PICTURECONTROL
concept+programming+design: Caren-Maria Jörß
CONCEPT
My project is for a photographer.
She needs a place where she can show her photos to the customer and sell directly to the customer. But the main problem is that there is no place for a pure customer meeting area in her photo studio. Also, the photographer doesn`t want that the customer sits directly at her own workplace, because she often has to leave him alone when a new customer is in the studio. My idea to solve this problem is to install one station for the customers in the shop area of the photo studio. But of course, this area is a sort of public space, where all customers can stay. Therefore the customer station must be very flexible. The area should protect the privacy if someone looks at his pictures and if nobody is there it has to fulfil a "public function". It must fit into the presentation environment of a photo studio. Because it’s the first impression when the customer comes to the photographer. The main elements of my station are old furniture, which represent the past as well as the images of the photographer. They contain memories. I stack the furniture because there is very little space in the shop. This results in different levels. It's like a stacked living room. You can twist the individual elements among themselves and thus make all sides accessible. On the back, usually the side that never faces the room, I place screens and other parts of computer technology in a kind of double backboard. The customer sees only the screen and no other parts of the technology. But the best thing about this method is that I can use the other sides of the furniture parts for a small exhibition of the photographer, which is filled with her own artistic works. For the situation when the photographer shows a customer her pictures, you can turn the screens so that no other customer can watch. It often happens that a second customer would like to look at pictures. This is now possible by a second independent screen. The photographer selects a screen by her smartphone and displays the chosen pictures, which are located on a local server. The customer controls the pictures with the smartphone and selects which one he would like to buy. When he is finished, the order will be sent to the photographer by email.
If the station is not used for sale the photographer can enable a slide show. She determines the contents of this show over the Smartphone as well. The control software on the phone can be used with any computer on which the image viewer is installed. The customer can use the image viewer only with the software of the Smartphone and therefore has no access to other content of the computer. The customer can view the images in full-screen mode without annoying menu items and he always has control over his orders through the integrated shop system.