Empty Spaces to Creative Ones
Empty spaces at shopping centers are something we get called about quite frequently. While leases are being worked on, management and landlords don’t want these spaces to be an eye sore so we are asked what can we do.
Blank canvases are our specialty. Windows are a great form of advertising; turn these unproductive spaces into creative profitable ones. It’s a great way to highlight existing tenants, special events or “coming soon” displays to excite customers. Different tenants can be featured monthly or quarterly to ensure a fresh look.
Pearlridge Center contacted us to highlight several restaurants and beauty stores in one of their lesser frequented areas of the mall. Because the items were on the smaller size, we decided to created vignettes to focus the shoppers attention.
Some of the challenges we face with empty spaces:
- no fixtures or props within space to work with
- must create “window zone”-no delineation between window and interior
- no lighting in window
We design a concept and then build everything specifically for the window. Participating tenants appreciate the added boost in traffic that they bring and landlords are happy that their tenants are smiling.
Check out what we did:
Shop a Le‘a 2011
Sorry for the lack of posts recently. CS has been extremely busy building sets, store windows, prepping for summer promotions and even did a quick trip to this year’s GlobalShop 2011 in Las Vegas. Since we have a little down time, we wanted to post everything we have been up to.
We gladly partnered with Ala Moana Center again this year for it’s premier fashion event, Shop a Le‘a. This year was more of a challenge since the all white & pink set needed to be flipped to black and then back again…twice!
Along with Shop a Le‘a (SAL) week, Andy South (Hawaii’s Project Runway Star) debuted his new Fall Collection at Center Stage. We were honored to be a part of it and were up for the challenge.
Knowing that we needed to take down the SAL set and install a black set for Andy South, we approached this project in two prongs:
- Be effortless in take-down and re-install
- Color Impact-make sure that the set’s had two distinct looks.
Began playing around with ideas and built a small model to test out our theories.
I definitely will not have a career in architectural models.
3D render of the panel layout.
Keeping the stage a simple black. We did forgo the Andy South lettering and he added his own logos that night.
Custom printed banners.
Had our metal worker construct some new arms for the banners.
Piecing together the puzzle.
One of my favorite elements this year. We turned the existing planter boxes into a night time light box.
Shop a Le‘a 2010
Taking a break from dinosaurs, we wanted to post the 3rd Annual Shop a Le‘a fashion event, held this past March. CS was hired again to create a fresh look for the stage (click Here to see previous stages).
Tying in with marketing, we elaborated on the floral icon used this year in advertising and GWP’s (gift with purchase). We took the imagery and enlarged them 1000% to create large scale icons.
Each piece was mounted to a firm substrate and then contour cut.
Giant size puzzle. We fit all the pieces together on-site. Each element was 4’-10’.
Original version of stage (we had several versions). We built a working model to scale to ensure that our components would work.
Close up version of model.
Close up of the icons. We wanted to make them look as if they were floating.
The completed look.
Dinosaur Installation-Day Two
About to head out the door for Day 3, but wanted to post some images from yesterday.
Headlines: Dinosaur gives birth to man!
We “upcycled” Pearlridge Center’s christmas trees by turning the bases and frames into willow and hapu‘u trees.
Sneak peek!
Store Signage (mid-century)
Had to take photos of these cool, old school signs of all places at Maui Mall. Most signs you see nowadays are back lit plexi with vinyl lettering.
There’s something about the craftsmanship and hand-made quality. They show the individuality and uniqueness of each store
Tasaka Guri Guri conveys fun and whimsy. The letters are carved out of this solid piece of wood!
I’m loving this typeface and the animal caricatures.
Store signs are a visual communication tool that are just as important as your windows. They don’t have to have bells and whistles but show a clear, concise image of who you are.
Ala Moana Center Stage
We’re going through some of our past work and uploading to Flickr. Since we just completed a stage build out for Ala Moana Center (AMC) a couple of months ago, we wanted to share previous concepts that we created for them.
Ala Moana Center Stage-Before
Ala Moana Center Stage-After (2008)
AMC launched the first annual Shop a Le’a in 2008. This Spring shopping event was a weeklong promotion focusing on fashion, beauty, wellness, family, travel and cuisine.
Creative Solutions was tasked to create a dynamic stage presence that tied into their advertising campaign. We wanted to transform the stage into a space that looked completely different.
Since so many fashion retailers were participating we decided to go with a clean “runway” look. Tying in the advertising we utilized the campaign color pink as a trim. Everything from the flower beds to the overheads were remodeled into a chic package highlighting the week’s events.
Shop a Le’a 2009-working model
In the Spring of 2009, we partnered again with AMC for the 2nd Annual Shop a Le’a promotion. Again, transforming the space was key and this time we wanted to create a 3 dimensional space.
Our inspiration was the Eames House of Cards (no pun intended…GGP had just filed bankruptcy when we were designing it).
The above images are working models we created for the stage. This helped us determine the correct proportions to be built as well as spacial planning.
Shop a Le’a 2009
Due to the scale of the stage and the surrounding environment, enlarging the “cards” gave the stage dimension and an interesting architectural point of view. It also allowed the stage to be flexible. If needed, cards could be moved around and reconfigured.
