Here is a great one from three gentleman who operate a development company called Agile Route and specifically their Shopperception application.

Using the Kinects incredibaly accurate ability to track gesture and movements, the Shopperception application makes retail observations without the consumer having to be interrupted with clumsy hardware strapped to their head as in many other similar research solutions. No data other than movement is collected which does not overstep any lines of confidentiality. Multiple shoppers can be observed at the same time allowing for real world shopping scenarios. Metrics can be observed, tracked and reported on with complete ease, making this effectively a real world in-store version of Google analytics.

Have you used technology to test your products in-store? How about testing your merchandising strategies?

This program was designed by award winning surface and interior design firm Giles Miller Studio based out of London.

The following video is a collaboration between Sesame Street and the band Ok Go. This fun little piece does a great job explaining some simple colour principles of what happens when you mix primary colours. (Thanks to SwissMiss)

I hope this video brightened your day a little too.

Takes place in 20 US cities, how about one in Toronto? The Colour Run

Colour and Marketing.

Colour and Branding.

Colour and the Consumer.

Other Influences and Overall Design.

The Element of Time.

Power Words.

I have to admit after following it very closely this year,CES (Consumer Electronics Show) didn’t seem to deliver it’s usual punch of hype and ensuing drool flood for gadget freaks. Frankly, I think we are all waiting to see what happens with the home television market and what some companies (*cough* Apple) will do.

It’s almost universally agreed that the television screen is still the central hub of “group” home content consumption, and that the television remains a relevant piece of hardware albeit suffering a personality crisis at the moment.

With that in mind, what did impress was Samsung’s transparent LCD Smart Window which was awarded a CES 2012 Innovation Award. Retailers take note. Imagine the possibilities of “on glass” interactivity and content aligned to window merchandising.

Take your average fashion retailers store window, now put some mannequins in the window (dress them), punch it up with some visually compelling decor elements and you’ve created the standard for today’s window shopper.

Now add a smart screen component in order to visual overlay content in front of the traditional display and you can offer a myriad of new ways to attract and engage. Textures, lighting, depth, motion as well as access to information such as couponing, online content, sales and special offers. That’s just the tip of this almighty iceberg, the options are countless.

Pretty exciting and I look forward to seeing the convergence of retail decor and digital interactivity.

Historically, it’s been an argument between printed signage and/or digital signage in a retailers window, this technology answers that question nicely with a very neutral — both.

Terry references a recent research study that reveals that the average woman spends eight years of her life shopping. Men conversely represent only a fraction of that. Have a listen, I’m sure you’ll enjoy it — male or female.

IT people, what’s up with that face?

(Thanks Swissmiss)

Five small retailers will be featured in the first round including;

Polka Dog Bakery, a Boston based  pet food and accessories boutique.

The Webster, a Miami based apparel retailer.

The Candy Store, a San Francisco based retailer of cutting edge candies.

The Cos Bar, an Aspen based skincare shop.

Privet House, a Connecticut based housewares retailer

This follows on the heels of it’s recent highly successful collaboration with Italian design house Missoni. Missoni created an exclusive line for Target that resulted in a crash of the retailers e-commerce site with demand and hype that certainly surpassed even the savvy strategists in Minneapolis expectations.

As Target continues its push towards grand openings in Canada it will be interesting to see if some “Canadian” exclusive store-within-store concepts are included. Here are a few suggestions in the event that you’re listening Target Canada.

1. A Missoni-esque partnership with Canada’s winter wear captains Canada Goose.

2. A Cirque du Soleil partnership with vibrant troupe inspired apparel. A relationship that has already been established with Spanish clothing brand Desigual.

3. A store-within-store opening with small Toronto retailer Lileo.

4. Dufflet Pastry shops in a select number of locations.

5. NHL team experience kiosks focusing on each stores “home-town” favourites.

Any further ideas? Send me (and Target) your thoughts.

The piece is a testament to creativity and a great way to get their name out into the public (beyond the neighbourhood) in order to compete with the category killers and e-tailers. If you live in or visit Toronto, go visit Type. This is one of those stores where you can ask any employee for a suggestion and they’ll pick just the book for you.

Beautiful and inspiring.

What a great use of the beloved blocks in brand “blocking” their real estate. Give’s the space a real store-within-store experience.

Today, I came across another one of Tina’s great projects — Tattly “designy, cool, typographic temporary tattoos”

Since March of this year we have been running our ads with gang land style tattoos across images of our staff, so needless to say when we saw Tattly’s Printer inspired tattoo set our eyes lit up!

If you need a stocking stuffer for the printer in your life, head on over to Tattly and place your order.

Smaller versions are available for sale. These pieces are great inspirations for the visual merchandising industry. See the following two examples. I’ll bet my Christmas presents you’ll see similar concepts next holiday season.

This year we want to help the Because I’m A Girl charity. Check this out.

On behalf of our staff and friends, Artisan is going to fund 4 Girl’s Scholarships and Literacy Training for 4 Women.

But we don’t want to stop there, this is where you come in. For every person that leaves a comment on this blog post, Artisan will donate an additional $10 (up to an additional $2000) to this great charity. Please, send us a little holiday message below and help “Because I’m A Girl”.

Thanks to Kevin Gomes for forwarding these images.

All of these designs are from renowned Japanese paper engineer Tetsuya Watabe.