DARE TO BE DIFFERENT

These days we don’t have to move far from our armchairs to find inspiration, it’s all out there on the internet.  There are some truly amazing websites and blogs which offer new ideas, different views on things, new approaches to doing stuff and of course lots and lots of exciting products!

As a young design professional a lot of my inspiration came from magazines and books. I used to collect design magazines to the point where I had so many I had to invent ways to make them part of the furniture.  The magazine collecting came to head when we relocated to the south coast in the 80s.  On the final day of moving my wife finally said enough is enough as I tried to cajole Oliver (Airedale dog) to balance in his bed perched high on top of hundreds of magazines piled into the back of our Renault 5!  To this day I’m still amazed the suspension held out for the 180 mile journey.  Believe me travelling at 40 miles per hour was no fun!  These days I collect websites and I’ve cut back on the magazine subscriptions.

So, you’re probably thinking what the hell this has this got to do with the blog title.  Well, it hasn’t really apart from the fact that these days if you’re looking for visual inspiration it’s all at your finger tips!  And, if you’re running a retail business well, any business for that matter, I think it’s more important than ever to innovate ways to present your products and services to entice your customers.  In terms of your competition you don’t have to be better but you do have to be different if you’re going to stand out from the crowd!  Let’s face it there’s plenty of businesses all doing and offering the same thing!

There’s no shortage of visual inspiration and information out there and no reason why we can’t apply a bit of creative vision to our business.  Like a good shop window it’s that first ‘wow’ visual image that attracts the customer and we certainly need a bit more of the wow on the high street.  So, dare to be different, do it on a regular basis (more about that in the next blog) and see what it does to your footfall.

I’m constantly on the lookout for inspiring businesses, creative retail campaigns, blogs with personality, interesting people and indie shops that are doing things differently.  If you’ve seen something that has caught your attention or, better still something you’ve done in your own business then send me a photo or link by email/text/social media so we can share it on the blog.

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Photograph (amagazine) of red fiat outside one of my favourite shops, Merci, Paris. The team at Merci certainly know how to do things different. Read more here.