Indigo Sherway

Indigo Heather Reisman had a vision for a “cultural department store for book-lovers” with this new concept, but didn’t want it feel or look like a traditional department store. Understanding the notion that books were just the beginning of a larger narrative to enrich our lives, the design concept kept the books at the heart and soul of the experience, yet compartmentalized the store into several core categories. Creating a cross-pollination of books with product with areas like Room Of Her Own, Joy of the Table, Paper Shop, Indigo Tech, Art and Photography, to name a few, Indigo is able to create a richer narrative for the books in those categories.

To recreate the rawness of space found in a contemporary art gallery, we kept the exposed ceiling, simple drywall solution and various zones. The beauty of the design shines when you enter into a specific zone as everything was proportioned to feel like you were in someone’s home. When you’re in that space, you get a real sense for what that department is about - with Home, there’s a fireplace and book shelves like you’re in someone’s library, whereas Room Of Her Own is much more feminine, softer palette and features a beautiful apothecary unit of metal and glass. Every area is designed with its own sensibility, so all the freestanding fixtures were custom designed by our studio - from the accent tables, bookshelves, unique merchandising elevations, etc. The palette we created became a beautiful backdrop for the product, and a handsome framework that showcases a confidence for the Indigo brand identity.

The new Indigo design is not just your proverbial bookstore with bookshelves and gondola. When you stand at the lease line of this store, you’ll immediately notice that there are many points of interest that can pull you in. Holistically, there’s a little bit of everything here, something for all ages and design sensibilities. Future bookstores need to offer more than just books. What this bookstore is doing really well - and it’s not only about design - is that they have created a platform to make the book shop a meeting place where the community can come together with special events, gather knowledge, and experience different product lines.

It takes a winning combination of design and programming from the client, and this new Indigo concept is an excellent case study on how retail must evolve in order to interest the consumer. Bookstores today need to offer more retail animation by complementing the core product with some sort of lifestyle component. In this particular case, the product lines were carefully curated to mix with the books to tell a different story and share a unique point of view. As a result, the program allows the design to flourish. Books are just the beginning of a larger narrative to enrich our lives, and this new Indigo concept instills this brand philosophy with confidence.

Burdifilek