To complement our achievements in the past 3 years at GlobalShop where Artisan has received the 2010 Temporary Display of the Year, the 2011 Temporary Display of the Year and the 2012 Global Marketing at Retail Award, this year we were awarded another prestigious recognition from the industry.

Artisan is happy to report that, together with our client Newell Rubbermaid of Canada, we share the award for the 2013 Creative Best of Show Award in the Temporary Category.

(Please click on this link to learn more about the judging criteria for this award: POPAI’s Creative Best of Show Award )

Along with this award, the evening rounded out with some other great successes that we share with our clients.

GOLD      InkJoy Launch Half Pallet Display

GOLD      CCM Crazy Light Protective Gear Display

SILVER    Twistos Launch Display

Artisan Complete would like to thank all of our clients that made this year’s successes possible. This truly speaks to the amazing partnerships we have built and the relentless efforts from both sides of the table to continually deliver effective merchandising solutions, innovation and best in class design!

Source: golzadartblog.com

Ali Golzad transforms his imagination into cultural art, but also shows a way to go green by using recycled material.

Enjoy!

There are several e-tailers that have already tested this approach to business and more to open in the next few months. They are changing the rules of the traditional retailers – by having little or no inventory, fewer staff members and small locations. They are becoming showrooms.

Clearly Contacts, a Vancouver based company, will open their first location on Robson Street, a premiere shopping district in the spring. Warby Parker will also open a location. Both are eyeglass e-tailers.

Ebay and Etsy are testing temporary pop-up stores. In London, Ebay opened a store just for the holiday season with no merchandise, just scannable screens displaying gift ideas.

Piperlime, which has been an online clothing and shoe e-tailer only for six years opened a SOHO location in the fall designing the store’s look and feel to match their e-commerce site.

Shopping at Piperlime, the Gap Inc
Source: Michael Nagle for The New York Times

Google plans to open brick and mortar stores according to tech blogs and news reports. It looks like Google will follow other technology companies like Apple and Microsoft, which already have several locations open.

Source: Bloomberg News

Bonobos didn’t follow the traditional retailers model. They opened 700 square feet in their existing office and converted it into a store called a “Guideshop”. Customers make appointments to get the try before you buy experience. They don’t leave with the merchandise; the staff helps the customer place an order online using their website as a virtual stock room. The order is delivered often the next day. The average in-store purchase doubled what was online and after the first in-store visit, the number of days decrease to the next purchase.

A customer trying clothes on at Bonobos
Source: Marilynn K. Yee/The New York Times

This doesn’t mean online shopping is going away, it just means e-tailers are changing to enhance the client experience.

Feature Image Source: Canadian Business

Tim Hortons’ goal is to explore and understand the technology and to see how it will work at their restaurants. Another goal of Tim Hortons in the near future is to add free wireless access to more than 2,000 of their Canadian restaurants and remove the signs that suggest guests move on after 20 minutes.

What an amazing way to combine great customer service and technology to make a difference.

Source: Image: Courtesy of Tim Hortons, Story: Financial Post

In recent years Artisan has developed creative ways to wish our friends and families the best for the holiday season. But, in the past couple of years
we think we can do more to help others by giving back to our community.

In 2012, we wanted to help MADD Canada by donating $10 for every holiday cheer posted on our blog site. .
http://www.artisancomplete.com/blog/2012/12/14/happy–holidays/

Account Executive Sam Harris met with the CEO of MADD Canada last week to present a cheque from Artisan’s holiday fund raising campaign. “We sincerely appreciate your generous support” said Andy Murie MADD Canada CEO.

On behalf of MADD Canada and Artisan, we would like to express our gratitude to all who assisted in raising funds for our organization over the holiday season.

We look forward to another successful year to come.

From PBS — Color is one of the fundamental elements of our existence, and defines our world in such deep ways that its effects are nearly imperceptible. It intersects the worlds of art, psychology, culture, and more, creating meaning and influencing behavior every step of the way. Most fascinating are the choices we make, both subconsciously and consciously, to use color to impact each other and reflect our internal states. Whether in the micro-sense with the choice of an article of clothing, or the macro-sense where cultures on the whole embrace color trends at the scale of decades, color is a signifier of our motives and deepest feelings.

The store and the team at FGL Sports is at the vanguard of retailers using interactive solutions to engage the consumer, creating a unique and customized experience both during the shopping process and at the point of sale.

Throughout the store shoppers are given the chance to curate their own experience and interact with brands such as Nike, Adidas, Oakley, Reebok. 140 screens are interwoven into the decor creating massive visual stimulation.

If you have the chance go and see it and interact. The store is located at 2529 Yonge Street in Toronto, Canada.

It will be interesting to see if this will be used against the Chinese knock-off stores that have appeared in the press or if it will be directed at other competitors that borrow heavily from Apple’s aesthetic.

Source — PSFK

A US edition is in the works and I know a lot of people here in Canada that will jump all over the opportunity to do the “research” for the project should it come to Canadian shores.

Hopp Schwiiz! Great work Alexander Michelbach and Daniel Eugster.

This amazing piece of inspired art is by the duo of Katarzyna Kijek and Przemysław Adamski.

Inspired.

That’s how I feel these days too. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to find a little peace and quiet. UK retailer Selfridges has taken the idea and created a quiescent sanctuary providing overstimulated shoppers with a space to absorb the silence while still stimulating Selfridges registers.

As mentioned in the video above, Selfridges has curated a collection of brands to participate in the program by delivering exclusive unbranded “quiet” packaging. A serious test of brand equity…

The stores themselves will be offering dedicated Quiet Rooms, Headspace Pods for complete seclusion from visual and audible distractions as well as lectures on the benefits of peace and quiet presented by Idler Talks.

The familiar Selfridges yellow bag has also been de-branded.

If you happen to be in London, Birmingham or Manchester, be sure to stop in for a bit of silence (and a tin of beans).

These posters first caught my eye.The Splattered Bug guide needs no real explanation.

Kids (or you) can try to spot how many critters you’ve managed to mash on the grill of the family minivan on your family road trip. Funny.

76 has also created a great mobile app arming parents with The Quiet Game.

Yes. I did download it and introduce it to my two noise makers.

Made me laugh.

For the record, no matter how much the virtual mirror is like an XBox, I know my kids would still need to be strapped down to have them stand still long enough to complete the buying process. Can I suggest that they integrate the virtual toy wall with the virtual mirror…

If Willy Wonka had a glucose buzzed one-night stand with someone from that computer company in Cupertino, I suspect this would be what their spawn would choose to create.

Simply magical.