Profile: A career by design

Profile: A career by design
Tags: Store Design & Layout
January 4, 2009

Apple Store shoppers are drawn to its open, user-friendly design, said Kobe.

For Tim Kobe, store architect at-large, designing a retail store is about more than laying drywall and fitting a ceiling. If you ask him, you can't build the store until you know the story.

Kobe is the founder and president of Eight Inc., the San Francisco-based commercial architecture firm that developed the design for Apple's wildly successful retail chain, the Apple Store, known for its bright and spacious interior.

Kobe said his firm came up with the design in an effort to portray the company's "story," i.e., its core values.

"We thought there was an opportunity to move the Apple story — which is a very compelling one — to a level of communication where you could actually start to build a stronger community of users," Kobe said.

According to Kobe, Apple is all about three values: transparency, community and service. He said the open, spacious interior with computers, iPods and iPhones positioned neatly on tables conveys transparency. At the same time, he says, the store encourages community via its theater and lounging areas.

And the store's commitment to providing service is branded into customers' minds every time they visit the Genius Bar.

"The experience there is one that's very open, very user-friendly," Kobe said. "It's one where the product is the hero, not the store. It's a place where people can come in and feel comfortable using it and not be intimidated by technology. That adds a shift from what had been the traditional retail landscape of this technology in particular."

According to a Sanford C. Bernstein report, Apple stores generate sales of roughly $4000 per square foot every year.

In the beginning

Early in his childhood, Kobe developed an artistic side that he attributes to his mother.

"My mother was an artist," Kobe said. "She always encouraged me to draw."

At the same time, Kobe said, he began a love affair with buildings and other commercial structures. He was about 12 years old when he decided he wanted to be an architect.

"At some point, somebody told me an architect is one of the major three professions where a client comes to you with a problem, but it's not a life-or-death problem," he said. "It's a positive type of thing to experience."

After studying at the Arts Center College of Design in Pasadena, Calif., Kobe worked in New York and San Francisco designing museum exhibitions, retail stores and industrial buildings before launching Eight Inc. in 1989.

"We've done everything from architecture to product design over the years, and it's a gratifying thing because we really set out to do work that we want to do," he said.

Simplicity sells

Kobe's client list contains several superstars. In addition to the Apple Stores, he's designed architectural templates for companies such as Virgin Atlantic, Nokia and Coach, and he's embarking on an effort to redesign the template for Citibank's retail banking locations.

"That's kind of a new category for us, but it's an interesting problem," he said.

At the same time, not all of his clients are big-name corporations. Kobe said some of his best work was done for clients with very little pocket change.

"We did a small gallery years ago in San Francisco where the woman came to us with a very low budget," Kobe said. "We essentially did a design for her and for that space that was fairly simple and straightforward but had a unique quality to it, and it was a huge success."

Kobe said the gallery is thriving and that the job brought him one step closer to his dream project.

"We hope that one day we get to design an art museum," he said.

The moral of the story, according to Kobe, is that building a good customer experience into a store design is not about forking over a lot of cash.

"It's not a function of cost," he said. "In our design, if it's simple, if it's honest and if it's relevant, then we're usually very successful. Some people try to be somebody else, and that's usually not successful because it's not coming from the core of the business."