Retail: Retell. Recycle. Rethink. is a student fueled exhibit in collaboration with Design Museum Boston. The exhibit was designed, built, and funded in three months by twelve students at Wentworth Institute of Technology. The exhibition highlights life-cycles of consumer goods across four categories; sneakers, cell phones, water bottles, and cleaning products. Retail leaves consumers understanding that they’re buying more than just the product, they’re buying the process behind these products and accepting their responsibility within the product life-cycle. Retail was exhibited for two weeks at Boston’s Prudential Center in August 2011 and will be moving to a new location soon.

Design Museum Boston challenged us with designing a pop-up exhibition for the general public. The goal was to educate the public about the design process and how it impacts their lives. We were tasked with not only developing the topic for the exhibition, but designing, funding, fabricating, and installation as well.

As socially conscious industrial design students we saw the exhibit as an opportunity to educate the public and use design as a tool to transform how consumers think in a retail environment. Many consumers are faced with the choice of buying sustainable or buying affordable — we set out to show that these two concepts are not mutually exclusive. Our intent was to create a new understanding of products and provide a skill set for consumers to make educated decisions on future purchases.

After focusing on educating the consumer about a shift to conscious design, we split the class up into a series of task-driven teams: research, fundraising, content development, branding, site scouting, graphic design, and fabrication. With Kickstarter as our main fundraising platform, we were able to secure enough capital to launch Retail in Boston’s Prudential Center for two weeks. Upon finalizing the location we defined the design opportunities within the space and gained a better understanding of our audience’s needs through site visits. Once our content was developed for the featured products, we divided up the exhibit space into three distinct areas, each catering to a different type of consumer. Large images, statistics, dissected models, and prototypes were clearly on display for shoppers who were just passing through, while consumers who were interested in the content of the exhibit were able to dive deeper and learn about design and manufacturing processes, supply chains, and alternative methods of disposal.

With over 420,000 visitors per week, Retail has educated a wide audience about the shift to sustainable design and will continue to as the exhibit pops up in future locations. After experiencing the exhibit, many of the spectators have invested in sustainable alternatives and have adapted their role to be better stewards in the product’s lifecycle. They continue to share how Retail has influenced them, spreading the message to their friends and family. In addition to the value to consumers, designing and executing Retail was truly an unparalleled experience in hands-on learning for the class.

Design Museum Boston was founded on the platform of educating the public about design, so when introduced to the criteria for Design Museum Boston’s program, the constraints were clear. The project was to be an entirely student-developed exhibit. From start to finish, we were expected to explore and decide upon what message we were passionate about communicating. Combining our dynamic interests, skills, and resources, we collaborated in class twice a week, met regularly outside of class, and utilized tools such as Google Docs and Facebook to stay connected and organized. We regularly updated Design Museum Boston’s blog to share our progress and build anticipation for the exhibit.

We were driven to make an impact knowing that our exhibit was to launch in the Prudential Center, one of Boston’s capital landmarks, and would be representing Design Museum Boston, Wentworth Institute of Technology, and the exhibit sponsors. After weeks of hard work engaging with industry professionals, developing exhibition concepts, and fundraising, we produced a series of panels illustrating the most important information regarding the four chosen products. Once the panels were graphically designed and printed, we built custom fixtures designed with the intent that our exhibit will continue to educate consumers in various locations beyond the Prudential Center.

The collaboration between Design Museum Boston and Wentworth’s Industrial Design program created a new, lasting relationship between the students, their community and a cultural institution. It broadened the students’ exposure to new areas within the design industry and provided a real world professional design experience.

This program required the students to develop skill sets far outside their comfort zone, all of which will aid them in their professional development. Education in areas like fundraising, program management, and marketing deepened this program’s value for the students leaving an indelible mark on their school career.

The end result of this class highlighted Wentworth’s commitment to design education and placed a spotlight on the high calibre work done by its students. With coverage in the Boston Globe, the Weekly Dig and a number of on-line outlets, Retail exemplifies how broad of a subject design can be and how wide of an audience it resonates with. This is at the very core of Design Museum Boston’s mission and this exhibition will serve as a center-piece for their efforts moving forward.