To celebrate Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, MG2 and the city of Bellevue are collaborating on an art exhibition that highlights artists with AANHPI backgrounds and ties to the Pacific Northwest. This event not only provides an opportunity to showcase their talent but also serves as a platform to engage with the local community and promote cultural diversity.
We’re thrilled to be named one of Interior Design Magazine’s 2024 Sustainability Giants.
As a seasoned project manager, Eli’s expertise spans both the design and technical sides of projects, a perspective that gives him a holistic understanding of how concepts can be woven into functional spaces. Working hand-in-hand with stakeholders, he consistently goes above and beyond to translate and integrate client goals, his team’s abilities, and the needs of end-users to bring to life exceptional experiences.
Once again, the design world filled the city of Milan for an inspiring week of immersive brand experiences and events.
Global Home, Auto, and Fashion created a variety of unique and memorable moments ranging from large-scale tech-enhanced pop-ups to full-scale lifestyle installations to smaller room-sized experiences with hand-crafted products. The common thread among these experiences is the commitment and success of building a connection between the brand and the consumer through crafting multi-sensory and imaginative interactions.
Our standout experiences from this year’s city-wide events were…
The anticipation around Alcova every year lies not only in the chance to explore the unique and crumbling beauty of bygone days but in the curation and individualized setting that each artist creates to display their work.
This year was no exception as two abandoned and historic villas, Villa Borsani and Villa Bagatti Valsecchi, became the sprawling architectural backdrop. Featuring over 80 independent exhibitors from all over the world, the immersive and otherworldly locations allow you to “experience the intersection of design’s past, present, and future.”
“Wow…imagine living here.” Those thoughts surge repeatedly through your mind as you move with wide-eyed awe into each room of Bocci’s Apartment Showroom. So richly layered and dripping in their illuminated creations, you are instantly immersed in the brand’s lifestyle vision.
Located in the heart of the Brera district, Casa Mutina featured Ronan Bouroullec’s newest ceramic designs. The shape of Adagio “involves a play of interactions” between the tile and the wall, creating an expressive three-dimensional woven sculpture.
The showroom, designed by Patricia Urquiola, features floating walls and floors, allowing a flexible canvas for transforming space and showcasing ever-changing vignettes.
Walking into Paola Lenti, you feel a sense of calm wash over you. The hectic pace of the city fades away, and you are invited to feast on the extensive and colorful outdoor collections surrounded by greenery. This year’s space also featured Paola’s collaboration with Nendo, which used production cut-offs to create petal-shaped tables, lighting, and seating, calling “attention to nature as a source of inspiration for a more conscious and happier life.”
“A Life Extraordinary” is Moooi’s yearly fantastical immersion into their world. This year’s event featured a scent-making machine, where after answering non-standard yet perfectly Moooi questions like “Do you want to go—Up / Down?” and “What surface are you drawn to—Sharp / Smooth?” your custom scent is created and bottled.
It was a unique and memory-making experience.
Dolce & Gabbana’s Dal Cuori Alle Mane exhibition transports visitors into a realm of opulence, where iconic high fashion is meticulously arranged in lavish, detail-rich rooms. Immersed in the essence of Italianità, deeply ingrained in the brand’s DNA, attendees embark on a journey inspired by the Arts, Music, History, and Tradition through the designers’ eyes.
As visitors wander from room to room, each space is imbued with a captivating wow factor, ensuring a continuous sense of awe throughout the journey. Each collector piece, meticulously curated, serves as a testament to the brand’s long-standing tradition of craftsmanship and storytelling.
Simply elegant is the best way to describe the Tacchini booth at Salone. Storytelling for each designer, process, and piece leads you into gallery-like room settings where each object feels celebrated and special in an understated yet refined curation.
CC Tapis’ distinctive ethos shines brightly at their booth, showcasing a thoughtfully crafted collection. Collaborating with renowned designers, CC Tapis honors their commitment to hand-crafting techniques, contemporary design, and sustainable practices. The uncomplicated setting at Salone allows the products to command the center stage and effortlessly highlights each unique design.
At Salone, exhibition design takes center stage. Visitors encounter innovative presentations of furniture, kitchen and bathroom fixtures, architectural materials, and decorative objects. This year, some of the most immersive experiences belonged to the bathroom category. Brands took the opportunity to create a sensory environment inspired by water, while others focused on creative ways to display their product. As retail designers, it is an enriching and inspiring experience to see how brands put their best foot forward in a global show where brands compete for the visitors’ attention.
This year at Milan Design Week, we were awed by unique and holistic product environments that will undoubtedly build lasting memories and, therefore, a connection with the brand, no matter how large or small.
Stories are told without words, curation and imagination inspire, and multi-sensory, immersive experiences build the strongest bonds.
Until next time, Milano!
Men’s grooming behaviors and habits continue to change. Long gone are the days where a shave and a splash of cologne was all that was socially acceptable. Today, men are prioritizing their appearance more than ever before, resulting in many male consumers seeking out skincare regimens, makeup, and hair health products as part of their self-care pursuits. This evolution in behaviors has led to the destigmatization of the men’s grooming industry. In this report, we examine how brands and retailers can benefit from knowing what their male consumers want and need from the in-store shopping experience, going from provider to partner on their grooming journey.
The full report is available for download at the bottom of this preview. Take me there now!
Per our investigation, our respondents shared the following key insights as it relates to their perception of men’s grooming offerings in-store and the touchpoints that matter most:
Nearly 50% of respondents chose private testing areas for trying new products and brands in a dedicated grooming zone as a key driver of their comfortability and confidence
62% of respondents prefer to independently test and try products rather than a sales representative led experience as a means for product discovery
48% of respondents said physical or digital signage that features content showcasing best sellers in the grooming category as well as how to achieve a 5-10 minute skincare routine would be valuable to them
52% of all respondents indicated they want to see catered assortments of preventative health products in men’s grooming environments, and more than one-third were interested in products for an active lifestyle
Roughly 50% of respondents said they would benefit most from knowing which are the right products that match their skin or hair type from using a clienteling service
The desire to feel good and look good is not new however the need for education and direction is on the rise. Male consumers are eager to understand the self-care options available to them, propelling the grooming industry to new heights. The global male grooming market is expected to be worth $115 billion by 2028, which is up from an estimated $80 billion in 2022 and $74.8 billion in 2021 1. A major contributing factor are online community forums, such as TikTok’s male grooming content with their #GRWM (Get Ready With Me) multi step routine videos made by male creators. The increased demand for exposure to brands that will support their needs has also resulted in the unique positioning and promotion of grooming, such as the GQ annual Grooming Awards. Additionally, there is now a Men’s Grooming Day the third Friday of every August, encouraging men to buy and use grooming products and proactively manage their appearance. With increased familiarity, comes greater opportunities for education and connectivity. Brands and retailers can take advantage of this growing market by bringing online connectivity into physical experiences, fueling a greater sense of confidence, awareness, and brand affinity for the consumer.
1 Statista 2023
Joy Dayaw, a design PM at MG2’s Seattle office, has been named one of Visual Merchandising and Store Design (VMSD) magazine’s 2024 Designer Dozen.
“Hands-free” footwear brand Kizik has dropped anchor in New York City — and it’s staying longer than it expected.
The company, whose shoes are designed for those who hate tying their shoe laces or are unable to do so, has opened a pop-up on Greene Street in Manhattan’s SoHo neighborhood. Created in partnership with MG2, the outpost was originally scheduled to be open only for a few days. But the response was so enthusiastic, Kizik has decided to keep the space open through Memorial Day.
Footwear brand Kizik partnered with MG2 on a pop-up concept in New York City’s SoHo to gauge market demand. The people have obviously spoken, because the brand has decided to extend the pop-up through Memorial Day.
Commentary from the Top 500 Design Firms in 2024 reveals a shift in the use of artificial intelligence to complement design services. Last year, AI was the exception more than the rule, but this year more design professionals aim to integrate tech into operations.
MG2 CEO and Chairman Mitch Smith summed up the proliferation of AI use among design firms as “exciting,” but says the technology is “daunting to comprehend.”
Kizik, a purveyor of hands-free footwear, has taken the wraps off a new brand platform with the national introduction of its brand promise, “Motion Is Magic.”
That proposition will guide Kizik’s continued growth into retail, wholesale and international markets, including an experiential pop-up this past weekend in New York and plans for six more brick-and-mortar stores this year.
Nordstrom has reliably served as a robust hub for Bellevue shoppers chasing quality casual wear, high fashion, and everything in between since 1958. Anyone who’s perused the store in the past year might have noticed, though, that the brand has been working toward a new spring look.
Photographer – Benjamin Benschneider
Kizik, the industry leader in hands-free footwear innovation, debuts a new brand platform with its national introduction of its brand promise, “Motion Is Magic,” The integrated campaign unlocks the power and potential of Kizik’s category-creating, hands-free technology, inviting consumers to enter a life of frictionless freedom where they can experience the limitless possibilities of a life in motion.
This widely resonant proposition will guide Kizik’s continued growth into retail, wholesale, and international markets, culminating this April with a limited-time NYC experiential pop-up that features the launch of five new silhouettes.
MG2 is proud to share our inaugural Sustainability Impact Report for 2023. This annual report will measure our progress year-over-year towards meeting the AIA 2030 Commitment to reach towards carbon neutrality by 2030. Taking this step helps us reach our goal of transparency and accountability to our clients, our industry, and the communities where we live and work. This report demonstrates our progress in design and project work and also calculates our corporate carbon emissions.
While sustainability has long been part of the MG2 ethos, we formalized our position in 2020 by joining the AIA 2030 Commitment and publishing our first Sustainability Action Plan. With this 2023 Sustainability Impact Report, we’ve taken the opportunity to refine our plan and take advantage of new tools and processes. As part of that plan, we have established four goals as a firm:
With a focus on building performance, we aim to reduce the amount of energy needed to operate buildings. In new construction, this involves building heating and cooling, lighting, plug loads, etc. For retail tenant improvements (TI), we primarily focus on the lighting power density which calculates the light output per square foot.
This goal represents all the building materials required for new construction or retail TI. Each material has an associated Global Warming Potential (GWP) number which considers the material’s extraction from the earth, manufacturing process, transportation to the building site, and building construction, called “cradle to gate.” We calculate the material quantities in the building (typically from a Revit model) and apply a GWP number to those quantities to determine the metric tons of CO2 a building uses. Reducing this number requires higher efficiencies in our designs and our materials.
Many material manufacturers provide Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) for their products. This goal emphasizes the importance of collecting EPDs when we procure or specify materials. In addition to the AIA 2030 Commitment, we are proud signatories of the AIA Materials Pledge. Our job as designers is to bring a deeper awareness of the material makeup and offer our clients “good, better, and best” choices when selecting materials.
Water is one of our most precious resources. We calculate and track water usage for irrigation as well as indoor water use. No matter where you live, water is becoming a scarce resource, and as designers we are responsible for implementing innovative solutions.
You can’t improve what you don’t measure, and as a firm we always challenge ourselves to do better. We are constantly tracking data for the above goals during each design phase of a project, from Concept Development through Construction Documentation. Each design team is responsible for collecting and evaluating data during the design process and looking for ways to improve efficiencies.
MG2 invites you to check out our 2023 Sustainability Impact Report and check back each year to see our progress. Enter your name and contact information below to gain access, then click on the report to read full-screen.
The fitting room has a reputation of being a little sterile at best — and completely unbearable at worst.
While few have prioritized the fitting room experience, Good American, River Island and Victoria’s Secret are among a growing list of retailers turning it into a point of differentiation by leveraging immersive visual storytelling and intentional tech integration.
“Sensorial elements set the tone and the mood from an environmental design standpoint…and then the technology facilitates the efficiency for the customer, and the learnings and data for the brand. Anything you can do to minimize the amount of time it takes for a customer to get an answer while they’re interested in a product increases the chances of a good experience.” Melissa Gonzalez, Principal, MG2
We’re excited to announce SOREL named Pop-Up Store – Gold at The 2024 Shop! Design Awards.
We’re excited to be listed in Interior Design’s 2024 Top 100 Giants.
There are many questions surrounding denim, from how to engage consumers with exciting retail experiences to how to reduce overproduction waste. These five companies, including MG2, offer up some answers.
“Brands and retailers want to create in-store experiences that feel impactful and unique, but too often they create mood boards that are just a canvas of what everyone else is doing,” said Melissa Gonzalez, Principal at MG2.
Consumers are making lifestyle choices with wellness in mind, which ignites in them a feeling of purpose and a sense of motivation.
That’s the conclusion that the architecture and design firm MG2 draws from a survey of 1,182 U.S. adult consumers the firm conducted last December about their seeking healthier shopping experiences. (Download the full report.)
How can brands leverage theater-driven design to create immersive retail experiences that resonate with consumers? Melissa Gonzalez, Principal and Shareholder at MG2 Design and the host of Retail Refined, has illuminated this topic at SXSW (South by Southwest) 2024, highlighting the significance of engaging consumers through multiple touchpoints.
“What do you stand for? Why do you deserve my money? It was great to see so many of those themes and topics really bubble up to the top of conversations,” Gonzalez said, emphasizing the need for brands to craft compelling, personalized narratives that capture the consumer’s imagination and foster a connection
VMSD magazine celebrates the best and brightest young designers in retail design through its annual VMSD Designer Dozen awards. These 12 emerging stars recognized this year come from retail organizations and design firms across the country and internationally, and Joy Dayaw, Design PM at MG2, was selected.
Floor Covering News Publisher and Editorial Director, Steve Feldman, penned his column this week about Gen Z and MG2’s research and insights report: “Gen Z: A Deeper Look at 4 Key Personas and How They Are Shaping the In-store Experience.”
“‘This is still a young generation that’s just coming into their career, still largely living with their parents, so they’re still going be motivated by cost, even if they want to make sustainable decisions,’ said Melissa Gonzalez, principal at MG2.”
“Flexibility is definitely a key component whether you’re doing Store 1 or Store 100,” said MG2 Principal Melissa Gonzalez in a Chain Store Age’s interview with Debra Hazel.
Read the cover story, “”New Store Strategies,” on why flexibility and adaptability are key to engaging todays demanding consumers.
MG2 partnered with a prestige beauty company to assess and develop a customized, scalable sustainability program for both new and existing retail stores globally, spanning their family of brands.
The objective of this more than 12-month endeavor was to establish a framework, along with measurable standards and criteria, that could be incorporated into the built environment across various categories, including store buildout, energy, and water conservation, sustainable sourcing of materials, and operations, among others.
The Navy Exchange (NEX) oversees more than 300 NEX retail stores on 92 naval bases worldwide, varying in size from small self-checkout convenience stores to large department stores. In 2020, NEX enlisted MG2 to partner with them in a department-by-department exploration into how to redefine value at its owned locations. This exploration encompassed Beauty, Consumer Electronics, Kids, Footwear, Home, Jewelry, Food Hall and Provisions – all utilizing Oceana base store as the anchor test store.
Once implemented at Oceana, the NEX team worked with MG2 to leverage learnings from the pilot location to apply a guide for further iterations and eventually a rollout playbook to adapt and scale each department’s evolution.
Due to the continued elevation of the competitive landscape, NEX has invested in evolving and elevating their value proposition to their patrons by reimagining the store experience department by department.
“Thirty years ago, it was really convenient because everybody lived on base, but now more families live off base.
It’s about creating a sense of excitement, a sense of community, a sense of belonging, and being able to allow patrons to check more off their list.”
– Rich Honiball, EVP and global chief merchandising and marketing officer for the Navy Exchange Service Command (NEXCOM)
Let’s not think of
ourselves as the military store;
let’s think of ourselves as
a retail destination.
The MG2 Advisory Team, in partnership with our design team, took a multi-pronged approach to assessing how each department could best support consumer needs.
This included:
This evaluation identified opportunities beyond price to deliver value across the fleet of locations. Through a deep dive analysis into trends and customer pain points and desires, including areas that provided demystification, we could identify drivers and preferences to inform the in-store experience evolution, allowing the Navy mission to be more deeply reflected in the spaces visited by sailors and families.
Based on the insights and research the MG2 Advisory Team brought forward, MG2 designed stores that provided greater space for storytelling, fostering excitement and a sense of community. As a result of these findings, the NEX team revamped each department, reimagining the customer journey, merchandising, wayfinding and operational change.
The beauty department redesign was first introduced in the Oceana store in 2022, followed by the Pensacola Navy base store in Florida. Post Oceana’s redesign: The beauty departments now demystifies customer discovery. The products which had been arranged by brand alone are rearranged by regimen instead. New end caps feature educational tips and how-tos and a flexible space in the new beauty department hosts special events and live streaming.
The post-redesign sales increases have been significant:
“The way that the departments are structured and organized elevates the product, elevates the experience, and makes it easier for the customer to find what they’re looking for…”
– Rich Honiball
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