Arch + Design Makes Job Hunting Easy

Wouldn’t it be cool if there was a one-stop resource for jobs in architecture and design? And wouldn’t it be great if the top brands posted jobs on this resource, and also included career news and tips?

Yeah, we thought so, too.

And that’s why we’re thrilled to announce the start of Arch + Design Job Market, a career resource for architecture and design professionals. Powered by Adicio and launched by Nielsen Expositions Design Group, Arch + Design features more than 5,000 jobs and an audience of more than 100,000 professionals.

Not a bad way to kick off a job site, eh?

Arch + Design intends to provide a connection between hiring companies and recruiters to engage with its brands, such as: Contract, Hospitality Design, Kitchen & Bath Business and the Kitchen & Bath Industry Show, along with the rockin (if we don’t say so ourselves) DDI and GlobalShop. The site not only features 5,000+ jobs, but also the latest in industry news, salary research, a resume builder, writing guide and career tips.

So, are you ready to get your career on?

Check out Arch + Design and let us know what you think. Leave your comments below.

-Heather Strang

The Royal Wedding Makes A Retail Appearance

We’re obsessed with the Brits. Have you noticed? Since announcing that their wedding will take place on April 29, 2011, Prince William and Kate Middleton have become all the rage – everywhere.

From minute-by-minute coverage on television shows like "Entertainment Tonight" (which I only watch for research purposes, of course) to its own website, the royal wedding is hot, hot, hot.

And did you think retail would miss out on this obsession? Absolutely not. Any opportunity to tie the royal wedding into promotions, advertising and sales is fair game. Take for example, T.J. Maxx and Marshalls. Reportedly, Kate Middleton (Wait – are we supposed to call her Katherine now? So very Tom Cruise of the royal family.) frequents T.K. Maxx, T.J.’s British counterpart. And so, the retailer(s) decided to capitalize on this – whether real or imagined – by putting together a guide for Americans on how they too can “shop like Kate.”

The “tips” are quite cute and while they don’t make a case just for shopping at T.J.’s or Marshalls, there are a few things to learn. My favorite tips included:

• Select a tasteful topper. Honestly, I think crazy hats are only a royal thing, but I am tempted to go to the T.J. Maxx down the road to see if I can find any.

• Find a unique style. Or if I was writing this, I would say, “refer back to tasteful topper.” Bizarro pieces of fabric and felt perched on top of one’s head is certainly unique.

• Wear it like a princess. We can’t all be princesses, but we can all feel like one. I love this because it’s so true! It really doesn’t matter where you buy your clothes from, what matters is owning whatever you’re wearing as if you were the most beautiful woman in the world. (And guess what? You are!)

I want to thank T.J. Maxx/Marshall’s for further indulging our Brit obsession and giving us more ways to connect to the royal family. Because who wouldn’t want to be them? They make our celebs look like mediocre popular kids from high school.

How are you indulging in your Brit obsession? What retail promos are grabbing your attention? Tell us about it here!

-Heather Strang

*Photo by Nick Warner from Windsor, England [CC-BY-2.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.

Holiday Shopping Made Simple (?)

I need to buy a gift. A tea set to be more precise. It’s for an upcoming gift exchange party (on Tuesday, to be exact). But, with one holiday party after another, cards to send and events to attend, I’ve waited far too long and even Amazon can’t help me now. (And when Amazon can’t help, you know you’re in trouble.).

So last night, I went on the prowl to three different retailers in search of a tea gift set: Borders, Peets Coffee & Sur La Table. I struck out at all three, although Sur La Table had a tea set, but it would cost roughly the price of my firstborn. And it wasn’t even a good-looking color. So, back to the retail Christmas drawing board I go.

Why, oh why, did I wait so long to go Christmas shopping?

If only I had known about Sam’s Club’s seasonal website and its promise to make “the holidays simple.” Holidays, simple? Seems like some type of crazy oxymoron, but Sam’s Club is doing its part. The website features gift ideas (tea set maybe?!), party planning tips (would have helped with my holiday bash last week) and special offers. They’ve got a gift of the day, an interactive gift finder, recipes and a members' section for sharing holiday ideas.

In short, the folks at Sam’s Club have worked awfully hard to give customers everything they need in one fail swoop. Something tells me they may know a little about the mania that can go on out there during the holidays. How many stores have you been to searching for the perfect gift? Did you race from one store to the next, hands freezing cold, bundled up in wool, cursing the weather and the lack of available parking as I did?

Save yourself people.

Make the holidays simple.

How will you make this the best holiday season ever? And what retailers will you visit to keep it simple? Tell us about it here!

--Heather Strang

Fixture This!

I am one to often take note and observe my surroundings, especially in a retail environment. How product is shelved, where signage is hung and how mannequins are poised--all are as relevant to a retail design eye as where the deals and steals are. (Diva is quite the mystery shopper.) Fixturing, oftentimes, goes unnoticed to the untrained shopper's eye, as a successful fixturing unit often does what it is supposed to do best--showcase the product. Some do it exceptionally well and some (as I'm sure we have all noticed from time to time) do not.

My observations and opinions on the fixturing front are one thing, but observing others’ opinions--especially the opinion of those whose careers have followed the fixture industry's ever-changing trends and goings on--are particularly of interest to me. Which is why I've taken interest of late to a new fixture tell-all blog that has entered onto my radar screen. This blog has more of my attention than any of the latest star-tracker TMZ wannabes.

From analyzing shopping carts with coffee-cup holders to weighing the value of dollar stores displaying mops “guerila marketing” style, readers of the pictorial “Fixtures Close Up” blog don’t have to like snarky, in-the-moment gossip. They don’t have to like the fixturing examples they see--in fact, many of the entries inspire thought-provoking questions about the validity and effectiveness (or ineffectiveness) of particular merchandising situations. They don’t have to like much of anything to still be informed and entertained--they just have to like fixtures.

Viva racks, bars, hooks and merchandising!

--Diva