Showcase Showdown
Indesign - Feb 2008

Featured in article Showcase Showdown.  Space works: Four retailers who have gone way out of the box for their showcase designs.

Story by Fred Michmershuizen

A flair for the dramatic is definitely a central quality of Pam Hyneman, owner of Camden & Co.

Hyneman describes her store as "over the top in somany ways," and that includes her showcases.  The store, designed by Jeff and Janice Cranford, is housed in a new building that was constructed in 2002.  The store's slogan is "collections of life's luxuries." To hold what she proudly refers to as her "drama pieces," Hyneman has a set of six tall, matching showcases lined up in a row at eye level.  Behind the showcases is a plush velvet curtain.

A table and chairs sit adjacent to the stand-up displays, allowing customers to sit and relax over a cup of coffee or a glass of wine while gazing at the fine jewelry designs on display.  Hyneman says her goal was to create an open and inviting environment.

It is so open and inviting, that Hyneman's store has become something of a drop-in destination for residents of Jonesboro.  They come in any time, and for any reason.  Take the day a group of women entered Camden & Co. with a birthday cake, plopped themselves down at a table, and started celebrating.  It turned out that the woman and her friends thought it would be fun to have an impromptu party while looking at the beautiful jewelry on display, at eye level, of course- all around them.