933sq Feet of retail sexiness.
April 18th 2012, saw CASIO launch their first concept store in London. Occupying two floors, the 933 sq ft store is set within the Covent Garden Piazza and will open to the public on 21st April 2012.
Resetting the retail experience and tone for CASIO’s premium brands G-SHOCK PREMIUM, BABY-G PREMIUM, EDIFICE, SHEEN and PRO TREK, the store will additionally house CASIO’s synthesizer products. The store concept aligns the CASIO brand with the ever-increasing premium nature of their products. London based creative agency HarrimanSteel have been appointed to design the store.
“Each premium CASIO watch brand is now defined by physical materials, taken directly from the products themselves. Whilst we are re-appropriating industrial materials to tell the CASIO toughness story, our design concept uses them in much more refined and sophisticated way.” Julian Harriman-Dickinson, Creative Partner, HarrimanSteel
The ground floor is primarily monotone with black and white fixtures and fittings in both high gloss and contrasting matt finishes. All displays are bespoke design solutions and have been made using interactive components that represent the exacting standards of CASIO premium watch brands.
Modular display canvases have been designed in various materials specific to the watch brands displayed. The canvases utilise multiple plug-in accessories, such as cubes, illuminated shelves, plinths and watch holders to display and hero the products. Creating a system that is versatile and flexible enough to display any number of products while aesthetically keeping the store fluid.
CASIO’s history and Japanese heritage is used within the store to create oversized history panels for consumers to get a snapshot of the key milestones in the CASIO story. The entrance welcomes you to the store in Japanese, opening times and other key information appear in both English and Japanese, subtly reminding people of the company’s origins.
The lower ground will bring the popular G-SHOCK East store concept to the West end, housing and refining the evolution of the CASIO G-SHOCK store with a distinct industrial feel that has created the blueprint for future CASIO stores and standalone G-SHOCK doors.
The store also features interactive display units powered by Casio projection technology.
HarrimanSteel has designed two interactive displays and multiple projection areas within the store, commissioning specialists, Clay Interactive, to develop the displays. The units combine Casio’s own lamp-free projectors with innovative technologies to engage customers wanting to find out more about the brand’s range of watches.
The technology unit uses projection mapping onto a 3D model of a watch, and conveys key features of three of Casio’s top products in an exciting way.
“Whilst projection mapping is quite well known for architectural features, using it on a small scale provides interesting opportunities to animate a static object in an engaging way.” says Julian Harriman-Dickinson, Creative Partner at HarrimanSteel.
Made by a computer-controlled router, the model watch aligns precisely with the projection, delivering a pixel-perfect light show in 3D.
The Mr-G unit masquerades as a giant, immutable obelisk with a twist. As store visitors approach it, an aperture gradually opens to reveal the ultimate G Shock watch, one of only 200 made. The cabinet uses a transparent display to achieve this stunning effect, with the watch cushioned between the transparent display and a back-projected surface that provides illumination and subtle highlighting. Once revealed, compelling motion graphics deliver key messages about the product’s design and manufacturing.
“We believe this is the first time transparent displays and projectors have been used in an interactive manner that goes beyond the usual touch-to-explore interface.” says Anthony Pearson, Director at Clay.
Videos and more images to follow shortly in the work section of our site, Vimeo and YouTube.
Death – The ultimate taboo…
In conjunction with ‘Death: Southbank Centre’s Festival for the Living,’ BBC Concert Orchestra has put together Music To Die For: a heavenly mix of devilishly popular classics.
As the follow up concert to Disturbia, the identity is based on optical illusion. The design poses the question ‘what is at the end of the tunnel?’ This is an ambiguous question part of a very taboo subject matter so we tried to give it a less daunting look and feel through our graphic approach.
The first in a series of physical manifestations of the HarrimanSteel logo.
For the cover of our Ltd. edition magazine (run of 200) we created a one off fixed gear bike. A first in a series of physical installations representing the HarrimanSteel logo. Keep your eyes open for the next manifestation. Shots of the magazine will appear in our work section in the coming days…
To coincide with the Nike NSW Summer 2011 Collection, HarrimanSteel art directed a shoot paying homage to the typically changing British weather and grass roots tennis in urban London.
Shot by Neil Bedford with styling and grooming from
Stephen Mann and Lee Machin, the shoot focussed on the fine craftsmanship of the pinnacle collection, materials and details. Shot in the heart of East London, Hackney Downs was the backdrop for the collection that includes the Stowaway Trench and Nike’s famed Windrunner.
Anyone for tennis?
Yesterday we did a photo shoot in the heartlands of grass roots tennis. No not Wimbledon, but Hackney Downs. Keep an eye on our site, finished work soon to launch, coinciding with the latter stages of SW19.
BBC Symphony Orchestra’s new visual identity for 2011-12
HarrimanSteel have created a flexible visual toolkit of expressive, bold typography, photography and family of patterns will allow the BBC Symphony Orchestra to evolve, stay fresh and engaging across coming seasons. It’s been an honour to work with one of the UK’s finest performing orchestras.
Great interiors, boutique hotels and country inns – perfect ingredients for a brief…
HarrimanSteel have designed and built digital tools and a microsite for boutique hotels Stoke Place and the Olde Bell Inn, both part of the Dhillon Group. This site and toolkit assists their wedding planning service and promotes their beautiful locations and superb service (we’ve been lucky enough to stay there).
House of Fraser, the UK department store group, has appointed Harriman Steel to handle its new Label Lab menswear SS11 advertising campaign.
Fronted by emerging Brighton three-piece band, Tall Ships, the campaign includes an online film that will seed across music and fashion sites, as well as in-store. National press ads will also run in a number of menswear titles.
Creative Director Nick Steel adds, “We approached Tall Ships to connect with the consumer in a more authentic manner, rather than using traditional models.”
Nike 6.0 hits Hawaii and the big surf
A dream job – albeit art directed from London over the phone and net. Nike 6.0 sent its surf talent on a mission to test their new apparel to the limits. HarrimanSteel designed and produced this beautiful book complete with exposed stitch binding and extreme fluorescents.
Proporta commits to a sustainable future
HarrimanSteel have created Proporta Smart, a new range of sustainable products for Proporta. Eco logic and smart design are behind the new range containing seriously strong bamboo, recycled leather and natural hessian.
See proporta.com/smart
Piccard In Space forms Part 2 of Electronica – BBC Concert Orchestra’s groundbreaking exploration of electric instruments…
Will Gregory’s debut opera, Piccard In Space, commissioned by the BBC, will receive its world premiere at London’s Southbank Centre’s and will also be broadcast on BBC Radio 3. BBC has commissioned communications through HarrimanSteel – the concept is 1930s adventure fiction meets modern minimalism. We worked with the brilliant Patrick Leger to create a series of images that tell Piccard’s story. Gregory is best known as one half of electro-pop duo Goldfrapp.
