First Place for Bloomingdale’s Santa Monica!




Lanterns that double as retractable dressing room pods. Photograph by Grey Crawford.

The Retail Design Institute’s International Store Design Awards Gala was held on January 10th at the New York Times Building’s conference center. The evening coincided with the Institute’s 50th anniversary, and the awards were the Institute’s 40th presentation.

It was an interesting evening – to say the least.

No red carpet here, but all the “stars” of the retail design community were out in full force. We knew in advance that our Bloomingdale’s Santa Monica store was cited for an award, but until the announcement we didn’t know at what level.

Just to prolong the suspense…the awards presentation this year was set up differently than in past years. This year, each candidate in a particular category was announced and asked up on stage where the winner would be announced. And then the winner was asked to make a short acceptance speech – GULP!

What made our segment highly amusing was not only to have been nominated along with a competitor, but for the same client – Bloomingdale’s – in another location.

Well, it was the longest ten seconds I can remember…but happily, our project won. Off the top of my head all I could think of to say was, “Well, in any event, Bloomingdale’s wins!”

The next day, after delivering the good news, our client was very happy and quite pleased to have had their two newest stores nominated.
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