DDi - July 2012 - (Page 8)

8 | From the Editor Back to the future M uch like every company that has ever touched this magazine, we at DDI spend a lot of time sitting around thinking about the future. (And by “sitting around,” I clearly mean brainstorming while walking through airport terminals, riding in taxis, visiting stores and in between corporate finance meetings. Who has time to sit?!) Here at DDI, we have decided that the future is now. And we better do something about it. The future of DDI Magazine lies in the future of the retail design industry. Yes, the retail corporate executives and design decision-makers are our core audience now. But what will the future retail designer look like? What will our industry look like in 10 years? Who will be the next generation of decision-makers? We’re on a mission to find out. In the past three months, we have enacted a series of events and editorial initiatives to make sure we are paying attention to, writing about and getting to know the future leaders of this industry. They include: they had no idea what materials they had to work with until they arrived. What cruel fun! Stay tuned for full feature coverage of the one-day event and After Party in our upcoming August issue. What a fantastic day! DDI Student Center And finally, please be sure to bookmark www.ddionline.com/studentcenter in your online favorites. We have dedicated a full page of our website to covering the retail design industry from the student perspective. Here, we will be covering school announcements, competition deadlines, student design challenge winners and, best of all, first-person commentary from students, faculty and industry insiders to keep the conversation rolling all through the year. We want design students to have a central hub for all of their retail design information. After all, retail is the place to be! In addition to our new initiatives, I should note that DDI already proudly supports the actions and efforts of PAVE (Planning and Visual Education Partnership) each year by sponsoring and attending the Annual Gala each December. The development of the future thought leaders of this industry is a priority for us here at DDI. We hope it is yours as well. DDI citySCENE While much of the attendance base for our premier events, such as GlobalShop and the DDI Forum, consists of senior-level designers and retailers, we felt the need to get out into the local communities to grab a real touchpoint with the pulse of the design industry. In May, we launched our first-ever citySCENE networking event at 620 Jones in San Francisco. The event invites everyone—from students, interns and junior designers on up to directors and CEOs—to put down the iPad, turn off the smartphone, and come connect with the local retail design community. Stay tuned for more citySCENE dates and locations coming soon! DDI Student Window Challenge, presented by Saks Fifth Avenue In June, DDI launched its first-ever student design competition, in partnership with Harry Cunningham and the folks at Saks Fifth Avenue. Visual students from the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) were given from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Thursday, June 7, to design, create and implement a store window display within Saks’ 49th Street flagship windows in Manhattan—and Alison Embrey Medina Executive Editor alison.medina@ddionline.com Editor’s note: The photo above is of my daughter Maddie, age 1. We don’t yet know if she’ll be interested in retail design or not…but a mom can try! www.ddionline.com | July 2012 http://www.ddionline.com/studentcenter http://www.ddionline.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of DDi - July 2012

DDi - July 2012
Contents
From the Editor
From the Show Director
Newsworthy
Shopper Insights
Greentailing
Editor’s Choice
Design Snapshot
El Palacio de Hierro
Global Department Store Summit
Liverpool
Neiman Marcus
State of the Fixture Industry Roundtable
2012 Fixture Leaders listing
2012 Fixture Leaders company index
Fixture Products
Right Light
Product Spotlight
Calendar
Advertisers
Classifieds
Think Tank

DDi - July 2012