A BATHING APE are creating a special pop-up store alongside fishing brand DAIWA. The collaboration will come to life on July 24th, as both companies officially open the retail spot  dubbed 144H, for the amount of hours it will remain open to the public. Featured product include fishing supplies, outdoor goods, and fishing apparel. Further information on the opening is available here.

A new sub culture has silently wheeled onto the London bike scene. Eco-friendly cyclists have reclaimed the car-heavy city for their own and now, they have even got their own coffee shops.

Look Mum No Hands! is one such bike-loving institution, a hybrid mix of coffee shop, bike workshop, café, bar and cinema. Cyclists are welcome to jump off the saddle, rest, refuel, have their bike mended whilst they watch live Grand Tour screenings.

A haven for lycra enthusiasts, this cool and comfy garage café boasts an array of features that any amateur cyclist or even hardened pedestrian would enjoy too—a well stocked bar of Belgian beers, wines and juices, outside tables, a light and airy interior and tasty home-cooked food (try the cassoulet). Also in the pipeline are film evenings, exhibitions, an accident legal advice service, free safety checks, competitions and book launches.

http://www.lookmumnohands.com/

via London Unlike

This is a great infographic that looks closely at the changes in prices heading south since 2000. Sourced via Mint, the graph indicates what lies behind many of the prices are business strategies: Starbucks, for example, has made it’s basic coffee cheaper on the theory that it’s better to bring more people through the doors, so that they might purchase higher margin items. In recessionary times, lower prices are often the best tool that businesses have to fight off ugly sales results.

In Australia, we are all too familiar with the Banana shortages in 2001 sending prices sky high however this graph has been created considering the US economies. Interesting take aways for us however not surprising is the Music CD, Levi’s and domestic travel.

Via Mint

In New York, the most glaring signs of the Great Recession are the stalled construction sites littering the city–boarded up, dusty, and desolate eyesores.

The architecture mega-firm Woods Bagot may have a solution, which they’ve just unveiled: Temporary, inflatable buildings that let the developers make money while they wait for their finances to shape up. “We tried to re-imagine how you could reuse those sites,” Jeff Holmes, the partner in charge of Woods Bagot’s New York office, told FastCompany.com. “But it had to be a real proposal. There’s been a number of creative solutions in New York and Boston because of the number of stalled states. We took a hard-nosed look at creating something viable.”

To read the full article, head over to Fast Company

PSFK presents Future of Retail report

View more presentations from PSFK.

Traditional physical retail remains as important as ever. So does providing the environment in which a retailer can provide an unparalleled experience. Through the dynamic use of space, the most successful store owners are pushing the boundaries of storytelling, product testing and education – aspects of evolved services that lead to retention, sales evolution and growth.

PSFK have created this report on the future of retail. It is 84 pages for anyone who has ever walked into a retail environment. uncluttered white spaces consulting arm, 6.2,  works with business as diverse as eyewear, government, publishing and retail. It is the companies creating an engaging environment and generate service based experieinces in the process of tradinal retailing create amazing results.

Three critical factors remain constant, the power of storytelling, experiences and education.
Via of course: PSFK.

4food is a socially networked quick service restaurant company. The mission is to bring fast food that’s fresh, delicious, and nutritious to all ages, lifestyles, incomes, and ethnicities. No fads, fillers, or anything artificial. Revolutionizing counter culture, in real-time.

Location #1 opens on Tuesday, July 6th, 2010 at 40th Street and Madison Avenue, between Bryant Park and Grand Central Station – the heart of the highest density workday population in the US.

What is unique about this venture is its use of web-based technologies in operating the store. Its customers are encouraged to create their orders online and are given customization options to produce several food choices. Customers can even name their creations and market it, receiving $.25 in store credit for every sale of their customized food creation. To complete the techie theme of the fast food joint, 4Food will feature a 240 square foot monitor that will stream Foursquare check-ins, Tweets and info from the restaurant, while its staff will take orders on iPads.

Similar to Melbourne based social enterprise STREAT who employ homeless youth, 4Food’s workforce will be made up of people from New York City’s work displacement program.

http://4food.com/

Luxury 2010 | post-recession codes emerge

View more presentations from Tim Stock.

Tim Stock and the cool kids are scenarioDNA have created a presentation entitled Luxury | post-recession codes emerge.

The presentation asks the question, “take away the logo, the licensing and the hibris, do you still have a compelling luxuy product that will stand up to todays consumers”?

The presentation delves into the evolution of the past two decades in luxury branding. We would love to here your thoughts on this or head over to Tims page and join in a conversation there.

The Stanford d.school, which opens officially on May 7, is a space whose design has been refined over the course of six years to maximize the innovation process. Every wall, everynook, every connecting gizmo, every table, every storage cabinet, has been created with a grand, collaborative vision in mind.

George Kembel, the executive director of the school states “Even if your company doesn’t have a few million to throw at making your space more innovation-friendly, there are things you can do to optimize what you’ve got.

The d.school team sat down and brainstormed 11 great ways to transform your digs into a little hive of bubbling creativity–or at least a place that manages to capture the occasional good idea.

1. Start with what you have. “We started in a trailer,” Kembel points out, “with the ‘d.school’ as a sign on the table.” Kembel’s advice: Claim a space and label it.

2. Go to the people who are interested first. Form a crack team of true believers to spearhead your campaign. Revolutions start from the bottom up.

3. Empower your team to change their space. Somebody high enough up the food chain needs to defend this activity against facilities managers who may not be amused.

3. Then, be willing to keep changing things. Try out different ways to configure space to see what works best.

4. Watch the behavior of the group and take notes. Have somebody in your band of innovators own this task. What’s working, what isn’t? “Try, reflect, modify,” says Kembel.

5. Develop group-sized artifacts. Whaa? In short, forget the spreadsheets with the tiny type. “Get your ideas up in big enough form so that others can see and add to them.”

6. Keep any prototypes, sketches, or idea-jam artifacts low-rez and not precious. “Don’t get too formal too fast,” says Kembel. Making things precious locks them in too soon, short-circuiting potential improvements.

7. Show your work in progress. “Put your underwear up on the line and let people comment. But keep it safe,” Kembel says. No rude comments allowed.

8. Do something simple to surprise people. At the d.school, they painted the women’s restroom lipstick pink, and hung disco balls. “That makes people realize that somebody cares about your experience,” Kembel says.

9. Invest more in “we” spaces than in “I” spaces. Cozy nooks for teams, not plush corner offices for the alpha dogs.

10. Mix up seating options. Take the table out of the room and sit on the floor. Vary seat heights. Change customary positions at meetings. For example, put the group leader in the middle, instead of at the head of the table. Try holding a meeting where only standing is allowed. In general, work to lower status markers.

11. Make idea generation and capture easy. Any non-porous surface can be a whiteboard, says Kembel. Buy a sheet of sheer acrylic at Home Depot and mount it on a wall as a writing space. Keep markers handy. Put prototyping tools out where people can grab them when an idea strikes.

“Creativity follows context,” says Kembel. The main idea, he says, is not to segregate creativity from other activities. “You don’t need to be fancy to do it,” he says.

Article Fast Company

Thinking of starting a Book Club or opening a new book store. An interesting devlopment in the current age of the emergance of the e-book but Aaron Bondaroff unveils his latest project as an extension of his OHWOW art movement. The newly opened OHWOW Book Club Store houses a selection of OHWOW-published books and items with the store designed by Rafael de Cárdenas. The address can be seen below.

Looks amazing. Visit the store here:
OHWOW Book Club Store
227 Waverly Place (between Perry St. & W 11 St.)
New York City

Via Hypebeast.

Posted by Alissa Walker | 31 Mar 2010 on Core77 | If there’s one thing wide, sprawly Los Angeles can pride itself on having, it’s an abundance of space. But now, as I walk though neighborhoods filled with empty box stores and strip malls, I realize we may have far too much of it.

Luckily, we’re also blessed with an abundance of creatives who have the desire to occupy it. Emi Fontana has filled vacant retail stores with art installations, and even used an empty modern house high in the hills above Pasadena to install a site-specific installation by Olafur Eliasson. In L.A.’s Chinatown, Wendy Yao sells a collection of zines, handmade jewelry and records out of a miniscule strip mall, which has led to a variety of unusual temporary venues. Nearby, Mark Allen uses his small storefront as a place for identifying (and eating) edible insects, holding welding classes and orchestrating temporary takeovers of entire museums. Alyssa Walker explains:

“The fact that creatives have founded true cultural centers and succeeded in doing it in a place as notoriously scattered as Los Angeles makes me believes their concepts are true models for success.

There’s a reason this is the age of the pop-up shop: space is available, and it’s yours for the taking. Use this moment when you’ve got a little extra downtown to inhabit the empty space next door, or some available space in your office that’s looking a bit lonely.

Spaces need to go beyond simply serving as eye candy—they need to provide a service for their audience.”

To read the full article, visit Core77

Aiming to do for swim shorts what Threadless has done for t-shirts, Shortomatic is a California-based company that invites consumers to upload their own art for a truly customised swim. All they need do is indicate their waist size and then upload the graphics they have in mind. They then position and size the art, choose their colours and add text for use on the waistband. Next, voilà! A unique pair of California-made boardshorts that’s customised for them. Those feeling less creative can also browse Shortomatic’s curated gallery of existing designs—currently, there are close to 700 exhibited there. Consumers feeling really artistic, on the other hand, can submit their designs in Shortomatic’s Artist’s Program. Designs accepted by the gallery curator are produced in limited editions of 200. Their creators receive USD 5 for every pair sold, while a further 5 percent goes to support Global Green. Either way, every pair of shorts is printed with the artist’s name, image title and edition number. Pricing begins at USD 99 per pair. Shortomatic is the sister company of Yogamaticwhich lets consumers design their own yoga mats.

via springwise

We can all learn a lot from Fashion. Fashion brands exist based on their ability to connect with consumers emotionally. Fashion has nothing to do with price and more about marketing than product, it has everything to do with the need to associate at an emotional level.

As the saying goes, people “do not buy the soda”, they buy the can… so make the connection to the can important. Look at Beer, what is more relevant, the taste or the social connection to a greater existence than ourselves. A network of friends, mates, partners, clubs, bars, nightclubs and home bars.

Victor Churchill is a butcher. The brand and the people understand the engagement and emotion created by fashion brands and they have applied this to their retail store. The meat is good but it is after all just meat. More than likely no better than any other good  butcher.

They just do the “experience” better than anyone else and as a result,  people want to be involved and a part of something that makes them feel good. At any price.

Hats off to the coolest butcher shop of all time.

Ben Rennie

http://www.victorchurchill.com/come-inside/