Sustainable Retail
Making mindful design choices, considering material lifespan, reconsidering waste, and thinking more local.
SUSTAINABLE RETAIL DESIGN
Leading the change.
Our vision is to be part of a movement that leads change towards a more circular and less environmentally impactful industry, and we are working to kickstart changes across both our own operations and within the wider industry. These include making mindful design choices, considering material lifespan, reconsidering waste, and thinking more local.
Sustainable retail design practice should be the default choice going forward, and as shown in some of our recent projects, it no longer means making an aesthetic compromise. We’ve always believed that great design should – and can – be available to all. Our role has always been to provide the best support to our clients with an approachable face and a can-do attitude. Today this means being sustainable; it’s the only way that we can continue to make great design and great experiences available to many people, for the future years to come.
adidas x Sports Direct
DEVELOPING THE FLAGSHIP CONCEPT
Design plays a pivotal role in shaping the future of physical retail, and at d4r we envision a future where the only design for retail is sustainable design. Based on our in-depth insight, we set out to curate a design strategy for adidas which contributed to ensuring that over 95% of the materials used in its retail fixtures were sustainable.
Chosen materials included only those which had a low environmental impact and the ability to be repurposed whilst also conforming to environmentally-friendly production methods. It was also vital that the materials were fit for purpose and, of course, met the safety standards of the popular sports retailer. Read more
We set out to incorporate materials such as cork, eco-board, and sustainable inks, among others, into the design rationale, as well as recycled ocean plastics as per Adidas’ commitment to ensuring that none of its products contain virgin plastics from 2024 onwards. This initiative is part of the brand’s wider End Plastic Waste campaign which aims to raise awareness of the damage that we are doing to our oceans via our single-use plastic deposits.
As we embarked on this exciting project, the D4R team embraced its sustainable direction throughout the stages – from curating branding and digital content in the design studio to technically developing full engineering packs for accurate production, and managing the assembly collation and execution of all hardware articles within the Sports Direct re-fit programme.
MAC COSMETICS
IMMERSIVE BEAUTY POP-UP
MAC Cosmetics launched a conspicuous campaign in Selfridges’ trio of revered department stores: Selfridges Birmingham, Selfridges Trafford Centre, and Selfridges London.
The client wanted to provide an immersive pop-up experience where shoppers could explore its products, have consultations with MAC agents, and enjoy a selfie moment – all whilst ensuring customer safety via safety screens and social distancing.
Using MAC’s key visual, we produced a handful of hand-drawn sketches that would help to decide the direction of the Botanic Panic pop-up concept. Generating 3D renders of the pop-up for all three retail sites, our 3D designers further refined the creative concept, whilst our technical designers focused on ensuring that the pop-ups were production-ready. Read more
Of course, very few things these days are made without consideration to their impact on the environment, and with MAC’s pop-ups going into Selfridges – a retailer that has been campaigning for our planet via its Planet Earth campaign – you bet we considered the pop-up’s environmental impact in our designs. For example, we replaced typical plastic-containing artificial flowers with paper alternatives for better recyclability. This also gave the display a more intricate aesthetic and depth of detail. What’s more, staggering installation dates for the pop-ups ensured that the fixtures could be repurposed between installations and reused.
Showcasing an immersive sensory experience, this beauty pop-up brought the Botanic Panic product collection to life with a theatrical display. Orchestrated scent cues were added to the customer journey via hidden Jo Malone scented fuse beads to give customers a more sensual experience whilst the addition of a play table gave customers the opportunity to truly get to know the brand and its products. Demonstrating an appreciation for their customers’ emotions when shopping for beauty, MAC were really happy with the level of customer engagement at the pop-ups, as well as the number of shoppers who took the opportunity to take a selfie in front of the flower wall in the selfie booth.
RELATED SUB-SERVICES
Retail Identity
Shaping in-store experience.
Bringing brands to life. Turning ideas into award-winning environments with creative innovation and commercial know-how.
Experiential Retail
Memorable brand moments.
Turning a transaction into an interaction, an experience, delivers a more rewarding and memorable in-store connection.
Store Design
Award-winning environments.
With over 20 years of experience, we bring innovation, commerciality, and insight to craft retail designs that perform.
Pop Up Shops
Leveraging FOMO.
Pop-ups offer opportunities for experimentation and can be really effective in making a brand statement with impact to grab attention and create online impressions.
Activations & Retail Product Launches
More than just promotion.
With a singular focus and strong central message, activations and events are designed to entertain, to engage, and to leave a lasting impression.
Shop In Shops
Standing out in store.
We design shop-in-shop concepts that, any scale in store, provide brand recognition and presence with consistency, quality, and identifiability.
Window Display Design
Sparking curiosity.
Great window concept design allows your brand to deliver a strong, singular message with real visual impact; to drive footfall, increase impressions, and delight customers.
Visualisation
Bringing ideas to life.
Our design studio can offer a wide variety of visualisation services, from an initial hand-rendered exploration, right through to an immersive VR walkthrough.
Digital Integration
Seamless brand activity.
Brining online identity and experiential direction into physical retail environments. Meeting the expectations of digitally native customers with seamless and easy to navigate multi-channel experiences.
Branded Spaces
Ensuring brand visibility.
We’re experts in ensuring visibility and credibility at any scale of execution; delivering brand-owned visual and experiential activity that remains representative of the wider brand world in busy multi-brand environments.
