The Behaviours Agency had a company away-day recently to Amsterdam for a Retail Safari, in the hope of identifying retail trends.

Amsterdam is an art lead city hosting iconic galleries like the Van Gogh. The city oozes culture with street art, through to its independent cafes and shops visible in every corner.

It is very apparent that Amsterdam embraces its roots by the whole city living within its artist image, so much so that they even have their own brand guidelines.

We identifies the trend of art inspired retail spaces into 3 key trends.

A Branded City

The XXX symbol is present across the city covering walls, doors, cars and graffiti. The ‘XXX’ symbol, which is actually three vertical St. Andrew’s Crosses, not (as some people assume) shorthand for the Red Light District. For the Amsterdam coat of arms, the three crosses are in white, atop a red shield with a black pale. St. Andrew was a fisherman who was martyred on an X-shaped cross in the 1st century AD

https://vimeo.com/85342714

 

Art Inspired VM

 

 

The Art of Lighting

Art inspired lighting. Creating an inspiring retail environment is an essential way to bring a to life a creative selling space. Brand story telling was prominent in many stores, where a lesser focus was made upon the product, yet instead the environment it was situated in.

Abstract lighting took a strong focal point shining the way across the city. We spotted art inspired lighting trends across a range of premium and independent retailers, that created ambient abodes that added mood for the shopper experience. 

https://shop.sprmrkt.nl/

Mini Lifestyle store

Outdoors / Indoors

The art of creating serenity and mood using the elements from outdoors, indoors into a store environment.

Plants and greenery have always been popular in house items with this evolving noticeably into larger scale full trees and full scale wall installments in modern retail stores. Rustic elements from outdoors and wood installations bring a natural feel of craftsmanship and finer detail to a store image by incorporating natural elements.

We found this works particular well in design stores with items such as high end fashion clothing and accessories to contextualize product.

G-Star Denim Store

 

Here at The Behaviours Agency, we love finding shopper and retail insights and spotting a new retail trend from store visits. Why not contact us to curate your own Retail Safari or Inspiration Tour? Get in touch and we can discuss how to help you innovate in your sector to deliver real results.