A personal challenge
Most entries into PAVE’s Student Design Competition are obligatory—that is, instructors in higher-education design programs require
their students to complete the challenges. Many educators supplement
classroom curriculum with PAVE’s
real-world challenges, giving students
feedback during the process. But for
University of Kentucky student Caitlin
Porter, it wasn’t a school project at all.
It was personal.
PERSONAL PURSUIT
The 22-year-old interior design major
hadn’t considered retail design until she
landed a summer internship with FRCH
Design Worldwide. Her experience in
the firm’s large-format studio piqued
her interest in retail. Then coworkers
mentioned the student competition,
having participated themselves. So
Porter decided to tackle the challenge
when she returned for the fall semester.
“I thought this was a good opportunity to not only stay in touch with my
team at FRCH, but also to test what
I learned over summer. I learned a lot
about retail at FRCH, so I wanted to
test myself and say, ‘I can do this by
myself. I can take what I learned and
use it,’” she explains.
She added the project to her
18-credit-hour schedule at the uni-
versity’s School of Interiors: College
of Design. Throughout the process,
she solicited feedback from her former
coworkers and Dr. Patrick Lee Lucas,
director of the School of Interiors.
“Her entry allowed her to bring her
skills as a designer and experience at
her internship together to think about
how the grocery store could be retooled,”
Lucas says.
Self-motivated student enters PAVE competition By Meisha Perrin
Kroger sponsored the 2015 PAVE Student
Design Competition. The annual competition is
geared toward college-level students involved in
retail planning, visual merchandising, and
branding programs. This year’s winners faced a
competitive field of more than 425 entries,
including 325-plus in the overall store design
category. Photos from this year’s competition
can be found online at www.paveinfo.org.
THE
INTERIOR
ENTRACE
The entrance establishes a separate identity without closing the space off from the rest of the store. The visual separation
draws people in, while natural textures and casual seating arrangements make them feel at home.
