Connecting Via the Web--Not Just for Teens Anymore

Networking is the key to success in most, if not all, career paths. The Web has given today's generation a head-above-the-rest advantage over previous employees--allowing social and work-related networking without the two-drink cocktail mandate. Sites like LinkedIn and Facebook allow employers and employees--even in the close-knit retail design industry--opportunity to see and be seen...without ever leaving the desk.

New, more industry-specific networking sites are also starting to arrive at our fingertips. UPworld.com is an online professional network for interior designers, real estate developers, urban planners, architects, engineers, real estate lawyers, contractors, financiers and other building professionals. The site's founders are both architects with quite a few retail projects under their belts. UPworld allows members to utilize the network to mentor younger professionals, share expertise, search for vendors and products, progress careers and develop relationships with peers, partners and clients.

Any other networking sites of note? Please share!

--Alison Embrey Medina

The Design Aristocracy

I get a lot of mail from PR companies.

Much of it is completely useful and valid information, considering I write for a design magazine, some of it tasteless and tacky solicitation, and the rest absolute garbage. Every once in a while, however, a gem appears amongst my daily barrage of e-mails that opens my eyes and steals me away into inspirationville for a brief moment. RitaSue Siegel, of New York-based design recruiting firm RitaSue Siegel Resources, recently sent out an article via mass e-mail that caught my attention. Titled "An Aristocracy of Our Own," the article speaks of the impact a design leader (emphasis on the word leader here) can have on a business, versus seeking a collection of doers. Creative thinking is the secret to success in this industry, and in the world at large these days. In a swimming pool full of rapidly rising computer technology, unless a safety net of inspired ideas and actionable performance can keep you afloat, you'll drown. Says Siegel:

"Technology can replace a check-out clerk in a supermarket, but not a design leader who can proselytize design thinking to people throughout a company. Machines can log deposits and dispense cash, but cannot conceive of a brand identity or design an easy-to-understand way to enable consumers to manage their finances online. Technology also relieves a retail clerk from making transactions to making interactions by helping customers on the floor, becoming a critical element of experiential branding."

Siegel goes on to talk about the experiential type of knowledge path that each designer must pursue throughout his/her career to rise to the much-coveted peak of Design Aristocracy. You have to make mistakes. Learn from them. Grow.

At the end of the piece, Siegel defends her stance:

"Recently I’ve been accused of being “aspirational” in my writing, meaning that things out there are not as I write about them but how I want them to be. E-mailers and callers ask for a list of companies that consider design to be an essential function (and those companies that are working on it), because they can’t find any. How about Nike, Apple of course, Citigroup, JCI, Kohler, Whirlpool, Samsung, BenQ, Motorola, TTI, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble, Symbol Technologies and Nissan for starters?"

Or Whole Foods, Target and Prada? Can anyone think of any others? I've got a rolodex scrolling through my head right now. Seems to me the era of the Design Aristocracy is only in its infant years of a long and prosperous life.

--Alison Embrey Medina

Gold in Those Garages

Diva has a tip for retail designers who lose their jobs this year (not being pessimistic, but there are Federated/May Co. layoffs pending): consider going into garage design. The New York Times recently reported that this is a hot new profession, with clients paying $12,000 or more to have their garage clutter organized and whipped into shape. After the boxes of Christmas décor and tools are tidied-up, some suburban residents even opt for upscale flooring, the best storage systems from California Closets, and even garage feng shui sessions, to be sure the energy is propitious. Here’s the best part—what got Diva’s attention—the article reported that Barry Izsak, president of the National Association of Professional Organizers, says fees paid to garage designers “can run upward of $200 an hour.” (A lot of store designers don't make close to that.) Diva isn’t into career counseling, but with garage makeovers accounting for 10 percent a year growth, and with current expenditures of $800 million annually for garage organizing products, it’s the fastest growing segment of the home improvement market. Retail designers polish up on your racetrack layouts, and what about face-outs for those garage walls? After the shopping spree of the past decade or so, most garages are stuffed with tons of junk consumers can’t find room for inside their homes. Diva says: Maybe I’ll take a shovel to my garage, and then reward myself with a $600 check (figured at $200 an hour, for three hours—conservative estimate of the time it would take). That’s enough bucks for a brand new Diva-size splurge. Watch out Nordstrom; now Diva’s got an empty garage to refill!

--Diva

Are You Ready For Stardom?

What is it with Canadian TV producers? They seem to have discovered that store design is a fascinating career, attracting very interesting and sexy people. And they think the world would like to watch you work!

Last month DDI told you about "Making It Big," a Canada-based reality TV series that will feature three "talented, up-and-coming" visual merchandisers. 

And now we have a new documentary-style TV series called "Opening Soon: By Design," which is described as: "a sexy new series following world-class designers in their journey to create the ultimate retail experience. Art meets commerce as they struggle to develop the radical concept that will wow their clients and lure customers in droves. Follow these larger-than-life characters as the risk their reputations and millions of dollars to create the most talked-about grand opening of the season."

The series is produced by Toronto-based Red Apple Entertainment, and airs on Fine Living and HGTV Canada.

Finally, someone recognizes the glamorous world you all live in. Next thing you know, you'll be dodging the paparazzi as you dash from your limo to the courtyard of your villa in Tuscany.

--Karen Schaffner

Titles are changing; jobs, too?

So, the Diva was thinking about Christopher Hufnagel's title the other day (No, I don't have anything better to do...), wondering how The Gap came up with "Vice President of Brand Store Experience."

What exactly does that mean? In RetailDesignDiva's historical context, we've got VPs (if they're lucky and talented enough) of Store Design, Visual Merchandising and Store Planning. Seems like those titles may be or should be changing as the folks who used to design spaces or displays are now getting involved in developing the entire shopping experience.

Personally, I think it makes more sense to design "experiences"...starting, of course, with the store itself.  And if that's what you're doing, why shouldn't your title reflect that?

--Karen Schaffner

Kudos to Wegmans

In Fortune magazine's Top 100 Best Companies to Work For 2006, 12 retailers made the coveted listing. Come on, we can do better!

The Diva congratulates the efforts of New York-based Wegmans Foods Markets, a family-owned, 69-store supermarket chain with stores in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia and Maryland. Not only did Wegmans rank second as the best company to work for, but this is its ninth consecutive year to make the list.

My guess is that how a company treats its employees is how it treats its customers. Other retailers who made the grade: 

Container Store (#6)
Recreational Equipment (REI) (#9)
Whole Foods Market (#15)
QuikTrip (#21)
Starbucks (#29)
Nordstrom (#46)
Hot Topic (#53)
Publix Super Markets (#56)
Men's Wearhouse (#92)
CarMax (#93)
IKEA (U.S.) (#96)

Anyone else deserve an honorable mention? Do tell.

--Rachel Brown

Diva says: Get a J-O-B

If you're at work, well, then, maybe this post isn't for you. But if you're on the Wi-Fi sofa eating Bonbons, then maybe you should hop on over to the Diva partner ddi magazine Career Center Section and get yourself a regular gig, seeing as how they just bellied up with Career Builder to help architects, designers and merchandisers hook up with paychecks. Lots of juicy roles in store design and visual merchandising, for instance. So you can get a respectable 9-5, like Rhoda, except, maybe, um, more corporate.

--Doug Hope

Oh yeah, Self-Promotion Alert (again): The new Career Center is a partner with the Diva, just so you know. But, hey, when you've got it, flaunt it.