What is Retail Design?

Retail Design is culmination of Creative and Commercial Disciplines into one. Retail Spaces generally stock, display and sell products to end users, providing them an enjoyable and convenient shopping experience. Boutiques, Supermarkets, Malls and Shopping Centres, all come under the category of Retail Spaces.

A well designed Retail Space provides a perfect background and environment for the displayed goods to be sold. This is done with the help of display racks, lighting, sounds, graphics, branding and exploring key features like space entrance and circulation. A Retail Designer requires knowledge of a lot of other fields like Interior Design, Architecture and Graphic Design, Ergonomics, Advertising, Marketing.

How do you become a Retail Designer?

Candidates who want to pursue a career in Retail Design can study the course at Undergraduate & Postgraduate level. Popular colleges that offer courses in Retail Design include NID, MIT Pune,etc.

Retail Design Eligibility Criteria

To pursue a bachelor’s degree in Retail Design, a student should pass 10+2 as a qualifying examination from a recognized State or National Board of Education. Age limit, stream specification and minimum qualifying marks in 10+2, can be other criteria’s of eligibility, which may vary among colleges. Some colleges have also introduced seats for NRI quota, for which the qualifying criteria varies.

In order to pursue Masters degree in Retail Design, a Bachelors degree in design is a must.

Retail Design Entrance Exams

All popular colleges conduct entrance exams in order to offer admissions to aspiring candidates. Some of the top Entrance Exams for Design are conducted by NID, NIFT, CEPT and MIT Pune.

Retail Design Course Curriculum

Though the syllabus for Retail Design may vary from college to college, some of the common subjects include Ergonomics, Auto Cad, Form & Space, Typography & Graphics, Lighting, Visual Merchandising and Window Display.

Career in Retail Design

After completion of their degree, students may intern with companies in the Retail business to have a better understanding of the industry. The sky is the limit for talented professionals, as the jobs in the field are extremely rewarding and fulfilling. Specializations can be in the following fields:

Museum

Exhibition

Event Design

Theatre Design

Film Set Design

About the Author: Anu Handa is an Interior Designer, DIY Artist, Co-Founder and Educator at Mosaic Institute of Design. She has been the lead blogpost writer at www.mosaicdesigns.in since 2009. Her educational background in Interior Design, Urban Planning and the English Language has given her a broad base to cover a range of topics in her articles. Anu has spent 15+ years training Design & B.Arch Aspirants for entrance exams.

Passionate about Design Education, she’s briefly worked with Annamalai University as a paper setter for Design Exams. Likes to write about Design, Architecture and related fields, on online platforms like Quora. Aims at challenging the conventional & age old teaching methodology.