Musical Showcase: 427 Design puts capabilities on display in training room

音乐主题的室内标识设计

By Paula Aven Gladych

An Akron, Ohio-based graphic design firm got a chance to create an innovative sales and training space for one of its large-format printing clients: an indoor street scene with a musical theme.

位于俄亥俄州，亚克朗市的427平面设计公司，最近获得了一个项目，为一家大型印刷客户，设计一间新颖的工作室，同时具有销售的功能。他们将它定义为，音乐主题的室内街景。

427 Design was asked by Imagine This, a large format wholesale printer that outsources to smaller printing companies, to come up with a way to showcase its products and abilities in a creative, memorable and functional way, says Brad Hain, president of 427 Design.

427设计公司的总裁，布拉德•海恩表示，这次设计项目是为Imagine This量身定做的。Imagine This是一家将业务外包给小型印刷公司的，大规模批发打印公司，擅长在创造性、功能性、印象深刻性等方面，展示其产品和业务能力。

“It will be a sales training thing for their people as well as onsite for some local printers to come look and see all the things they do,” he says.

海恩说：“对于他们的员工来说，这是一个销售产品的好机会。当地一些其他的印刷厂，也会借机来观摩他们公司的产品和设备。”

The company had a small conference room on the second floor that wasn’t being used so the team at 427 Design set to work coming up with a concept.

该公司的二楼，有一间没有使用的小会议室，427公司的设计团队，打算将这间会议室，打造成一个全新的工作室。

“[Our contact at ImagineThis] said, ‘we have all these materials and want to show them in practice instead of samples of each piece,” says Andrea Brown, client service director for 427 Design. Since most of what they offer is outdoor signage, the challenge was “how to come up with a scene indoors that feels outdoors.”

427设计公司的客户服务总监，安茱莉娅•布朗说：“我们和Imagine This公司进行了沟通，他们希望通过室内设计来展示他们的样品，所以提供给我们的材料，大部分都是室外标识牌。因此对我们来说，这个设计项目最大的挑战是，没有违和感的，将室外的场景搬进室内。”

What it came up with was a musical theme. Music “resonated with everyone in some way,” she says. The company created a music store front that was having a sidewalk sale. As part of the sidewalk display, the company wrapped three old guitars and a drum kit to make them look new and placed signs advertising the sale, as well as a point of purchase display for music CDs out front. A street travels down the middle of the room. The opposite side of the room is covered in a wall mural that shows a city view and park scape. In front of that are signs and fence banners advertising an upcoming concert in the park.

她继续说：“我们的设计团队提出了‘音乐主题’的设计理念，毕竟在某种程度上，音乐容易引起大多数人的共鸣。恰巧这家公司有一间音乐用品商铺，于是他们提供给我们，三把旧吉他和一套架子鼓，将他们重新包装之后，作为新的陈列标识，并在标识牌前设置了音乐CD购买点。整个房间被中间的一条街道一分为二，城市景观和公园景观的壁画，粘贴在房间的另一边，壁画前拉起横幅，为即将在公园举办的音乐节做广告宣传。”

“The idea was to give them a great idea. Imagine some of this stuff happening. They can visualize it, touch it and get a good idea of all this stuff,” Hain says.

海恩补充说：“这个设计理念也让客户非常满意。试想一下，如果这个设计理念付诸实践，他们可以看见它、触摸它，并且可以设想到这个设计带给他们的实际收益。”

Erik Baker, vice president of sales for ImagineThis in Massillon, Ohio, said that his company employs many customer service representatives. When the company hires new ones, it wanted a place where internal people could train them and help them “better understand what these applications are used for: awnings, yard signs. When you see real life things like that it makes them understand it. That way they know it a lot better to help customers when they call in and ask questions about these products.”

Imagine This在俄亥俄州马西隆的销售副总，艾瑞克•贝克说：“我们公司雇佣了很多客户服务代表。当公司和一个新公司合作时，我们会为对方公司派出的技术人员，提供一个培训的空间，帮助他们更好的掌握设备的应用。当真正接触到实际物品时，你才能更快速的了解它。通过这种方式，当有顾客咨询有关产品时，他们才能更好的答疑解惑。”

Baker says his only recommendation to the team at 427 Design was to “make it energetic and fun and something everyone has in common with and that’s what they did.”

贝克表示，他对于427公司的设计团队，唯一的建议是，尽他们所能，让设计充满活力和乐趣。

“It didn’t originate as a music theme at first,” says Brown. Originally they had the idea of creating a park with turf on half of the room with a street wending through the middle and numerous storefronts on the opposite wall.

布朗说：“最开始，我们并没有打算以音乐为设计主题。而是打算以中间的街道为分界线，一边设计一个带草坪的公园，另一边设计几间店铺。”

“We went down that path for a week and then we were in a meeting internally, everyone was bouncing ideas,” she says. Attendees agreed that the project still seemed disjointed. It needed a theme running all the way through. The company’s creative director threw out the idea of music as a theme. That’s when it all clicked, she says. They ran the idea by Baker and he loved it.

她继续补充：“我们在这条设计好的道路上，走了一个星期寻找灵感，然后我们进行了内部会议，每个人都有各自的想法。大家一致认为，最初的设计方案太单薄，缺乏一个主题。最后，创意总监提出了以音乐为主题的设计理念，赢得了一致好评。接着我们询问了贝克的意见，他对此很满意。”

For the project, the team at 427 Design went to thrift stores around town and brainstormed. They purchased old windows and doors for the store front, old guitars and drum sets to place in front of the music store and even called a scrap yard to see if it had the back end of a van it could use.

为了实施该项目，427公司的设计团队，走遍了周边的商店，购买合适的材料。他们准备了旧的门窗、旧的吉他和架子鼓，放置在音乐商店的门前，甚至打电话给废料场，询问他们是否有可以使用的货车。

It did and they cut the back off the van to place in the room’s closet. The van still has working tail lights and the doors of the van open into the closet, where there are shelves with simple materials inside. The van was covered in a vehicle wrap that makes it look old and rusty.

他们得到货车后，把货车的后半部分切掉，放置在房间里。货车的尾灯还亮着，他们将货车的门都打开，里面装上一些简单的物品。然后用做旧的车身贴，把货车包装起来，使它看起来比较陈旧。

“It was a really fun project,” Brown says.

布朗笑着说：“这是一个非常有趣的项目。”

The van and the backlit awning at the front of the music store are the main focal points of the room. The project even utilized printed window perfs on conference room windows that look down on the production room floor.

音乐商店的货车，以及门前背光式的遮阳篷是设计的重点之一。除此之外，设计团队还在窗户上使用了穿孔窗膜。

Baker says that it would be great if larger small sign shops could do something similar to peddle their wares.

贝克说道，任何大型或者小型的商店，按照类似的设计，来销售他们的产品，都将会产生巨大的收益。

“If they have end users, it would really help them sell that product too,” he adds.

他补充说：“如果他们有终端用户，那真的对销售产品很有帮助。”

Imagine This has an online store for resellers and it takes orders night and day. It handles larger projects that the smaller shops aren’t equipped to handle. The company employs 15 people that work three shifts throughout the day.

Imagine This有一家在线销售的经销商，工作室完工后，每天都会有订单。这家小型的商铺，面对大量的销售额，雇佣了15个员工，分成三个班次，全天工作。

427 Design is a 10-year-old graphic design firm that considers itself a creative solutions company.

427设计公司是一家具有十年历史的平面设计公司，一直致力于将创意融入设计理念中，为客户提供更好的服务。

“We do more than graphic design. We think beyond and use graphic design as a way into creative solutions for people: video, animation, photography, screen printing, illustrations, you name it,” says Hain. The company employs nine people.

海恩最后说：“我们公司现有员工9人，但工作并没有仅限于平面设计。我们打算以平面设计为基础，为客户定制专门的视频、动画、摄影、喷印、插画等项目。”