RETAIL AND PRESENTATION

Dear Readers,

Did you have a good start into the new year? We very much hope so! In our case, it started with the trade fairs relevant to interior design and architecture in January. So all the members of the AIT editorial team dutifully commuted back and forth between Frankfurt to Heimtextil, Hanover to Domotex (picture at the top), Cologne to imm cologne, and Munich to Bau. On facebook, we’ll show you all the new, surprising, and even bizarre things we’ve discovered – and in a well-sorted and edited version in the next AIT issue in March. Before we set out, we got the present issue on “Sales and Presentation” off to the printers. To this end, we battled our way through an incredible variety of retail projects from all over the world to find out once again that the spectre of online trading is more likely to fuel the retail trade than to cut the ground from under its’s feet! Quite the contrary: in the meantime, even online providers are renting retail space to make “real” customer contacts! According to surveys, customers love unusual product presentations, an authentic feel-good atmosphere, a high level of service, and well-trained staff. These are characteristics only the retail trade can show to best advantage and should continue to do so in the future. The best examples start on page 68. In their article “The Selfie Store” (starting on page 114), Christoph Stelzer and Nadine Frommer from the retail identity agency Dfrost reflect on how even the demands of the Instagram generation regarding shopfitting can be met. New year – new AIT colours! In 2019, the colour selection of Adelaide Testa and Andrea Marcante (picture on the right) will lead you through the magazine layout. The Turin-based architects (also see AIT 7/8.2018; residential building Urban Décor) have also developed the colour graphics (pp. 8/9, 34/35, and 50/51), which separate our three different magazine sections from each other. And what do you think of our current AIT title? What does it have to do with sales and presentation? Find out on page 108 – the topic can be so diverse!

Best Wishes
Petra Stephan, Dipl.-Ing.
Chief Editor
Architect