With the emergence of the retail store as a community focal point, the store planning and design profession has developed into a highly skilled practice. Competition among stores and changing tastes among clientele have brought about new styles, new materials, and new approaches to design. Renowned and successful store designer Lawrence Israel has written this definitive and comprehensive work as a reference and guide for designers and architects creating the retail structures of the future.

For the first time in a work of this kind, you'll find impressively illustrated coverage of the entire spectrum of postwar retail spaces, from the earlier 300,000-400,000 square foot department store giants through their leaner successors, to today's mass merchandisers, discounters, warehouse and catalogue operators, specialty shops, boutiques, franchisers, food supermarkets, and more. Plus, you'll also be able to turn here for definitive discussions of the theory and practice of store design.

For example, it includes sections and chapters on the... History of the field - offering a brief overview of historic, cultural, socioeconomic, and demographic influences on store design, including surveys of architecture, cinema, performing arts, literature, design, and more, showing the synergy between the field and other creative activities...

Analysis of store design over the past five decades - illustrating the dominant and seminal trends of the postwar era via numerous photographs, renderings, sketches, plans, diagrams, and charts as well as detailed analysis of merchandising, visual merchandising, fixturization, planning, design, lighting and color and materials...

Planning and design theory and elements - covering all the components of this interdisciplinary professional practice in detail and with full illustrations, including complete chapters on strategy and program, the plan, architecture, design, color and materials, fixturization, lighting, graphics, and visual merchandising...

Design process - recounting personal experiences, the author illuminates a wide range of professional challenges, including building a secure client-designer relationship... establishing credibility, respect and belief... decision making... defending creative work against unforeseen reactions... and much more. Definitions of planning terms - helping readers develop a working familiarity with the distinctive terminology of the field.

Whatever your area of interest in this multidisciplinary field, Store Planning/Design is the one-stop reference to the history, theory, and process of retail store design you've been looking for.