Corix, a utilities company delivering solutions for sustainable water, wastewater, and energy infrastructure tapped NELSON Worldwide to create a new home for them, right in the heart of the Windy City. Read more here.

Chester’s Chicken, the cult-favorite fresh fried chicken quick-service restaurant concept with more than 1,200 locations and over 50 years of success, is introducing its first store redesign in nearly 20 years at three new locations – Durant, Oklahoma; Monroe, Louisiana; and Elk Grove Village, Illinois. The new look features a fresh color palette, updated menu boards, and modern architectural and interior brand elements throughout – designed to create a better connection between the customer and Chester’s famous fried chicken, prepared fresh in store throughout the day.

The elevated in-store experience is the next phase of Chester’s brand refresh, following the 2020 launch of the company’s new website with an enhanced library of marketing and training tools for franchisees, as well as a new, simplified logo that focuses on the lovable Chester the Chicken mascot. Within the past year, Chester’s has also introduced new branded packaging and overhauled its digital menu board design. Read more here.

Chester’s Chicken, the cult-favorite fresh fried chicken quick-service restaurant concept with more than 1,200 locations and over 50 years of success, is introducing its first store redesign in nearly 20 years at three new locations – Durant, Oklahoma; Monroe, Louisiana; and Elk Grove Village, Illinois. The new look features a fresh color palette, updated menu boards, and modern architectural and interior brand elements throughout – designed to create a better connection between the customer and Chester’s famous fried chicken, prepared fresh in store throughout the day.

The elevated in-store experience is the next phase of Chester’s brand refresh, following the 2020 launch of the company’s new website with an enhanced library of marketing and training tools for franchisees, as well as a new, simplified logo that focuses on the lovable Chester the Chicken mascot. Within the past year, Chester’s has also introduced new branded packaging and overhauled its digital menu board design. Read more here.

Larger than the epic Baby Boom generation, millennials currently make up about 92 million of the population in the US. Born between the 1980 and 2000, Millennials (or Generation Yers) are defined as those who reached adulthood during the 21st century. They’re known to be incredibly tech-savvy, environmentally friendly, and avid researchers – especially when it comes to making purchases. While it is true that millennials still make 75% of their purchases in traditional brick-and-mortar retail stores, over half compare prices and actively research brands, prices and reviews before ever setting foot inside the physical location. For brands wanting to ensure that the Millennials who have researched them and their products online reason complete the final in-person sale, it is incredibly important to pay attention to both in-store design as well as the design of websites and mobile apps.

Here are some tips for designing brick-and-mortar locations that benefit millennials:

1. Utilize Omnichannel

The design and brand of your website, mobile apps and online stores as well as your brick-and-mortar locations should feel like it is from the same company. Creating a similar experience and brand in all “locations’ whether physical or virtual gives shoppers the comfort to browse and research before even leaving their house. Some great examples include Sephora and L.L. Bean.

2. Cut Down on the Clutter

Minimizing clutter and adding more organized “white space” provides a sense of serenity for millennial shoppers. Try reducing the number of displays or sales racks.

3. Pay Attention to Color

Limit your color palette to neutral colors rather than overly bright and bold. This evokes natural relaxation for Generation Yers. Bringing in colors from nature is an easy way to provide a “getaway” experience. Think of Urban Outfitters.

4. Appeal to All the Senses

While design and color remain of paramount importance, you can’t forget about smell and sound. Calming music and scents tailored to your brand can greatly influence shoppers’ decisions. Stores like Bath and Body Works appeal to all the senses. Soft lighting accompanied by calm music and amazing smells invite the shopper to escape to their “calming space” without having to leave the store.

5. Create Space

If you can’t afford an entire remodel, try creating resting space within. Rearranging furniture and clothing racks can provide optimum space for millennials to shop and recharge before finalizing their purchase. Examples include stores like Nordstrom that have café style areas.

For more tips from Eric Eberhardt, Director of Retail at NELSON, click here.

Foreword: Every 3 years, 100,000+ visitors flock to an international destination to experience all things retail. Hailed as the “Global Retail Trade Fair,” EuroShop covers all things retail related, from store design to visual merchandising. Located in Dusseldorf, Germany, the event offers 17 exhibition halls within 19 different buildings.  A group of lucky FRCH-ers made the trip this year and will be sharing global trends and inspiration from the conference and nearby travel all week!

We see the trend of bringing the outdoors “in” for retail, and Bogner in Cologne is a great example of the use of natural resources to create great impact on the store experience. Whether it is for displaying the merchandise or functional users, the added aesthetic to the store is a natural fit.

A sophisticated retail experience showcasing premier German sporting apparel. For those not familiar with the history of the brand or the founder Willy Bogner, check out the website. The entrepreneurship, artistry, and athleticism rooted in the brand is truly unique.

Back in 2017 one of my favorite blogs, Oh Happy Day, announced a new project called ‘Color Factory’. It was described as a ’12,000 square feet of color experiences’, a collaboration between their favorite artists, designers & chefs to celebrate color, design, and their hometown of San Francisco. All the bright colors and fun looked amazing, but it was also on the other side of the country. THEN, this summer, Color Factory brought their hugely successful exhibit to New York, so during BDNY week, we were able to get tickets and experience the fun firsthand!

To begin, we entered the ‘lobby’ greeted by a physical manifestation of their colorful, New York-centric website, a display of colors and poems inspired by the streets of New York, and most importantly, mochi ice cream. The space became a holding area where you can hand in your tickets and check your coats before you enter the exhibit.  It was explained that we would enter through a series of rooms that let you experience color differently, sometimes there would be an activity, sometimes a food pairing, sometimes selfie stations and sometimes all three. One of the most clever things they did was hand out cards with a QR code that we could scan at different stations which would take a picture of us and send it directly to our email, so we could be hands free!

The first room was full of colorful pins, and each person got to pick which color spoke to them (I picked ‘Jet’ which looked to me like an inky blue/purple, but was really just black). As we traveled through the exhibit, we did some activities that made us feel exposed (like staring at your coworker intently, while sketching them without looking at the paper or picking up your pencil), some were a little less exciting than others (like playing plunking on a two note xylophone), some were sponsored by big brands (like the dance party sponsored by Maybelline) and almost all of them had a food pairing (the best one was the blue ice cream from the blue ball pit room).

But, I think my favorite rooms focused on the origin of colors and the translation of an experience through color. There was a room about midway through that showed colors named A-Z; each color was mounted on a drawer slide – one side named the color and the other explained its origin. As a designer that digs through color every day; understanding the origin brought more meaning to the palettes we select. Another room translated a palette entitled ‘Thoughts on a Subway on 7/30/2018’, below were listed the ‘thoughts’ and their translating colors gradating from a sunny yellow to a deep midnight blue. The artist then made this observation and palette into a merry-go-round bringing the colors to life (and creating a platform for a cool Boomerang).

The price tag for a ticket is steep ($38/person), but you got a lot of bang for your buck with take-aways, activities & food pairings. If I had any critique, it would be that the rooms sometimes felt disconnected (most likely because of the wide variety of artists they included), sometimes it felt like the procession had meaning and connected to the room before, and sometimes the rooms seemed to stand alone. I almost expected the path to build up to a final New York – centric experience or reveal. The last room featured a GIANT blue ball pit, which was VERY cool, but didn’t seem to speak to the color story inspired by New York. That said, I really did love every minute of this exhibit, surrounded by color, inspiration and artistry, it was hard for me to find something I didn’t enjoy. We spoke with some of the guides along the way, and it sounds like they’re still discussing how long this exhibit will be in place (the one in San Francisco lasted about 8 month), but if you’re in New York and you love color (and who doesn’t?) – this is a must see.

Like many, I sense the looming anxiousness about returning to work in a few weeks as shelter-in-place policies are lifted. Although many are looking forward to reuniting with colleagues and returning to the office desk away from distractions at home, I have concerns.

These concerns mirror those of our employers, building owners, and landlords, as we all see clearly how a safe reunion is a shared responsibility. Will the office building I am returning to have procedures in place to keep me safe? Am I putting my family at risk by returning to work? How can I trust that everyone is doing their part today to make our workplace a healthy environment?

To combat these worries, I am putting trust in my employer, co-workers, and those that operate my building. So are most people around the world, according to this year’s Edelman Trust Barometer Special Report. The survey found that 63 percent of people around the world believe information regarding COVID-19 from employers, compared with 58 percent for a government website and 51 percent for traditional media. Let this sink in. The majority polled are putting their trust in their employers. So, how can companies make it easier for their workforce to trust them?

Here are just a few ways:

TRUST IN THE EMPLOYER

Employers will be the trusted guide employees look to before and after returning to work. Going beyond staggering the return of employees or off-setting work hours, companies will need to actively work toward a resilient environment for years to come.

Workers will also trust their employers are following vetted and globally adopted standards. Hosting reoccurring meetings, sending weekly communications, and posting signage throughout the office can help publicly display that these standards are being followed.

Perceived safety will promote trust in the built environment as much as tangible improvements. For example, biophilic design that incorporates indoor greenery can help support wellness beyond mental health. Not only is this a tangible way to improve air quality and alleviate asthma, but it is a visual cue to employees that changes are taking place to improve their health and wellbeing.

TRUST IN THE CO-WORKER

It will be challenging to rely on others when returning to the office. There are small practices that can be put in place to help colleagues garner trust in each other and limit fears of the unknown. A few minor physical adjustments to the fixtures and furnishings can add some much-desired security.

Many corporate workplaces decorate their offices and amenity spaces with potted plants. These may be an aesthetically pleasing tool that can also serve as added barriers throughout the office, both in pathways and in alternating workstations. Moss can contribute to improved indoor air quality, removing particulates from the air throughout the day, offering acoustic buffers, and feeding the visual desire to maintain social distancing while inside the building.

Mobile partitions made available to occupants, within reasonable safety, can also provide some quick remedy to promoting space without isolating. Signage within the employer’s workplace can offer continuous reminders for best practices related to hygiene. Personal protective equipment, specifically face masks, may become a standard office supply, much like toilet paper and hand towels. These simple but effective measures can help initiate trust among co-workers while organizations work to budget toward larger-scale strategies.

TRUST IN THE BUILDING OWNER

Landlords and owners charged with operating office buildings have a huge responsibility to keep their tenants safe. For office buildings in bigger cities with higher foot traffic, they may need to close off certain entrances or regulate entry points by implementing and communicating a new wayfinding strategy that adjusts the traditional guest journey in the space. Landlords will need to pay attention to lobbies and communal areas by reducing capacity and implementing robust cleaning strategies.

Propping doors open that aren’t automatic and adding more hand sanitizing stations in common areas are other ways landlords and building operators can help employees feel more comfortable. Seeing precautions in place will allow employees to put more trust in the buildings they are entering each day.

Employers and landlords have the power to be a comforting and reliable source during this time of uncertainty. Implementing mitigation strategies fosters trust and dignity when returning to the workplace.

Having been a fan of the Eileen Fisher brand for a few years, I was excited to discover one of their Renew stores in downtown Columbia City, a suburb of Seattle.  According to the website, Eileen Fisher Renew is the brand “taking responsibility for the lifecycle of their clothes”. Their vision is admirable – a future without waste. When a gently-worn article of clothing is returned to Eileen Fisher, the customer receives a $5 rewards card, then if the item is not directly re-sold, it is either mended, overdyed, resewn or felted before re-selling.

The Renew shop in Columbia City was quite busy for a rainy Saturday morning. The selection of merchandise was pretty great, and upon perusal, most garments seemed in near-new condition. The store was simply laid out, a typical dry-cleaners’ conveyor rack ran along one wall and housed a tremendous amount of sweaters, grouped by color. In the front window of the shop was a small tailoring area for mending and adjustments. The sales clerk commented that she loved being able to actually sew on the job, as well as tend to the store.

The brand’s Resewn Collection includes limited-edition pieces all cut and sewn from old clothes and entirely one of a kind. Overall the price points were very reasonable, compared to new Eileen Fisher garments. Aside from Seattle, The Resewn Collection is only available at Eileen Fisher Soho and Making Space Brooklyn. They also have a company-owned factory in Irvington, NY that is dedicated to clothing renewal.

This brand has taken on a noble cause that goes beyond retail and hopefully we will see more stores like this in the future.

Times change, and brands need to evolve—but that doesn’t mean you need to start from scratch.

Developing strong brand assets can provide restaurants with a flexible foundation in which to successfully scale your experience. Leveraging this kit-of-parts approach allows brands to evolve and better address region-specific sites or changing consumer behaviors.

Now is the time for brands to reimagine their holistic portfolio of experiences – from prototype to new concept – to better address shifting guest needs. Innovation done right accelerates growth, captures consumer’s attention, and puts pressure on competitors to keep pace.

Partnering with long-standing client KFC, NELSON has helped the iconic brand grow their portfolio while scaling their experience. From airport kiosks to historic locations, consistent brand assets are leveraged to create a distinct destination, no matter the square footage.

Store of the Future: KFC Nex Gen

In 2020, KFC unveiled its “Next Generation Prototype” concept that prioritizes a digital-forward experience to leverage the restaurant’s skyrocketing drive-thru sales. Our team partnered with the brand to design a destination that would streamline the process for drivers, will improving the speed of service, limiting contact, and preventing bottlenecks in the lobby as aggregators wait for orders to come out. The new concept includes dedicated parking spots for off-premise orders, a drive thru lane designed for mobile orders, and a designated pickup entry for online orders. The company plans to debut the next-generation restaurant later this year.
 

Brand Home: Harland Sanders Café & Museum

The Harland Sanders Cafe is a historic restaurant and museum recognized as the birthplace of KFC. Operated by Colonel Harland Sanders in the 1940s, the site rose to prominence for the conception of the famous KFC secret recipe and has since been added to the National Register of Historic Places. Tasked with curating a guest experience spread across the entirety of the Colonel’s original campus, our team delivered a unique “Return to Roadside” design approach. To elevate the Sanders Cafe museum and exhibit experience, the design team integrated an engaging, low tech display with interactive overlays that enhance the KFC storyline. As guests make their way through the museum, artifacts have been arranged to celebrate the brand evolution and overall story.

Flagship: The Big Chicken

When KFC was looking to renovate their iconic “Big Chicken” flagship store, they turned to us to provide a much-needed update. Located in the heart of Marietta, Georgia, the site offered us an ideal scenario to riff off the momentum of the brand’s current advertising campaign and dial up their irreverent, tongue-in-cheek feistiness of the Colonel to optimize their roadside beacon, which boasts an iconic 56-foot-tall chicken sculpture as its main architectural expression. Inside the store, new graphics brought the brand to life, while updated seating and fresh finishes gave the space an elevated new look, while celebrating the KFC legacy and honoring its Southern hospitality roots.  

New Concept: Drive-Thru Only (International)

With a growing number of consumers ordering through online channels, the goal of the drive-thru only concept was to develop a more efficient operating model that celebrated this change in consumer behavior.  Located in Newcastle, Australia, the drive-thru has multiple lanes that allow customers to order and pay for a meal through the brand’s smartphone app or website, including designated lanes for more traditional, on-the-spot orders. With traditional restaurants, the building is the experience, but with this new concept it became a fixture – one element supporting the overall experience. Every touchpoint from the landscaping, signage, and architecture of the drive-thru portal comes together to create an elevated experience for guests.

Small Footprint: Urban Prototype

The goal of the brand’s first-ever urban prototype, located in The Bronx, was to reflect the borough’s bold, fast-paced eclecticism with a little more spunk than the traditional KFC restaurant.  Upon arrival, guests are greeted by a larger than life Colonel Sanders wood focal wall and lively signage featuring the brand’s iconic “it’s finger-lickin’ good” expression. A brick accent wall brings in a piece of the Bronx’s grit and serves as a backdrop for the brand’s traditional bold red stripes. Seating arrangements and ordering options complement the on-the-go mentality of New Yorkers, offering bar seating for solo diners and a designated pick-up area for mobile and to-go orders. Blending warm wood accents and exposed brick and balancing crisp kitchen tile with metal trim and exposed welds contribute to the overall aesthetic.

Prototype: American Showman

When KFC celebrated its 75th anniversary, our team developed a cost-effective retrofit program to refresh the brand environment and create a modern design that celebrated the legacy of Colonel Sanders while also bringing his down-home values and showmanship to life. The new design is a return to the brand’s roots. The honest, crafted finishes combined with bold graphics serve as an allusion to the Colonel’s hard-working background and celebrate his infamous entrepreneurial spark. Paint, finishes, and cladding transform the interior space to reflect an updated brand positioning while creating focal points throughout the dining experience. The exterior is designed with bold color, shutters, and architectural elements to communicate the dramatic transformation from the outside, in.