Retail Store: Design to Reality

Summary: The Brief

To create a store of the future for Phones4u. Developing the image of the high-street retailer with the only key point being to capture the coffee-shop atmosphere within the surrounds of a new stylish, laid-back store.

This left the brief quite open, which was a blessing for our creative team as they were able to come at this brief from an entirely fresh perspective and have very little in the shape of existing parameters to hold their creativity back. The suggested themes of Atmosphere  / Vibrancy / Style / Chill / Fashion were set as the inspiration to achieve in-store and the creative process developed over the following months, working with the client, from material boards and colour palettes to sketch-work and fully animated 3D renders.

This is the journey from “Design to Reality” of this flagship store, a new blueprint for all Phones4u stores of the future.

Services

• design direction and style guides
• sketch concepts and ideas
• product design
• content creation
• 3D rendering and animation
• component prototyping
• manufacturing
• installation
• new product demonstation

Design Evolution:

Creating the Store

At this preliminary design stage, creativity holds no bounds and the initial concepts are a representation of the key buzzwords and aims set out in the design brief. Here we can see the overall concept themes being established with appropriate material and textural influences, with initial sketch concepts soon being progressed into 3D designs.

Design Revelation :

Finalising the Store

Once the feedback is received from the client on the initial concepts, we then take on board all of the feedback and use this to develop, refine and create a finalised package of 3D designs. These are rendered off to provide a number of photo-realistic visuals and we can also provide an animated 3D walk-through of the store. This provides our client the chance to immerse into the store experience and believe in a concept that they can appreciate from all angles.

Phones4u :

White City Store

We work closely with our clients through all stages of development design and refinement, until they are completely satisfied with the final outcome. In this instance, many of the individual components were taken through into rapid prototyping for final approval, before the flagship store was created. This was the ultimate reflection of the design process as this took the original concept visuals through to a reality in-store and shows the progression from sketch to 3D render to final production.

White City :

Store Interviews

Getting feedback from our concepts direct from the clients we work alongside or from store staff and the shopping public is one of the most rewarding and exciting aspects of the design process. Ultimately, we are here to improve the retail consumer experience for any retailer or brand and consider the feedback we receive, upon completion of a project, an honest reflection of this. The feedback we received for this flagship store has been extremely positive and confirmed this store style as a new standard for the future.

Store Reality :

Impact and reaction :

This year long project was an exciting challenge to be involved with. Once the final visual style was selected, we worked hard to produce a final solution that gave Phones4u a fresh new look for their customer base, both new and existing.