The quirky store is located on the O2’s bustling Avenue, with optimal adjacency to the Arena entrance and boasting tall ceilings and an impressive 16 meter double-height shopfront, with an extensive external seating area.
The store design is an expansion of Snowflake’s core values of natural, high-quality ingredients, which guided the evolution of the brand palette, together with the personality of the site itself.
The polished natural silestone and warm bronzed fluted glass seen at Westfield were also introduced here, as key decorative elements. These in turn complemented the addition of hexagonal and parquet laid wall tiles in muted, earthy brand colours of pink and grey in honed matt finishes, which provide contrast. Elegant vertical timber slats denote the key service area and focus for internal signage. Simple screens provide updated menu and content above each area.
Customer flow is a key consideration with the brand’s hot and cold offers. Snowflake encourages an increased dwell-time and engagement within their gelato offer, providing samples and allowing customers to discover their favourite flavours and combinations, before making their final purchases.
To intensify this, the high ceiling and services were painted out a matt charcoal to allow the focus to remain very much at the eye-level of server and customer. Beautiful reflective Tom Dixon lighting fixtures seem to float over the landing space, while the riotously colourful gelato cabinets are accentuated with an undulating cascade of Muto pendant lights, creating a focal cue from the entrance. The terrazzo floor completes the colourful and textural palette.
The hard ‘corner’ footprint of the site is offset as a series of brand layers, from the pink canvas barriers enclosing the external seating area, to the translucent fractal pattern applied to the double height glazed shopfront. The hairpin furniture adds to this lightness of touch and contrast with the textures and hard surfaces of the interior.
The store opened in time for the seasonal promotion, with plans for further expansion in premium site across London.
