FINAL SYNTHESIS STUDIO - LABORATORY B
Academic year and teacher
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- Versione italiana
- Academic year
- 2016/2017
- Teacher
- MASSIMO GHINI
- Credits
- 28
- Didactic period
- Annualità Singola
Training objectives
- The primary aim of this course is to offer students the knowledge and tools that are necessary to become professional retail space designers. A characteristic of this lab has always been the involvement of real brands who operate in the retail business that not only offer students their case studies but provide real design briefs based on their current needs. The brands, offer support throughout the year and return to Ferrara mid semester to offer their revision on the students’ ongoing projects.
The program is rich in lectures, essays and exercises all aimed at developing specific skills. For a well rounded vision of the profession the course also offers significant contributions from several other professionals who represent fundamental parts of the retail design process while not being retail designers: furniture engineers, location consultants, economical experts.
Each aspect of the complex design process is taken into account and explained. Besides the technical aspects, a lot of effort is put into exercising communicational skills which are fundamental in this profession. Historical knowledge is also very important.
The graphic design module is meant to offer a vision over the past 15 years of brand design by the most influent agencies worldwide. Dynamic, generative and relational brand identities are studied with an analytical approach in order to understand how innovative brand strategies work and how the retail designer’s job is supposed to relate with the corporate image of the brand it is developed for.
Within the module of professor Dario Scodeller, history of retail design, the evolution of retail design spaces is studied, especially under the aspect of their complex communicational aspects. A crossed analysis with the language used in exhibition design, especially throughout the past century, will stress particular styles and attitudes held by designers in relation to their times. Each example will be considered also with a contemporary vision to understand which topics have remained crucial over the years and which instead are outdated. Prerequisites
- Besides the passing of all preparatory exams, it is required that the students have already developed the ability to express their ideas visually through hand drawing and computer graphics. Skills in 2D and 3D design and basic rendering skills must have been previously acquired. It is necessary to have the ability to collect ideas and arrange them in a thinking scheme in order to translate notions into a logical analytical design process.
It is required that students attending this course are fluent in Italian language. Course programme
- The course will offer an outlook on the world of retail design, not limiting the view to the mere design of spaces. It will include:
Economical lectures intended to explain the mechanisms that drive the retail market, the thoughts behind brand strategies and the reason of their choices.
Monographic lessons regarding the materials that are most frequently used in retail design with particular regards to their application in custom furniture design.
Study of design methods
Contemporary case studies
Historical case studies
Historical case studies regarding other typologies such as museums and temporary exhibitions
Architectural design
Practical approach to retail design
Visual merchandising
In store application of visual and corporate identity Didactic methods
- Learning activities will include lectures, exercises and educational visits. The final exam will consist in the discussion of the materials developed by each student during the two semesters of this course using the guidelines of the client’s brief.
The intent of the course is to provide a set of skills and practical tools to solve the issues related to conceptualizing and presenting ideas in the form of a coherent and effective project. Several lessons, which are fundamental for a good execution of the proposed exercises, will regard architectural design, and the use of light in the characterization of retail spaces.
Other lessons will help develop communicational skills and a conceptual approach to the design process. Learning assessment procedures
- For the final exam, it is required that each student prepare a 29,7 x 29,7 cm project book documenting the entire process, with research, references, design project for the client brand and renderings. A presentation of the project will be held in front of all the teachers of the course.
The evaluation of the work will also take into account all the intermediate exercise that will have been carried out during the two semesters of the course with each of the professors.
These are graded with a letter (from A to D) and then translated into numbers based on a weighted average according to the number of hours of work that each exercise required. Reference texts
- Emanuele Sacerdote, La strategia retail nella moda e nel lusso. Dalla marca, al negozio, al cliente: scenari e tendenze, Milano, Franco Angeli, 2011, pp. 280.
Emanuele Sacerdote, Travel retailing. Analisi, strategie, best practices, Milano, Franco Angeli, 2009, pp. 224.
Emanuele Sacerdote, Ritorno alla bottega. Modello di business per il retail moderno, Milano, Franco Angeli, 2014, pp. 144.
Dario Scodeller, Negozi. L’architetto nello spazio della merce, Milano, Mondadori Electa, 2007, pp. 279.
J. Baudrillard, Il sogno della merce, Lupetti, Bologna 1995
G. Dorfles, Simbolo, comunicazione, consumo, Einaudi, Torino [1962] 1980
F. Carmagnola, M. Ferraresi, Merci di culto, Castelvecchi, Roma 1999
Ulrike Felsing, Dynamic identities in Cultural and Public Contexts, Baden, Lars Muller Publisher, 2010, pp. 254.
Cristina Chiappini, Silvia Sfligiotti, Open projects. Des identités non standard, Paris, Pyramid, 2010, pp. 191.
Andrew Blauvelt, Ellen Lupton (a cura di), Graphic Design: Now in Production, Walker Art Center, 2011, pp. 240.
Irene van Nes, Paul Hygues, Dynamic Identities. How to create a living brand, Netherland, Bis Publisheer, 2013, pp. 223.
