Throwback Thursday: That 70s Style

Many of the design ideas of Llew Reszka from 1979 would generate nods of agreement among modern retailers.

In an article under the headline “Car designer shifts gears to home center décor,” published in the Sept. 24, 1979 issue of National Home Center News, the forerunner of HBSDealer, Reszka shared the following concepts:

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  “Stores on a highway are like so many cans of soup on a grocery shelf. Why should a shopper stop at one rather than another if they all look alike?”


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  “You have to create an image in consumers’ minds, something vivid and exciting that grabs them from the highway and continues to hold them once they’re inside the store.”


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  “We think the life of a store design, ideally, is five years. After that, shoppers no longer see it.”


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  “In a way, most stores are just shoe boxes, but there’s a lot you can do to make them have an impact on the local scene.”

Reszka, the article explains, was a General Motors designer who merged into retail design, and parked some of his ideas in companies including Cheboygan Lumber, Church’s Lumber and Shuette’s Building Supply. His trademark: bright bold graphics and visual excitement.

The giant geometric mobile that hung from the rafters at Cheboygan Lumber in Cheboygan Michigan might have been a stretch (see photo), but his concepts of clear consistent aisle signage, category symbols and wall murals were ahead of their time.

He asked retailers in 1979: “How much service and information can you provide in a given area, instead of just saying “’paint department?’” The question remains valid today.

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