INDEPENDENT GROCERY STORE REDESIGN
Category
Municipality
Services
Signage design | Custom lettering | Storefront design | Environmental graphics | Shop window display | Production | Singpainting | Architectural detail
GIVING THE LOCAL LEGEND OF RETAIL AN IMAGE IT TRULY DESERVES
Does your town have an iconic independent store that has been around for what seems like forever?
Our sure does, and its name is “Aldek”, a store where you can find basically everything having to do with eating and cooking. Established in 1994 and based in Gdynia’s city centre, Aldek withstood the emergence of various chain stores and franchises in Tricity thanks to its impressive assortment of goods. However, its visual identity, to say the least, got a little rusty over the years. The grocery store is situated in a modernist building, which had been on our “to do” list for quite some time; it was pointed to us by our Gdynian followers on social media, as a spot in need of some love and care.
When we approached the owners, they immediately recognised that there is room for improvement, and put their complete trust in our design and craft skills. Thanks to their easy-going approach and collaborative spirit, we could go all out.
The spot presented our design team with two major challenges; the first being the length of the shopfront, in its entirety amounting to over 155 feet on two sides of the building, the second – the arrangement of the shelves inside the store which made it impossible for the windows to simply show the interior. We would not settle for flat vinyl graphics and came up with a semi-dimensional design, consisting of a series of wooden window installations that depict grocery-inspired themes, such as: fruit, sweets, vegetables, dairy and meat.
We cleared the facade of excessive advertisement and repainted it, while a new sign – hand-painted on a bent steel-sheet – was put in place of the old, plastic one. Filling the gaps between letters with accordion fold transformed the sign into an architectural detail corresponding with the building.
The elements of the window display, as well as wooden cases containing them, were cut, painted and assembled in the Traffic Design workshop. The sign painting was also done by our team members, making this project a real exercise in craftsmanship.
The project was created and executed as a part of a long-term partnership with the City of Gdynia, in an effort to propagate best design practices in public spaces.
