VMER 420 - Senior Capstone - Visual Merchandising

This course serves as a capstone challenge at the senior level, incorporating the skills and knowledge learned throughout the four-year Visual Merchandising program. Emphasis is placed on understanding the development of a retail image and the role of visual merchandising in defining that image. The store environment is a critical medium in the selling mechanism. It’s the fulfillment of the customer’s expectations and the deliverance of every promise ever made to the customer through storewide advertising campaigns. The capstone challenge is to redesign the first floor of an existing 140,000 to 170,000 square-foot department store, located in an urban center. The first floor, ranging in size from 42,000 to 60,000 square feet, will house Cosmetics, Accessories, Designer Sportswear, Women’s Shoes, Intimate Apparel, and Men’s Furnishings. The class will be divided into teams, one for each family of business listed above. This will be a real-world challenge with the class operating as a retail design firm. Together they will design a memorable and recognizable branded environment, including developing a floor plan, a color and materials palette, signage, and packaging, as well as visual merchandising techniques to differentiate their store in the competitive marketplace.
3 credits
Prerequisite: VMER 100, VMER 110, VMER 120, VMER 153, VMER 201, VMER 220, VMER 230, VMER 240, VMER 250, VMER 290, VMER 320, VMER 330
Corequisite: VMER 421