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.

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…

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.

… were just some of the stars out to support the relaunch of NikeTown London. Nike commissioned HarrimanSteel to refine the branding for NikeTown and produce guidelines for use globally across all stores. We also designed and produced bespoke merchandise for staff and the press launch.

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

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.

See the original 4 idents here