New addition to Innovation Lab aims to Enlighten, Evoke and Envision
Kingsport, Tenn., (July 25, 2007) – Eastman Chemical Company announces the launch of Eastman eZone, a new interactive web tool geared towards inspiring and educating designers in the point-of-purchase (P.O.P.) and store fixture industries. This initiative is the newest addition to Eastman’s Innovation Lab (www.innovationlab.eastman.com), an award-winning online design portal. More than 5,000 designers and brand owners from leading agencies and consumer product goods (CPG) companies are registered on the Innovation Lab and use it regularly as a material information resource.
“For CPG brands seeking to drive in-store sales and marketing strategies, product presentation at retail is increasingly important,” says Gaylon White, director of design industry programs at Eastman. “eZone will help designers and marketers address this need by providing vital information about the aesthetic, tactile and performance attributes of specialty plastics for creating superior retail fixtures and displays.”
In addition to delivering information on material characteristics through a unique click-and-pull material map, eZone utilizes other interactive technologies, such as Flash™ animation and digital videos, to spotlight several innovative and successful projects. The site, for example, includes a profile of an innovative staircase designed by Heatherwick Studio for La Maison Unique Longchamp retail store in New York’s SoHo.
Designed to emulate the organic and dynamic nature of flowing water, the distinctive stair landscape is created with sheets of Eastman's Spectar copolyester, a specialty plastic product that provides optimal design versatility for stand-out retail applications.
Other exciting projects featured on the eZone include two unique retail tower displays created by LD Plastics and Displays (Brockton,Mass.): a rotating floor display for trendy oversized sunglasses and a double-sided pegboard unit designed to hold heavy metal wind chimes. Durable and aesthetically striking, the displays are fabricated with matte finish sheets of Spectar copolyester. This allows the units to withstand the everyday wear-and-tear brought about by constant consumer contact while also conveying the premium quality of the showcased products.
Designers can learn about materials such as Spectar copolyester and other specialty plastics on eZone.
eZone will also serve as a showcase for student store fixture and P.O.P display projects developed through the unique relationships Eastman has forged with a number of top design schools, such as Auburn University, Notre Dame, Virginia Tech and the Savannah College of Art and Design. These collaborations have provided constructive education and hands-on training to students seeking professional-level experience working with plastics in creative applications.
“The ‘e’ in eZone represents three distinct objectives of the site - to enlighten, evoke and envision,” adds White. “Our goal is to enlighten visitors to the possibilities that Eastman materials and plastics in general offer, while evoking inspiration and helping designers envision fresh and innovative new creations.”