Traveling at Anthropologie

Over the weekend while visiting an Anthropologie store in the Bay Area, unlike the usual shopper who would be engrossed with the clothing, I was drooling over their imaginative displays.

First, from the outside of the store the front glass windows of the high ceiling store were decorated with none other than painter's tape, which is a type of masking tape that removes from the surface cleanly. In the colors blue and orange, this tape was stretched across the windows with twists and turns for a composition that resembled a gigantic road map splayed on glass. Upon opening the doors and entering, the first display to meet my eyes was a very abnormal display stand. Attached to a steel pole were three old wooden drawers, one on top of the other but each angled to face a different direction. Taking a peek at the contents, I discovered them to be little trinkets sold in the store.

Turning around to look at the backside of a mannequin I was admiring earlier from outside, I now noticed that it stood on a wooden platform with four wheels at the bottom. Next to the mannequin were four old, worn out suitcases stacked on top of one another, in a seemingly careless fashion yet obviously well balanced. As I made my way further into the store I saw a model of a small town made of paper, with swirling wires poking out. As the ends of these wires were paper planes crafted from old road maps, adding a sense of real travel.

Throughout the store I found many more displays that carried the theme of travel in an way that felt imaginative and playful. Not only were they interesting to look at, but they initiated thought of travel and exploration. The design was not aimed toward selling clothing to customers for travel purposes, but aided in selling a lifestyle. In my opinion it was very effective in defining what the company stands for, and the type of customer they appeal to.

Not only were the designs indicative of an exploring nature of their customers, but also to a liking for things handmade and vintage. For example, the display stand was obviously not a mass marketed piece of furniture and by filling them with trinkets it gave customers the feeling of going through their grandmother's old jewelry box for vintage finds.

This one is definitely one of my top favorite displays that I've seen from Anthropologie so far, not simply for the creativity and aesthetically pleasing nature of it all, but for the complex meaning of the overall design as a definition for the company's target customer.