Studio X created a prototype Sharper Image store in Hong Kong and Milan, built to be rolled out.
Studio X created a prototype flagship store concept for Sharper Image, reviving the iconic gadget brand of the 1970s and repositioning it for today's market.
Process
Concept Design
Schematic Design
Detail Design
Tender Documentation
Tender Management
Construction Support
Post-Completion Review
The problem was play. Drones, robotic dinosaurs, remote control cars - products that sell themselves the moment someone picks them up, and sell far less well behind glass. So the store had to invite handling rather than discourage it.
The prototype was built to do three jobs at once: a full-feature flagship, a testbed for merchandising ideas and B2B product demonstrations, and a real-world blueprint of the future Sharper Image store for prospective landlords, operators and licensees. We managed the entire design process from pre-concept to completion. Following that exercise we went on to create the first Sharper Image retail store in Milan. The stores serve as a blueprint for a large-scale rollout of multiple formats across North America, Europe and Asia.
The Mannings Health Pod — a glass-enclosed space for rapid wellness assessments, positioned as the store's centrepiece and primary point of differentiation.
A spacious check-out, designed as a clearly differentiated fixture-set in order to allow customers to locate with ease.
NFC-enabled 'lift & learn' product displays allow customers to access detailed product information in the moment, without staff intervention.
A prototype is not a store. It is an argument, made in three dimensions, to the landlords and licensees who decide whether a brand gets to expand.
Selected views
(Approach)Maximise the sheer excitement of being in a gadget shop. Put the customer in a position to play, and the product does the rest.
Floor plan showing the store layout — zoned to balance product browsing, technology interaction, and the Health Pod consultation area within a 3,200 sqft footprint.
A sketched birdseye to study the relationship between a hero mid-floor fixture and a corresponding wall bay.
Concept planogram sketches to help us determine the arrangement and hierarchy of merchandise.
As a flagship, the space had to carry a full complement of functions and characteristics, so that a comprehensive formatting strategy could be derived from it for a future rollout. That is the difference between designing a store and designing a system: the prototype had to work commercially in its own right while simultaneously answering questions about how the brand would behave in smaller footprints, different markets and under different operators.
Studio X's scope ran from pre-concept through concept, schematic and detail design, tender documentation, tender management and on-site management. The Milan store followed. Together they form the reference model for a multi-format rollout across North America, Europe and Asia.
Jan-Eric Kok
Vice President
FAO Schwarz
We could not be happier.
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