design:retail - January 2018 - 38

038

he "M" word-Millennial-is not something that's
used in the classroom at the Fashion Institute of
Technology (FIT) in New York. This youngest sect
of up-and-coming retail designers and visual
merchandisers to enter the field soon doesn't like
it, and they're unimpressed with why everyone
cares so much about them.

FIT STUDENT PARTICIPANTS
VISUAL PRESENTATION AND EXHIBITION DESIGN
(VPED) MAJORS (UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED)
Asabea Ayres, 21
Brooklyn, N.Y.
Giuliana Buono, 21
Long Island, N.Y.
Cynthia Chandra, 25
(Interior Design Major)
Jakarta, Indonesia
Alexandra (Ally) D'Alleva, 21
Needham, Mass.
Lauren Fregman, 20
Long Island, N.Y.
Joseph Klaus, 21
Eastern Long Island, N.Y.
Yoo Jung Lee, 24
Korea
Katia Michalopoulos, 21
Woodstock, N.Y.
Nora Mohamad
Alyssa Moreno, 23
Brooklyn, N.Y.
Shōna Neary, 21
Military Brat
Patrick O'Connor, 24
Long Island, N.Y.
Subin Oh, 22
Korea
Maria Resavage, 21
Staten Island, N.Y.
Samantha Skopas, 21
Bethpage, N.Y.
Iris Yang, 24
Korea/Philadelphia

JANUARY 2018

Apathy aside, this generation of designers is an
interesting group that is bright, technologically
savvy, forward thinking and globally cultured. To
discover what's on the horizon for our industry,
design:retail wanted to pick their brains. What
makes them excited about retail? Why did they
choose design? How do they shop? These were
the questions we sought out to explore, among a
host of other topics. So we teamed up with Anne
Kong, associate professor, program coordinator for
Visual Presentation + Exhibition Design at FIT, for
a roundtable of sorts and sat down with more
than a dozen FIT students ranging in age from 21-25
(the tail end of the Millennial demographic), majoring in Visual Presentation + Exhibition Design (and
one Interior Design major).
We learned that they hold little brand loyalty
(except to Apple) and fluidly toggle between online
and physical shopping. Want to know what else
makes the next generation of Millennial (gasp!) designers tick? Read on.
design:retail: What are your thoughts on design?
What about this field interests you?
Shōna: I used to be in fine arts. One of the reasons
I switched into this major is because when you're
creating a painting, you're just sort of putting it on a
wall, but in this major you're designing something
for people to actually interact with. It's an interest of
mine to actually make something that people have
an attachment to instead of just looking at.
Samantha: I came into this program from communication design, where it was a more broad design
aspect and not necessarily visual, and I really didn't
know anything about this at all. I [thought] "design
is graphic design. I'm going to make logos for the

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rest of my life." Then I learned about this, and [it]
is actually interesting to me and fun. That's why
I'm here.
Katia: For me, a big part of design is communication. The idea that you can communicate different
viewpoints, different ideas. It's about learning. So
that's the aspect of design that really interests me.
It's the fusion of a lot of different things that can
come together to bring an experience to someone,
so that's why I chose this program.
d:r: What are your thoughts on the current state
of retail?
Samantha: I always see all the headlines that say
they're shutting down, but I think it was last week
I did see an article that [said] Millennials don't
agree with that. They are going to stores and buying things and not necessarily always doing it
online. Personally, I feel like I know a lot of people
that would rather go to a store and experience the
experience of the store. I'd rather try something on
before I buy it.
d:r: Do you shop more online or in-store?
Both? And what do you do when you need to
return something?
Patrick: I refuse to return things.
Shōna: Some online stores are just online. You can't
return [items] in-store. I have this problem when
I shop online that if I buy it and it doesn't fit, I
just keep it.
Asabea: I don't like to buy things from the store. I go
in a store, I find my size, and then I order it online.

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