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CONVERSATIONS ABOUT THE FUTURE // SPACE EXPERIENCE // SUSTAINABILITY // DIGITAL WORLD


How to Open a Fashion Store: Experts of Retail Design
Opening a fashion store is more than signing a lease and stocking racks with clothes. It’s about crafting a retail experience that aligns with your brand, captures attention, and drives clients. Whether you're launching your first boutique or expanding to a second or third location, assembling the right team of experts is critical to success. Here’s who you need in your corner: 1. Real Estate Broker Finding the right storefront starts with expert guidance. A real estate broke

Simone Barnabei
Jul 30, 20254 min read


In the race to grow, many wellness and beauty brands overlook this
The wellness and beauty market is booming — but also more complex than ever. From gyms to hair treatment clinics, hair removal studios, tanning salons, dental aesthetics, nail salons, massage centers, and luxury spas, consumers now have more choices — and higher expectations — than ever before. They want to engage with your brand seamlessly, whether in a premium flagship, a boutique studio, or even through an online marketplace. But here’s the challenge: as brands expand quic

Simone Barnabei
Jul 9, 20251 min read


Creating Emotional Architecture: How to Design for Loyalty, Not Just Looks
In an era where digital interfaces dominate, the physical retail space remains a powerful medium for forging deep, lasting connections with customers. But to truly resonate, these spaces must transcend mere aesthetics—they must evoke emotion. Why Emotion Matters in Design Emotional design isn't just about creating beautiful spaces; it's about crafting environments that elicit specific feelings, leading to stronger brand loyalty. Research indicates that when consumers form pos

Simone Barnabei
May 29, 20252 min read


A Coffee Shop Design Guide by SMN Design
Dreaming of opening your own coffee shop? Or just obsessed with beautiful café interiors? Our FREE eBook, "A Coffee Shop Design Guide by SMN Design," is your ultimate resource for creating a space that's as inviting as it is memorable. Ever walked into a coffee shop and just felt… right ? The lighting, the furniture, the overall atmosphere – it all clicks. That's the power of intentional design, and it's something we at SMN Design are passionate about. We believe that a well-

Simone Barnabei
Feb 18, 20252 min read


Bamboo, an unexplored material for high-end interiors
This fast-growing grass has been used in iconic buildings, which all of us have been fantasizing of, dreaming a vacation in Bali, but...

Nandini Avadhanam
Aug 24, 20222 min read


7 Most Influential Retail Designers of the Last Decade
Who are the architects and designers who made of retail design their main career focus? Here is our selection of the most outstanding...

Simone Barnabei
Aug 19, 20205 min read


10 Eyewear Brands with the Best Retail Concepts (Gallery)
Eyewear market has not been characterised by astonishing store designs, but mostly by multi-brand opticians, targeting the whole market...

Simone Barnabei
Apr 4, 20201 min read


4 Young Cosmetics Brands with the Best Retail Concepts
Selling beauty products has changed nowadays, and few companies have been pioneering this movement. In the last two decades, a series of...

Simone Barnabei
Jul 9, 20192 min read


How to Design and Manage a Successful Concept Store in 8 Steps
In the digital era, when Amazon menaces to swallow the whole market and multinationals already occupies whatever's left, here's how you can

Simone Barnabei
Jul 4, 20194 min read


Innovative Recycled Materials for Luxury Commercial Spaces
Sustainability is not anymore an option, but a requirement for good design. Luxury industry should not make an exception.

Simone Barnabei
Jul 1, 20193 min read
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