From October 2020 through March 2022, we led the design, development, and operations of an experiential retail incubator in Washington, DC.
The store, named Concept 31/M for its location at the corner of 31st and M Streets, housed a variety of retail pop-ups from local, international, and digitally native brands, as well as a packed events schedule that encouraged shoppers to discover something new, and convening spaces for just hanging out with a coffee from the in-store coffee bar.
It also featured various art installations and experiential activations, creating shareable moments of surprise & delight throughout.
We helped to execute the property owner’s vision to activate the vacant building, as well as testing our hypothesis that the store can, in fact, be a space for community as well as commerce.
Project Scope
Market Research
Brand Strategy and Naming
Logo and Visual Identity
Website Design and Development
Social Media Design and Management
Space Planning and Experience Mapping
Environmental Design and Production
Tenant Acquisition and Management
Systems Install Management (Internet, Surveillance, etc.)
Project and Budget Management
BEFORE:
AFTER:
The Team
Paul Dunbar, Art Director
Haitham Hassan, UX/UI Designer
Filip Roca, Motion Graphics Designer
Social Supply, Environmental Design
Natalie Adams, Graphic Design
Oasis, Plantscaping
Von Ammon Gallery, Artist Collab
Petra Cortright, Artist
Andy DelGiudice, Photography
Environmental Design
We worked with our partners at Social Supply on a concept that would check all the boxes on our project brief: To reimagine the space without demo-ing the space; to create a blank canvas for tenants to tell their own brand stories against; and to make it feel modern, interesting, and innovative. The answer: Layers. Crumbling, textured layers of plaster. And modern materials, like powder-coated wireframe, translucent acrylic, and gold foil.
From the winning design pitch: “There’s a misconception about innovation… People think it’s about tearing down the old to bring in the new, but that’s just not the way it works. It’s more about layers. The same way that ivy grows up, around, and onto old buildings, we imagine the next phase of Georgetown is one where modern materials are allowed to grow up, onto, and around the old…”
<< A peek at the initial materials board.
#ThatGoldRoom
While the entire store was designed with aesthetics in mind, all of us on the project and client teams knew that we wanted a more “traditional” photo moment as well. That Gold Room, an other-worldly photo booth, was an immediate hit with tenants and shoppers alike.
The Lounge
One of the most important elements of the concept store, and a primary difference between traditional retail and experiential retail, is offering shoppers a place to convene and commune. The wireframe lounge allowed us to create a defined, yet open and airy, space in front of the coffee bar where furniture could go (in the future, post-pandemic) and shoppers could hang out, work on their laptops, or rest their feet.
Phase 2
Seeing the store’s positive momentum after its opening in March 2021, we began work on the lower level of the space, pictured here, which was completed in May 2021 and fully leased soon after.
Oh, and there was a #JungleSwing.
Which is just as awesome as it sounds.
Exterior Strategy
The goal with the exterior of the space was pretty simple: Attract and intrigue. It was important that that this didn’t feel like yet another retail store on M Street. We knew that to capture this audience – that is, people who didn’t necessarily want to shop, but who wanted to experience something different (and who just didn’t know yet that this “something different” would, in fact, include shopping) – we needed to get their attention without hitting them over the head with product.
So we carried the same environmental design concept from inside the space into the window displays to create a sense of cohesion, and developed mesmerizing motion graphics that play on digital displays in the windows. This approach attracts not just the people who are already shopping on M Street, but people looking for something different to do… and even people who just want an awesome photo op.
Modular Branding
Similar to our interior design approach, we also wanted the Concept 31/M brand to feel like a blank canvas that tenants could easily incorporate into their own brand communications, and not one that would compete with them. For example, if Kicheko jewelry wanted to create a digital flyer for her pop-up in Concept 31/M, it would likely have both sets of logos on it – hers, and the store’s. So we leveraged clean, geometric lines and a simple typeface (Poppins) to create a modular branding system consisting of four different logomarks that could be used interchangeably, depending on the use case.
Press
Experiential, Experimental Concept 31/M Is Retail 2.0 - The Georgetowner, March 22, 2021
A Bunch of Popular DC Brands Will Be Launch Tenants at Concept 31/M “Retail Lab” - Washingtonian, March 16, 2021
New Brands Test Physical Retail at Concept 31/M in D.C. - Retail Touchpoints, March 19, 2021
EastBanc to launch retail lab in former Brooks Brothers location in Georgetown - Washington Business Journal, February 24, 2021
EastBanc Opening New Retail Lab in Georgetown - Commercial Observer, February 26, 2021
East Banc Launches Retail Lab in Former Brooks Brothers Space - The Georgetown Dish, February 25, 2021
New Retail Lab Opening On M St - Patch, March 8, 2021
Former Georgetown Brooks Brothers now an incubator for small retailers - WTOP News, March 19, 2021
Questions? Comments? Know another space that’s perfect for a concept store? Click below.