Another thing I almost like is this chevron panel that seems to divide the housewares and bed & bath departments. I like the style, but the mixed woodgrain paneling (with some colorful panels too) just doesn't work for me. It just looks outdated and tacky, in my opinion. Clearly, Kroger was going for some sort of retro look with Artisan, but I feel like they overshot the current retro-modern design trend (which seems to take inspiration more from the 50s-60s) by a decade or two.
I like the artwork as such, but it seems kind of random and it doesn't make up for the sea of cold drabness that is around it. Then again, if Kroger made that art panel too big, it would look really busy kind of like Target's line art obsession in some stores.
ReplyDeleteLong story short, while I like some elements of Artisan in small doses, it looks terrible in general.
Very well put! That's how I feel about Artisan too (though the good parts are sometimes good enough to make it hard to hate the decor in total).
DeleteToo much of this wouldn't be great, but yeah, it would be nice to have something around it other than blank white walls...
^ That's a good way to put it... some elements of Artisan look good by themselves, but all together the effect isn't really great (and even worse with a black ceiling!)
ReplyDeleteI agree about the chevron pattern here trending too old, and feel the same way about the colors in health and beauty in this package. That said, it's interesting to see all the GM departments' signage within this décor. Regardless of its implementation in "regular" Kroger stores, it truly seems like this is the only package out of its current (very large!) fleet to be designed for implementation in Marketplaces and Fred Meyers. So I suspect we'll be seeing many more such remodels in the future, like it or not...
Yeah, it's certainly a bit weird. Personally, I don't think it's nearly as well suited to very large stores (like Fred Meyers or larger Marketplaces) as Banner was, but that's a different issue.
DeleteIt would be pretty cool to see Urban Mix in a large-format store, but I doubt that would ever happen around here! Kroger is pretty strict about keeping Fred Meyers and QFCs separate in terms of decor.