Storefront design - branding the company through architecture
Share
Apple logo + brushed aluminum; Chanel + Zaha Hadid’s fluidity; Prada + iconic design. Corporate branding by way of retail design can be tricky. Success consists of enhanced prestige of the brand; failure consists of disparagement for superfluousness and perhaps poor execution or even ridicule for inadequately tailoring the design to customer needs or public expectations.
As these images suggest, when retail design moves beyond the typically inward focus of interior design (something in which most retail stores take part), the results can elegantly (and instantly) raise the brand’s profile and even transform the shopping experience of neighboring stores. Herzog & de Meuron’s exoskeleton Prada store in Tokyo’s high-end shopping district is one of many “one-off” Prada stores designed by noted architects. Instead of developing a one-size-fits-all in-store experience, Prada shrewdly chose to bolster its image by being unique in each location - so long as each store is suitable for its level of luxury. Prada’s Tokyo store plays well against Toyo Ito’s Tod’s store down the street too, which consists of another equally original take on exoskeleton/open floor-plan architecture - this time in the form of poured concrete and seemingly random shards of glass. 
Of course, it is worth noting that even good design can lead to bad p.r. Despite being a near complete success for Chanel, the Zaha Hadid-designed Mobile Art installation (see above image), did encounter some criticism for traveling to what seemed like every photo-op location around the world in the midst of an economic meltdown. At least it did so in style.
Apple’s storefronts are certainly among the most well-executed. Eight Inc.’s minimalist use of materials, color, and layout are perfectly consistent with the clean, efficient design of most Apple products; similarly, Bohlin Cywinski Jackson’s crystalline Fifth Avenue Apple Store in New York City serenely rests in a clearing of monolithic, concrete, behemoths (a fortuitous - or sly - Apple v. Microsoft metaphor).
Images courtesy of (1) scarletgreen, (2) fukagawa, (3) joevare, (4) monkico, (5) bizmac
