Bala, known for bringing the ankle weight to the 21st century with their “bangles”, opened a new pop-up to celebrate the launch of their new Balacize online fitness program and expanded line of products. Located on Spring Street across from the Alo flagship in Soho, their temporary space took cues from Glossier’s retail design strategy, creating a pop-up less like your run-of-the-mill store and more like a sculptural interactive installation. Now through September, go check out the space for yourself or sign up for their limited run of classes.
Apartment therapy’s Small/Cool 2022 event may have resembled a typical interior design showcase from afar, but their utilization of new tech produced an innovative experience, amplifying their exhibition to a global scale.
Warhol-mania has been resurrected, with new exhibitions, documentaries, and shows coming out of the woodwork. We visited the current exhibition at the @BrooklynMuseum , Andy Warhol: Revelation, to experience the first master of brands' lifelong take on his faith, exploring themes of “life and death, power and desire, the role and representation of women, Renaissance imagery, family and immigrant traditions and rituals, depictions and duplications of Christ, and the Catholic body and queer desire.”
The pandemic has accelerated our dependence on Amazon’s fast, safe and easy shipment of virtually anything for most Americans. Since they’ve monopolized the home delivery market, they continue to trial and error IRL categories, hoping to seamlessly merge our reliance on their technologies, whether shopping online or in-store. We checked out a couple of their convenience, Amazon Go locations, and their hybrid Starbucks/Go store to see how they're attempting to bring more ease to in-store experiences.
There is nothing more recognizably NYC than hot dog stands, “showtime” subway performances, and bodegas. In the past couple of years, we’ve seen the trend of brands creating their own pop-up bodega to showcase their products. The juxtaposition of mixing high-end designs with the humble corner store aesthetic breeds an authentic and effective experience. Kith takes over a Carrol Garden’s corner store bodega to launch their collab with Kith Treats x Cheerios for one day only.
As we are (hopefully) transitioning to the endemic stage of the COVID era, more states are looking for ways to entice travel & tourism. Florida has notoriously been a travel destination during the pandemic; with its lax lockdown policies and mandates, as of 2022, the state has surpassed its pre-pandemic tourism levels.
The Palm Beaches of Florida, wanting to further their tourism sales, utilized design innovation and social media tactics to host a pop-up, bringing the Golden Age of Travel to Grand Central in NYC.
This bold little town of Stockton on Tees is investing in “social infrastructure” to vision the next chapter of why people come downtown. They believe culture is shifting and in their case, the focus on retail and office to drive downtown traffic is outdated and losing relevance. To fill the void, they’ve developed this “social infrastructure” strategy to focus on community as the primary driver of traffic and vibrancy.
