Why some retailers will never reach the high design they desire.

Working on retail design for a particular company, it strikes me that, despite their desire to upgrade its image and design, they continue to fall short.  I am here to explain why they (and others like them) continue to fall short.

In the design process, I have come across this a few times where clients will ask for "different" and "cool".  However, if you show them something truly different and cool, they shirk back in horror that they might get something that isn't what they see around them in other stores that they are striving to look like.  It's a troubling design issue, because that client merely wants to replicate design as if it were an ice cream flavor.

Similarly to the timid client, is the equally timid administrator.  They are the ones who work at design commissions or are mall managers.  They interpret context to mean that brick must be surrounded by more brick.  Worse if they have OCD and feel that balance means all things should be symmetrical.

What started out as a bold statement, became a centered, simple canopy.

Expectations between client and designer are on opposite ends, where the client says one thing, but meant something else altogether.  Anticipating this sort of blowback, designers build up a defense mechanism to design meekly for clients.

This timidity is nonexistent if one works for a design house, or starchitect, where wild designs are expected.  But the problem for the rest of us who are not lucky enough to work at such an outfit, is that we are self-neutered over time.  If you continue to work with the same client, your work becomes muted by that defensive mechanism.

The other problem facing these retailers, is rooted in the people they employ.  Merchandisers employed by a retailer have it all "figured out".  You cannot change their minds about whether a store is too cluttered by merchandise, signage, etc.  They, as most other people, are too concerned about their worth to a company, and use their lengthy background in merchandising as proof of expertise, even if you could repudiate their ideas by showing them slide after slide of why their ideas stink.

The merchandiser is not the only difficulty that a designer faces -- so too is the store manager.  A store manager who exerts -- by virtue of a corporate culture that allows them to do so -- complete control over what happens after construction is completed, will ignore the design.  If the store manager is versed in design and has a wealth of diverse experience, then it is not an issue that one has to confront, and will likely augment the design with ideas that are complementary.  But for many retailers, store managers are often young and have no concept of design.

Slat walls and grids.  Unconcerned about clutter and the visual impact of the stuff they add, slat walls and grids end up gracing as many open walls as possible.

What was intended to be a clean, modern store, becomes just another cluttered retail outlet.

While one can bravely ignore the possibility of losing a client, and simply keep pushing the client in the direction of daring design work, there is no solution to the problem of employees ignoring design.  Well, there is a solution: get rid of those employees.  But that's not something the designer can control.

My two cents.