Calabria Italian Imports
Calabria Imports, Art by Cathy Sorich 2022
Design Thinking
A small, local Italian deli wanted festive holiday windows for Christmas 2022. Christmas colors are traditionally red, green and white and so are the colors of the Italian flag. The owner wanted to keep with their Italian heritage and use traditional Christmas colors, so that was a marriage made in heaven for me as a designer. I decided Italian lights would look nice painted with garland and ‘Buon Natale’ (Merry Christmas in Italian) AND Merry Christmas across the window would be welcoming. I went with ‘hanging’ ornaments with holly and holiday colored swirls randomly painted as design elements to bring it all together. They were thrilled with the finished product as were customers and other passers-by.
Calabria Imports, Art by Cathy Sorich 2023
Iterate
The first design hit all the stages of the design thinking process. I was able to identify my clients needs, define what they wanted, ideate and create a solution with color scheme, a design, and prototype by painting the design on the window. Then finally, the test! Calabria imports loved it! It received great compliments from customers and the neighborhood in general. But when it came time to clean the windows, well, that test failed! So the next iteration was a similar but less intricate design.