requires digital designers to think like physical designers (by thinking of digital not as something on the flat plane of a monitor, but rather integrated into a three-dimensional space) and requires physical designers to think like digital designers (by thinking of surfaces and textures not as static but as moving and dynamic visual elements). The “great” idea collaboration is the easy part; figuring out how to shepherd the vision is hard. The first “aha!” experi- www.panel.com 800.433.7142 solutions@panel.com ences of the crossover of tech and design tend to be like epiphanies: eye-opening and seemingly very powerful, but still lacking the finesse and impact that comes from thoughtfully and creatively applying them. The discipline of design review cycles, iteration and project management is less sexy, but even more necessary when dealing with the increased risk that comes from trying something new. Without a shared vision between digital and physical designers, where the overall experience a shopper has is jointly and creatively developed, all of the amazing technologies become nothing more than flash-in-the-pan tricks, wasting a lot of time and money and, ultimately, accomplishing nothing. So when I think about the question of how different technologies evolve, it’s an important one. But perhaps even more important is the question of how the industry itself is evolving. We already know 2012 is going to be different. We’re working with store designers on actual projects, which, as we all know, is the true test of how far partnerships can evolve. x Jim Crawford (about.me/jimcrawford) is executive director of the Global Retail Executive Council (grec), an international association, and a principal at Taberna Retail, a global retail shopping experience consulting company. http://www.panel.com http://www.panel.com http://www.Holidayimageinc.com http://www.youtube.com/HolidayImageInc

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of VMSD - February 2012

VMSD - February 2012
Contents
From the Editor
VMSD Editorial Advisory Board
The Goods
Design Detail
Next Store
’tis the Season to Be Social
Dream Factory
Passport to the World
A Sharper Image
Showroom
Ad Index
Checking Out

VMSD - February 2012