Collaboration

As part of a collaboration between SCAD and Benetton Group, students from various SCAD departments including interior design, graphic design, advertising, fashion marketing and management, architecture, furniture design and service design have designed a flagship store that reflects new standards in retail experiences and will symbolize and represent the core values of Benetton.

The Benetton project is being used to test and pilot a number of different approaches to teaching, evaluating and providing the resources needed to support multidisciplinary work. It is the first project run through the Collaborative Learning Center and as such has given SCAD the opportunity to look at how the university can facilitate and run a collaborative complex project of this nature. Benetton is an ideal partner and collaborator for SCAD, given its understanding and use of design in all aspects of its business, from fashion design to interior design and architecture, to graphics and communication design. The project has run from Jan. 15-May 14, 2010, culminating in an exhibition at SCAD's Pei-Ling Chan Gallery in Savannah, Georgia, May 14-July 16.

Students explored the notion of consumerism and how new paradigms in retail experiences can be created through new store designs, systems and materials that are informed by and reflect the Benetton brand. Undertaking marketing research and creating user focus groups to understand the shifts in retail trends and what customers want, the student teams then created advertising and media campaigns, and in-store communications, and designed store layout and retail systems. These were then incorporated into the flagship store design to reflect concepts for the future of fashion retailing.

Benetton is a global brand, and one of the most well known in the world. Each season the womenswear, menswear, childrenswear and underwear collections offer a total look for everyday, for work and for leisure, in the city and outdoors. The company produces over 150 million garments every year. Its network of approximately 6,000 contemporary stores around the world offers high quality customer services and generates a total turnover of more than 2 billion euros. Benetton Group has supported the project, with the USA group leading the project with collaborative support from New York.  Carlo Tunioli, president, Benetton Group USA, has worked with SCAD.