It’s been but two weeks since Bloomingdales in New York City opened their doors to a remodeled beauty department. Now, $55M dollars later, we have glossy checkers to compliment six new brands: Bare Essentials, Jo Malone, Shu Uemura, Sisley, Bumble and Bumble and Giorgio Armani.  This rendering highlights the perfume area, just one section of the cosmetics floor. As we’ve noted over the past few months, Alexander McQueen, Amy Winehouse, Vivienne Tam and Kandinsky are all artists that have found inspiration in this timeless staple, so too will the customers, the retail financiers are hoping.

By: Shayna Kulik

It’s always thrilling when brands fuse artful thinking with strategic marketing. Pointer footwear appears to be quietly racing to the top as they’ve built a cult following of sneaker enthusiasts over the past two years. Merging relevant trends, such as black and blue color schemes with cubic formations, Pointer’s art direction appears to overlap product categories of every variety. When paired beside this African Shore Eye Palette by Yves Saint Laurent, it’s easy to understand how one color can make the difference between gender specific marketing.

By: Shayna Kulik

The 50th anniversary of Barbie has ushered in product upon product over the past year.  From Karl Lagerfeld’s Colette exhibition in March, to the above Stila compact that’s currently on sale at Gilt Groupe, Barbie’s impact upon the commercial design community has deeply influenced patterns over the past season.  As we pointed out in mid April, houndstooth is a staple many artists take the liberty of altering. Here we have a high heel repeat that’s a refreshing reminder of how one can merge stiff commercial marketing guidelines with creative themes and a colorful palette.

Every artist loves a happy accident. For those who are unfamiliar with this term, a happy accident is an unexpected and unintended creative mistake that ends up being more brilliant than your day’s work. For those in search of a tool that offers a degree of uncertainty and requires little to no prep, spray paint is the way to go.  Many designers have taken note, as this technique has gained momentum in creative studios throughout the globe. Curiosity, the Japanese brainchild of Gwenael Nicolas and Reiko Miyamoto, was established in 1998 and caters primarily to the design needs of luxury clients. Combining saturated pigments with Shu Uemura‘s eau de toilette collection, Curiosity’s bottle art emulates the textural results of a prolonged spray. 

ABC Carpet gets a lot of airtime on Pattern Pulp.  Their retail installments set an industry [...]

We’re all guilty of the duty-free pit stop. It’s nearly impossible to resist spritzing yourself before boarding an international flight, particularly when you’ve got twenty minutes to kill.  Today Pattern Pulp is exploring perfumes that are slightly under the radar.  Scents that take a bit of exploring to find, yet are true favorites among their fan base.  Each of these brands has taken a similar stab at adorning their packaging with intricate florals, a common theme throughout the beauty industry. Sula, a side project of Susanne Lang, a Canadian parfumerie, is an affordable scent that intertwines theme-specific patterns with asymmetrical negative space. In an attempt to trace organic steps to this endpoint, real life inspiration can be found on this Jane Street apartment building as branches span the cement in upward growth.

Miller Harris’s signature floral etchings are equal [...]