When fixture manufacturers reminisce about the good old days of the go-go ’90s in their industry, James Voigt can’t join in. The 29-year-old designer at Chandler Inc. (Afton, Minn.) came into the industry at a time when reverse auctions and online bidding were the rule of the day and lowest price too often trumped quality manufacturing.
The grandson of a Minneapolis-area woodworker who made modern furniture in the minimalist Eames style, Voigt was steeped in the love of good product design.
But in his first job, at Spectrum Industries’ retail fixture division (Chippewa Falls, Wis.), he found himself not only designing and developing concepts but also coordinating the in-house manufacturing.
“It became part of my thinking that as you’re developing blue-sky concepts, you also have to be mindful of how efficiently you’ll be able to make it, how much it will cost and how long it will take,” Voigt says. “It has given me a valuable perspective. I know how things are made and can bring that to the conversation with the customer.”
He brought the left and right sides of his brain to Chandler in 2010, designing not only fixtures but also showrooms, tradeshow exhibits and whole retail environments. His preference runs to creating fixture systems that tell the merchandise story, such as Chandler’s recent award-winning efforts for a Sony concept store in Los Angeles, which included a modular fixture package with 65 pieces and more than a dozen different designs.
“I see a retail environment like a well-designed building,” says the former architecture student. “While you don’t always notice the individual details, a good fixture system can elevate the entire experience and bring the customer more into a relationship with the product. I’d just like to see store planners view it as more than just something to hold merchandise.”