HIGH POINT, N.C., May 6, 2016 – High Point University students recently put together designs for a new Bassett Furniture showroom and pitched their ideas to representatives from the company. Some of the students’ ideas may make their way into future store prototypes.
Four groups of interior design and visual merchandising design juniors took the challenge to task and each designed two new retail showrooms geared toward young families. The students were given specific constraints, including square footage, color palettes and furniture collections from Bassett.
They then presented their ideas to a panel of four Bassett representatives and received instant feedback.
“It was such a grand opportunity to present to Bassett representatives,” said interior design major Aria Real. “I gained confidence in my presentation skills and in my abilities as a designer. This puts us at an advantage against other students competing for the same design jobs because now we have presentation experience to put on our resume for job opportunities.”
Traci Reeves, director of retail merchandising and analytics at Bassett Furniture Industries, was one of the judges on the panel. This experience for the students, she said, mimicked industry presentations and showroom concepts her team frequently creates and pitches at Bassett.
“We enjoyed seeing and hearing the students’ ideas and designs,” Reeves said. “We got a few great ideas from the students as we’re thinking about redoing things in our own stores. This experience is very well-rounded in that they created the concept, space planned the store, selected the product, created the visual aesthetic and then presented the store design to a panel.”
“The students had to think about their designs in a different way because they’re not just presenting it to each other; they’re presenting it to the actual end user,” said Dr. Jane Nichols, associate professor and chair of the Department of Home Furnishings. “It takes their thinking to the next level of seeing it from the consumer’s side and the retailer’s side – not just the designer’s point of view. Some of the questions the judges asked were things the students never would have thought of otherwise if they hadn’t worked with a real client.”