The easiest way to keep a brand consistent is to copy the last store. It is quick to brief, easy to price and simple to approve. It also produces locations that could be anywhere, and a chain of them can start to feel like a template rather than a place.
The opposite approach has its own risk. Give every site complete freedom and the brand dissolves within a few openings.
Two recent London projects, both covered by Dezeen, show a more useful position between the two. Each one borrows openly from its surroundings, and each one remains unmistakably about its own brand.
A counter that reads its building
Aesop has had a counter in Harrods for more than a decade. For the recent revamp, the London studio Al-Jawad Pike designed a central counter clad in glazed terracotta tiles from Italy, with the intention of giving it "the qualities of a miniature building".
The material choice does two jobs. Terracotta refers to the red brick facade that makes Harrods so recognizable. It also has a connection to traditional fragrance production, and the tiles were chosen for their ability to hold scent. The studio paired it with brushed copper, for that metal's link to distillation, and built a sculpture of copper piping and blown glass that visitors use to experience the fragrances.
The building supplied the reference. The product supplied the reason to use it.
A showroom that is mostly not a showroom
Jaguar's redesigned Knightsbridge flagship makes a similar move at a larger scale. There is space for only two cars, and most of the ground floor is a restaurant. Sales and customization conversations happen in more private rooms on the lower level.
The restaurant's rich red finishes were inspired by the red brick of the surrounding neighborhood. Elsewhere, the source changes: travertine, tactile textiles and warm brass refer directly to the interior of the Type 01 electric car. Jaguar's in-house spatial design team describes the relationship as deliberate.
So one part of the project answers to London, and another answers to the car. A visitor gets both in the same walk through the building.
The pattern behind both projects
Red brick appears in both stories, but the color is not the lesson. Plenty of local references are only decoration, and customers can tell. What makes these two worth studying is that neither reference was allowed to stand alone:
- Aesop's terracotta belongs to the building and to the craft of fragrance.
- Jaguar's red belongs to the neighborhood, and it serves a stated design philosophy in which color creates atmosphere and a sense of occasion.
A local reference earns its place when it can be explained from both sides: why it belongs to this site, and why it belongs to this brand. If only the first answer exists, you have a nice detail that says nothing about the business. If only the second exists, you are back to copying the last store.
Flagships can do this. Chains need rules.
It would be easy to admire these spaces and move on. They are high-profile locations, with a level of attention that the thirtieth store in a rollout will not receive.
That is why the thinking has to be written down. A brand expanding through Vietnam may need the same concept to work in a narrow shophouse on a central street, a mall unit governed by the landlord's rules and a street-front store in another province. Without a rule for what may respond to the site, those decisions get made on site, one at a time, by whoever is under the most deadline pressure.
We have written before about sorting a space guideline into fixed, flexible and local elements. The local group is the one most often left blank, and leaving it blank does not prevent local decisions. It only means nobody has said how to make them.
Four questions to ask of any local idea
Before a site-specific idea is approved, put it through four questions:
- Can you point to it? A real source, such as a facade, a local material or a way the street is used, is stronger than a general feeling about the area.
- Does it also say something about the brand? It should connect to the product, the service or the brand's point of view, and you should be able to explain the link in one sentence.
- Can it be built and kept here? Check local supply, contractor skill, wear and cleaning. A material that ages badly in this climate will soon say the wrong thing.
- Does it leave the fixed elements alone? The local idea should sit alongside what makes the space recognizable. If it replaces those elements, it is a new concept and should be reviewed as one.
An idea that passes all four belongs in the project. An idea that passes only the first is probably decoration.
Two tests for your next location
Look at your most recent location and ask two things. If the logo were covered, would a regular customer still know whose space this is? And if the whole interior were moved to another city, would anything be lost?
The first question tests the brand. The second tests the place. Most rollouts are checked carefully against the first and rarely against the second.
This is the thinking behind how we work at Module K: beyond spaces, building brand systems. You can see it in our branding work and selected projects. If you are preparing to take a concept into new locations, we are happy to talk it through.
