Bloom Thinks: Architecture Part 3

Architecture needn’t be handcuffs. It can be fresh and disruptive. How are brands pushing architecture’s boundaries?

Architecture’s role is unlikely to change. It will always be a system that makes choosing easy. It will always guide where a brand can innovate. It will always balance constraint and freedom.

But how architecture shows up is changing. Evolving media and tech give brands licence to be more extreme in what their portfolios look like in-store, online and in the hand.

Online shopping is integrating with social media and digital entertainment. Physical stores are delivering experiences as much as purchases. So today’s shoppers expect more than a transaction. In exchange for long-term loyalty they want to be entertained while browsing and choosing.

Brands that shape their architecture to make choosing entertainment can earn huge rewards. A portfolio can become content to follow, NPD can become collectibles, consumers become a cultish community, awaiting each release with feverish anticipation.

The trick is to add some friction into the experience. Beyond low-interest top-up products like bleach or batteries, we don’t want every shopping experience to be speedy and streamlined.  Brands can be like a museum curator encouraging discovery by arranging exhibits to make visitors stop, think and engage.

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We’re seeing forward-thinking brands make their architecture more entertaining and engaging in two ways – curated control and curated chaos.

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Curated control

Brands with a flat monolithic architecture (the ‘branded house’ strategy) needn’t feel flat to consumers. Making every product look similar can make the audience lean in. It’s an invitation to discover the inner content beyond the outer sleeve.

Le Labo uses its industrial urban aesthetic to disrupt the romantic European style of traditional fragrance. Only the scent name and number differentiate. Brand extensions into skin and hair look the same. The less-is-more approach feels sophisticated and intriguing beside the visual high-jinks of the fashion-led fragrances.

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Fitzcarraldo Editionsbreaks every rule of book cover design. Every release is the same, except forthe titles and colour (blue for fiction, white for non-fiction). The repetitiveapproach has instant appeal for the highbrow reader who judges the book beforethe cover.

This strategy isn’t limited to high-interest premium categories. Supermarkets have been at it too. Waitrose’s Cook’s Ingredients range and Monoprix’s own label products are similarly one-track. Simple stripes of colour and text attract a more thoughtful shopper looking for competitively-priced quality.

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Curated chaos

To perform in physical stores brands need consistent branding across media and product. Digital channels let brands release products in more non-linear, freestyle ways. If what a brand makes is culturally on-point and worth sharing then people will flock to it.

The seemingly chaotic architecture approach is an extreme beyond the ‘house of brands’. Every release is an independent limited edition. But it’s held together by a creative purpose, aesthetic and standard of taste – the architecture system is philosophical, not visible.

The originator of curated chaos is pre-digital. From the 1980s Swatch redefined what a watch could be. A Swatch is more than a timepiece. It’s a democratic fashion icon anyone can own. Over the years its releases have ranged from in-house poppy designs; to artist editions (Keith Haring, Annie Leibowitz); to clothing lines. Today Swatch is famous for its collabs with trad Swiss watch houses like Omega and Blancpain. There’s little sense of a core range. Instead there’s a never-ending pipeline of fresh and interesting releases.

A24 has been making movies, like Everything Everywhere All At Once and Marty Supreme, since 2012. Its productions have subtle but distinctive markers recognised by its followers– pre-release marketing, pacing, lighting, conscious subject matter and above all vibe. These are consistent across its very broad output. Its tastemaker status has allowed it to extend into coveted physical merch.

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MSCHF’s provocative fashion and lifestyle drops defy categorisation. Recent releases leap from shoes to jewellery; from furniture to confectionery. But there’s a creative purpose holding it all together – to blur the lines between art, satire and consumerism. So those in the know instantly recognise, follow and share each release.

Because they’re extremes, controlled or chaotic architectures can dictate the whole brand experience. It’s thanks to Le Labo’s repetitive architecture that it feels like a fragrance studio, not a fragrance house. It’s thanks to Swatch’s freestyle architecture that it feels like a fashion accessory, not a timekeeper. There’s plenty of scope for architecture to be as much soul, as system.