Forget flagship budgets and global branding. Faced with small formats, it is still possible to create memorable interiors with a distinctive edge.
While much has been made of the importance of prime location brand flagships, the small shop is alive and well. Showcasing the entire retail offer, it also acts as a best-in-class proposition and as a marketing beacon. From quirky fashion stores to specialist purveyors of products such as perfumes and fine whiskies, to service offers such as repair shop iSmash, certain product lines - often with smaller items - inevitably lend themselves to smaller interiors.
Some retailers have a legacy of making more from less. For example, Spanish footwear retailer Camper has long since adopted a strategy of choosing small stores in prime locations, often surrounded by upscale designer brands. In such locales its clean and simple stores work in juxtaposition to its opulent neighbours and provide the retailer with an opportunity to reinforce its eccentric image.
And in our round-up of smaller-scale stores it is clear that choice of material and attention to finishes remains key - perhaps even more important in these sometimes tiny spaces where each element forms a part of the offer and where product, design and visual merchandising can blend into one.
Parfumarija, Dublin
Located in the Westbury Mall adjacent to Ireland’s premier shopping district along Grafton Street, Parfumarija is Ireland’s first niche boutique dedicated to selling exclusive perfume and colognes. The store was designed by Dublin-based 21 Spaces, which had a unit of just 323 sq ft to work with and the store also doubles up as an atelier for the proprietor, Marija Aslimoska, who is a skilled perfumer.
Creative agency 21 Spaces says it wanted to create an environment that was independent but professional. The key was to not overplay the brand but rather to provide an interesting retail space in which “the perfume sub-brands are king”, according to 21 spaces. Materials include tiled wall surfaces, which are clinical but are neutralised with white oak, brass, vintage carpets and furniture.
The Whisky Shop, Manchester
The Whisky Shop store in Manchester is designed to educate and inform the consumer about the core product and its history as well as convey a sense of the skill and craftsmanship involved in the creation of the spirit. Originally commissioned to work with The Whisky Shop to create a flagship store in London’s Piccadilly, for London agency gpstudio, Manchester is a further evolution of evoking the product back-story.
As a result, merchandise is made the hero by the way it is displayed on perimeter shelving, while the visual merchandising also creates much of the interior ambience and design feel within. Display systems in wood evoke the sense of a traditional bar, with high-quality finishes complementing the product quality and creating a contemporary but timeless air.
Olivogelo, London
For the Olivogelo ice cream shop in Belgravia, London (and part of Olivo Restaurants and Shops Group), Andy Martin Architects’ (AMA) brief was to create an aesthetic that reflected not only the craft of ice cream making but also that of the crafts that make up a large part of Sardinian culture, from where the client originates. With a confined space of just 183 sq ft to work with, AMA looked to use one wall as the focus in the store, drawing the public in to discover the ice cream display.
To do this, AMA designed a 3D bespoke ‘lickable’ tile wall with hints of coloured flavours to cover this feature wall. The architect then placed a reflective ceiling over everything to accentuate the colours. The wall tiles were specially-produced in the north of England and were glazed by Lubna Chowdhary. Five tile types were prototyped and 450 tiles were then produced by slip casting. Each tile is 200x200mm and slightly different because of the firing process.
iSmash, London
Retail design agency Green Room delivered a store interior concept for emerging online brand iSmash on King’s Road, London, marking the first bricks-and-mortar retail presence for a brand previously best known for consumer electronics repairs. This was an image that the design of the store is intended to alter, instead driving consumers through the ‘ideal journey’ and in particular to the focus of the store, iSmash’s customisation studios.
Green Room’s concept has split the space into three zones - the Personalisation Studio, Repair Lab, and Protect and Enhance area. Customers enter a crisp, clean studio-style space. The open-plan area allows customers to see firsthand the customisation and repair work being carried out on their devices, while also highlighting the professionalism of staff and high quality service with the aim of building trust with consumers
Aesop, London
The latest collaboration between Aesop and Parisian architect Ciguë for the retailer’s Covent Garden store began, says the agency, with four key design references: a Virginia Woolf quote, a Francis Bacon painting, a Henry Moore sculpture, and an excerpt from Beauty and the Beast. These elements inspired an approach to the space that expresses the brand.
The brilliantly whitewashed walls reflect the natural light, which warms during the afternoon in step with neighbouring pubs. Exposed copper plumbing and light fixtures offer utilitarian detailing to the interior. A floor of engraved green cement tiles pays homage to the area’s Italianate piazza - London’s first open square, constructed in the 17th century. The colour is replicated in vegetation that climbs the walls from an interior window box, complementing the neighbouring gardens of Saint Paul’s Church.
Primitive, London
Few multi-brand fashion stores have immersed their brand so deeply with edgy urban culture as Primitive. The brand launched in 2010, with the concept subsequently sustained by a creative body of artists, designers, writers and musicians. After opening pop-up stores in Tokyo and Los Angeles it has set up at the Lighthouse Studios, a creative hub in Dalston, east London.
The new 1,000 sq ft basement area is split into both studio and shop and means Primitive can host events, produce work and showcase design and art talent. Primitive stocks men’s and women’s designers from London and Tokyo but for the first time has been able to bring its complete offer into one all-inclusive space.
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