NYC Holiday
After 20 years of planning, Nordstrom had finally realized the goal of opening a flagship store in Manhattan. Continuing the opening fanfare, the store’s debut holiday presentation was expected to be a stellar experience. My team designed the graphic elements for this holiday installation. I had an active role from early phases of research and pitching ideas, to curating mood boards, mocking proof of concepts, and orchestrating photography including casting talent, styling and art direction.
Objective: Environmental graphics and sign program for flagship men’s store
Client: Nordstrom NYC Men’s Store
Timeline: 4 months
My Role: Graphic Design Manager, Art Director
Tools: InDesign, Illustrator
Deliverables: Environmental graphics, posters, sign program
IDEATE
With only a mood board provided to us, we needed to create a design system for environmental graphics and signage that would not only look beautiful, but support marketing and merchant needs. We assessed the locations in store and tested a variety of approaches including illustration, pattern and stock photography. We gained approval from the Visual Merchandising Director by printing samples to scale and mocking them up on walls and columns in our studio space.
DESIGN
Typography
Illustration
Color Palette
Sign Program
REFINE
We realized that stock photography looked generic. We liked how the illustration and pattern worked with typography, but this was not enough of a statement on its own. We needed a big shift in creative direction to elevate the experience to a “more artful” presentation. Taking the “artful” direction literally, we decided to partner with an art buyer to find a photographer and stylist who could translate the mood board into beautiful still life images. I mentored the designer to create photo art direction boards to help guide the photoshoot. Over the course of three days, over 30 images were shot with the final 15 being selected.
Credits
Max Kunz, graphic design
Josh McKinley, photography
Yolande Gregnier, set design