JHB

Graphic design · Storefront

A 600m² showroom, on every surface

A 600m² showroom in Sandton. Signage, print, look-book, carrier bags and the online shop.

Client
Fine Living by David Muirhead
Year
2014
Scope
Signage, Print, Look-book, Bags, E-commerce, Build
A woman carrying a Fine Living shopping bag past the Sandton storefront in daylight.
The storefront, Parkmore, Sandton.

(Overview)A showroom sells furniture to someone sitting in it. The website had to sell the same pieces to someone who cannot.

(The brief)Fine Living sells bespoke furniture from a 600 square metre showroom in Parkmore, Sandton. The shop had to work online as well as in the room, which is harder than it sounds when a single armchair comes in fifteen fabrics and a customer wants to see all of them before committing to one.

A grid of spreads from the Fine Living function-venue brochure: the cover, a pull quote, floor plans of the ballroom and boardroom, and photographed rooms.
The function venue, spread by spread.
A woman holding a phone at her desk, the Fine Living shop open on it with chairs listed by name and price.
The shop, in the hand.
The showroom, in sequence

(The constraint)The logo was fixed before the brief began. Everything the brand had left to say had to be said in signage, print, carrier bags and glass.

(What shipped)Twenty-eight pieces went online with category filters, and each one carries its fabric options on the product page itself. In the showroom the same brand runs across the window, the swing tags, the look-book and the carrier bags. Helvetica Ultra Light on the glass, Avenir on the paper it goes home in.

Colour

Type

Aa set in Helvetica Neue Ultra Light.Helvetica Neue Ultra Light Primary
Aa set in Avenir Light.Avenir Light Secondary

Ultra light on glass. Avenir on paper.

A woman at a desktop computer in a dark, warm room, the Fine Living shop open on screen showing the chair range in a grid.
The showroom, from an armchair.
Fifteen fabrics, without leaving the grid.

(The problem)Nobody compares two chairs one page at a time. The grid is the comparison.

(Quick view)So the fabric options open over the grid instead of replacing it. Choose a colour, close the panel, and the row is exactly where it was. The comparison survives the click.

E-commerce

Home. Bespoke Furniture, featured accent chairs.
About. A showroom for the things we believe in.
Shop. Twenty-eight pieces with category filters.
Product detail. Louisa Arm Chair, fifteen fabrics.
Contact. Parkmore showroom interior and map.
01 / 05
The Fine Living by David Muirhead wordmark etched across the showroom window at dusk.
Window signage
A Fine Living product swing tag on a gold-leaf urn.
Swing tag
The Fine Living e-commerce site open on a laptop, the Boutique Collection hero showing a red velvet sofa.
The store, on desktop
Black and white Fine Living carrier bags standing on a marble table in the showroom.
Carrier bag

From the storefront to the carrier bag, one 600m² argument.

More work

View all work
A grey whippet on a buttoned grey velvet chesterfield, the DM&A lockup and Interior Architectural Design set large above it.
Book Private homes, luxury hotel interiors
A single Urban Barista No. 22 bag in teal and ochre, the Pretoria skyline along the bottom.
Packaging Three roasts you order by number
The Ogese Group wordmark in gold, centred over Africa on a dark world map traced with city lights.
Group One parent mark, three businesses
A black swing tag on a cotton string hanging against deep grey buttoned velvet, the YSD monogram embossed on it.
Furniture Every sofa named after a stone
The South China Clothing mark as a white neon blade sign over a wet Hong Kong street at night.
Identity One corporate clothing spec, four cities
The Officine Italia mark: a Venetian gondola and gondolier in black silhouette above the wordmark.
Experiences Three ways into Italy, from Johannesburg
An architect's office at dusk with the Veld Architects site open on a laptop.
Practice Twenty years of houses, philosophy second
The Social Link heart mark: clustered dots in many colours forming a heart.
Portal Carers placed, one shift at a time
A sheet of CT slices held against a clinical interior, the IntriHEALTH mark over it.
Platform Africa's largest clinical image archive
The ANS mark: layered orange and red chevrons beside the Australian Niugini Services wordmark.
Trade A mark for the Australia⁠–⁠PNG corridor
A nurse checking a small child in a consulting room.
Product One immunisation record, three readers
A scuffed white Oiltech hard hat hanging on a steel column, the workshop running away behind it.
Identity An identity for forty years of hydraulics

Most of these are still in use.

Contact

Oiltech Systems. Brand and website, 2016.

A small hydraulics office at night, lit only by the monitor on the desk. The Oiltech Systems site is open on the screen, a work jacket hangs over the empty chair, and framed hydraulic schematics line the block wall beside an open doorway onto an unlit workshop.