Inspiration Magazine

Introducing…Asko Ahokas

Asko Ahokas is a trend analyst from Finland who has led a New York-based agency and consulting firm for 17 years. He is one of our ongoing columnists, helping to ensure that you’re on the right wave, at the right time. It’s been a steady climb for Asko Ahokas to reach a point where he is analyzing and advising the retail world and beyond about trends from his New York-based…

Elevated Design: Winners of the 2013 gia Design Awards

Since 2011, exhibitors in Discover Design have had the opportunity to be considered for a select number of gia design awards. Here are the 2013 gia design awards for Best Product Design, Best Collection Design, and the Martin M. Pegler Award for Excellence in Visual Merchandising for the best booth design. These are best-in-class examples, providing physical proof of what the…

On Top of the World – top3

It was a simple idea yet highly innovative. The inspiration came about when Terri Winter and her husband Bernd (who owns a Sydney-based advertising agency) went to a club in Frankfurt, where only the best-in-class acts were to perform – from cabaret performers to comedians. Over a bottle of wine, the performances sparked an idea – why not apply the same methodology to design?…

Introducing…Terri Winter

Terri Winter is a curator of great design. The co-owner and founder of retail store top3 by design, she explores the world online and on foot, ensuring that the products her store carries are deemed to be the top three in the world: in their product category, by design experts and by winning awards. Before opening the doors of the first top3 by design in 2001 with her…

Introducing the 2013 gia Global Honorees

The five top stores declared gia Global Honorees 2013 were: Linen Chest from Canada, Quality Living from Italy, Kookpunt from the Netherlands, Taylor Road Homewares from New Zealand and Cooks of Crocus Hill from the United States. Quality Living also won the Martin M. Pegler Award for Excellence in Visual Merchandising. Quality and Service, Guaranteed Around 50 years ago,…

gia – Honoring Global Retailing Excellence

Every year the International Housewares Association (IHA) welcomes retailers deemed the best in their home country to Chicago, where they compete on a global stage in the IHA Global Innovation Awards 2013 (gia) program. This year there were 23 national gia winners from 22 countries, all representing the very top of home and housewares retailing. The gia program was born…

The Sights, Smells and Sounds of Shopping…

...Increasing Impulse Shopping If visual merchandising or display is vital anywhere in the retail space, it must be where impulse items are being offered. The whole concept of “impulse shopping” is based on attracting the shopper to a product that she did not come into the store to buy. It means, “waving a flag” in front of her – making her stop, take notice of, maybe try or…

Introducing…Martin M. Pegler

With over 60 years experience, our legendary columnist, Martin M. Pegler, will keep you dreaming and make sure you’re at the forefront of all things visual merchandising. “How does one get to be the ‘guru’ of an industry – an authority that is rarely questioned, but often honored?” muses Pegler. “It helps if there’s longevity,” he says. Indeed. Pegler has been actively…