This gallery contains 27 photos.
Blog Archives
Biscuiteers
Love love love this company
Visit their amazing store at
Biscuiteers Boutique and Icing Cafe
194 Kensington Park Road, London, W11 2ES
Visit their fabulous website
Oi Polloi – Manchester Mens clothing store
Oi Polloi is a menswear fashion store in Manchester which opened way back in 2002.
Recently moving into a new much bigger space which has given them the chance to expand their range and let their creative juices flow on the interior design of the store.
I love their store design, graphic design, their quirky advertising and the website.
Take a look and if you like what you see have a look at their website or visit their store.
Click here to visit their website
Visit them at
63 Thomas Street
Manchester
M4 1LQ
Harris and Hoole – Independent Coffee Chain?
Getting out of a cab last week in Uxbridge the first thing to greet Lynda and I was a sign saying “great coffee served here” quite a statement.
Looking up we saw a new coffee house called Harris and Hoole, the name sounded very poetic [the names originates from a diary exert by Samuel Pepys], the glass fronted exterior was covered in doodles telling me lots of info about the company and their ambitions.
It dosnt take more than a few doodles and a sniff of an independent to draw us in; and we weren’t disappointed the interior decor looked really great. The design is following the very popular trend of recycling, renewing and reinventing.
There were all the ingredients of an independent store a community notice board, great music playing, people playing board games, live events advertised, hand written signage, quirky toilets and very friendly, knowledgable staff.
But there was something a little bit too ordered about the place, it looked and felt like an independent but in a “Disney” sense, i couldn’t quite put my finger then my business partner googled the company and found out that they were independent but financially backed by Tesco a big sigh followed this news.
But after looking at their website reading about the owners the Tolleys and reading quite a few press articles a few of which were giving them a hard time for supposedly deceiving their customers by not mentioning Tesco [it does clearly and proudly mention that they are backed by Tesco on their website] I thought does it really matter that they are backed by one of the biggest companies in the UK? Arnt a lot of companies looking for investors? And the banks are forthcoming with their money these days; and didn’t Tesco start out as an independent.
After drinking one of the best lattes i have had in a while i came to the conclusion that it dosnt matter, the most important thing is that its a great new business giving the public a choice, the town a lovely looking shop and lots of people job opportunities.
But don’t let my rantings sway you, pop along to one of their branches, look at their website and and decide for your self.
PS, it did feel a bit ordered but hopefully will get a little bit rough around the edges once the hoards stark flocking to it, which I’m sure they will.
Click here to read an interview with Nick Tolley, Chief executive of Harris and Hoole.
Click here to visit the Harris and Hoole website.
STARBUCKS BY KENGO KUMA & ASSOCIATES
NOT YOUR AVERAGE STARBUCKS BY KENGO KUMA & ASSOCIATES
If you’ve been in one Starbucks, you’ve been in them all…. or so I used to think, before I saw this one designed by Kengo Kuma & Associates. Gone are the generic interiors that you find in most of the empire’s coffee shops and instead you’ll find a very cool, and peaceful aesthetic at this location that sits close to the Dazaifu Tenmangu shrine in the Fukuoka Prefecture of Japan.
The shrine is one of the most visited in Japan with over 2 million visitors a year and since the Starbucks is on the path to the shrine, it was important to fit in with the other traditional buildings on the route.
There is a homey feel overall, and with the repetitive use of thin wood sticks, about 2,000 in all, it creates a cohesive, cave-like space that people are drawn to.
The natural wood is woven diagonally and starts on the walls and carries over onto the ceilings and it continues out the facade of the shop.
Words and Photos by
Caroline Williamson is Associate Editor of Design Milk. She has a BFA in photography from SCAD and writes about her life, inspirations and creative pursuits on her element75 blog.
Read more at Design Milk: http://design-milk.com/not-your-average-starbucks-by-kengo-kuma-and-associates/#ixzz2HHxPwJAA
The fresh flower company – East Dulwich – London – Christmas 2012
Love, Love, Love this fabulous florist in East Dulwich.
Why because they have made the store look amazing from outside in.
The exterior displays using up cycled and vintage items drawers you to it, but dosnt detract from the flowers and plants they are selling.
The neon signage in the window stands out against the other stores.
When you go into the store they have used cut tree trunks to create a great focal wall that divides the store from the work area.
www.freshflower.co.uk
Independent and proud of it
Love what this independent wine store has done on the side of its building.
Hand painted graphic – Shoreditch
Love this hand painted Graphic on the corner of a cafe in Shorditch. This just goes to show that we do not need to buy horrible plastic signs, use the natural architecture of your premises and go back to the old traditions, they will get better with age and outlive the nasty plastics signs.
Thats my rant of the day out of the way – feel better for that.
Long live traditional sign signwriting.
Hand made wooden graphic
Over the last year I have been seeing lots of stores using graphics printed onto all types of wood, like the ones below.
Its a really lovely way to show graphics or even point of sale.
So if your interested in creating your own wood graphics here are some instructions on how to do it and where to buy the things you will need.
Heres a step by step guide and a link to a video.
Click here to visit the amazon store to see what you need to transfer your graphic
