SMITHS CITY
retail
We created a more home-like environment with room sets and lifestyle displays, including a working demonstration kitchen. Circulation was clarified with a series of angled “Avenues” and “Lanes” enabling customers to navigate between and within departments. These departments were identified with different coloured flooring. The feature TV wall provides a drawcard to pull people deep into the store.
We positioned the electronics department to the front to draw customers through impulse offers and indicate leadership in this category, not just the furniture department the brand is best known for. A series of “Huts” hints at Canterbury’s architecture and act as signposts to key areas including the central service hub, which facilitates easy interaction between customers and staff.
The material palette was inspired by the brand’s Cantabrian heritage with the furniture area reflecting the colour of the hills, the electronics area indicates the patchwork of the planes, and the “Wets” (white-ware) area in the blue of the Pacific Ocean. Fittings were largely pine and ply to embrace the New Zealand building aesthetic and to show the “Value” nature of the brand.