Fashion Management Students Redefine Retail with AI Prototypes for the Salvation Army

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Fashion Management students showcased their virtual store design prototypes to the Salvation Army leadership team on December 20th, marking a successful interdisciplinary collaboration between the Longo Faculty of Business and the Faculty of Media and Creative Arts. In their Visual Merchandising class, students utilized cutting-edge technologies such as artificial reality (AR), virtual reality (VR) and artificial intelligence (AI) to prototype visual store displays for their client, the Salvation Army.

Under the guidance of Professor Vladimira Steffek and support from alongside faculty David Neumann, Michael Simmons and Rossie Kadiyska, students engaged in a transformative project. This collaboration, aimed at sparking curiosity, building confidence, and expanding agency in student learning, holds the potential to position the Salvation Army as a retail marketing innovation leader.

This year's collaboration surpassed previous efforts, incorporating AI layout suggestions in presentations, introducing a wider variety of scanned and AI-created objects, and exploring a broader range of layout options. Students even delved into VR to experience the space at scale, adding an extra layer of depth to their designs.

Notably, Fashion Management students, despite having no prior experience in 3D scanning, modelling, or VR, successfully executed this project. One student expressed how the accessibility of ideation tools in this project instilled the confidence to consider exploring fields like Interior Design.

A short update presentation has already taken place, with a formal presentation scheduled for the new year.

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