Pickup lights up
Shanghai's unique Apple Pickup counter, new shirts at Infinite Loop, and more.
Dezeen recently published an interview with Rebecca Cully, leader of environmental sustainability in retail design at Apple. The article explores why recent Apple Store design changes better align with Apple’s values:
Apple is working on building record-keeping of impact and transparency into all its contracts. However, Cully acknowledged that evaluating the full of the impact of all components and materials in its stores is still not possible.
"Evaluating products by manufacturer for carbon is still very early," she said. "And so contractually obligating our supply chain manufacturers to disclose that information as a result of award is certainly something that we are focused on right now."
Apple celebrated major sustainability breakthroughs at Tysons Corner and Battersea earlier this year, but this article gives the impression that the company is still frustrated by the glacial pace of the industry, and that its ambitions are far greater than suppliers can currently accommodate.
"We have evolved the store from kind of looking like a product, to now fully representing our values in every way that we can, within the context of the built environment itself."
Read more over at Dezeen.
Pickup lights up
Renovations continue at Apple Pudong in Shanghai, and the old Genius Bar portion of the store has reopened to reveal a new and very unique Apple Pickup counter. This design references classic atomic Genius Bar signage with a backlit pickup logo. A stainless steel back wall that mimics the old bar storage functions like the wood drawers and back wall found in newer stores. Apple has now installed nearly one dozen distinct Apple Pickup designs across its 25 locations with pickup counters.
New shirts
Just in time for fall are fresh shirts at Apple Infinite Loop. The solid color shirts each have an outlined Apple logo and are available in pink, teal, blue, and black. The previous shirt collection was available in white, gray, dark blue, and red and featured a filled Apple logo.
Mirage update
At WWDC I told you about Mirage, the new public sculpture at Apple Park Visitor Center. Since opening in June, Apple has overhauled the sculpture’s landing page — mirage.place — that visitors launch from a QR code at the trailhead. Added now are more than a dozen new beautiful photos, aerial videos, ambient music, an expanded information page, and catalogs of the sand and deserts represented in the work. Check it out.
I Gigli
Apple I Gigli in Campi Bisenzio reopened in August, and the store’s new hero image, published last week, reveals an interesting change. The customer-facing portion of the store is now significantly smaller. Take a close look at the left wall in the before and after photos above. Apple rebuilt the rear portion of the store to enclose and remove an annex lined with accessory bays, and earlier, the Genius Bar. That area is now presumably part of backstage.
Frankfurt’s Apple Große Bockenheimer Straße also reopened on September 2.
Featured image
Apple Carnegie Library
Photo via @nastynate.dj.
Really enjoy all your posts. Thank you for enjoying the Apple retail experience as much as I do!