Brandscaping - Continuum
Design Challenge:
STORY is a retail concept that “takes the point of a magazine, changes like a gallery and sells things like a store” (STORY website). Reflecting contemporary issues, current trends, or relevant themes that are meaningful to today’s customers, STORY creates a retail concept that would serve as a marketing bridge between brands and consumers. STORY reinvents the theme, design, and merchandise every 4-8 weeks with the goal of bringing to light a new issue and trend. Currently located at 144 10th Ave., STORY opened its second store on Madison Ave. The new space they found is narrow and deep compared to the space at the current store. STORY is looking for designers as creators/inventors/curators who could propose a highly innovative idea to transform this narrow and long space to narrate its belief in inspiring STORY as muses for an experience that uncovers influential examples of forward thinking from around the world.
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Only 1% of clothing is recycled worldwide - the rest is mainly incinerated, thrown in landfills or downcycled. The average American throws away 81 pounds of waste every year and old clothing can take up to 200 years to decompose in a landfill. Textile waste has increased by 40% since 1999. Large urban areas contribute to textile waste at higher rates due to a larger population density. The issue of climate change and eco-consciousness has been a contemporary issue and is meaningful to all generations worldwide.
The concept of my store “Continuum” is to showcase brands that have earned a reputation for being sustainable and participate in closed loop textile systems. A closed loop system or circularity, is when a product is used as long as possible and is reused to the greatest extent and then is repurposed to make a new recycled item in order to avoid landfills. In relation to brandscaping, STORY’S three-dimensional space reflects the ideas and values of these closed loop, sustainable brands in a physical manifestation. This space is intended to be an extension of these brands in a way that people can interact with physically.
