There’s nothing I love more than when retailers decide to invest in extraordinary design. When every conceivable product in existence is available to us at the touch of a button, brick-and-mortar retailers need that spectacle factor to reel us punters in.

Unlike its sibling sectors like workplace, education or even hospitality, retail is an area of design where our industry can ditch the restraint and go big. We are seeing this more and more, where retailers (and the designers who work with them) are playing a fascinating game of one-ups-manship for who can create the biggest, most conceptual buzz around their brand.

It has to be major. Surprising. Sharable. Grand. Engulfing. And most importantly, connect to the essence of the client.

Designed by XEX, Prismverse is an interactive diamond-themed installation in Shanghai, created to celebrate the launch of Dr.Jart+’s Instant V7 Toning Light product.

This immersive and experiential pavilion was driven by the idea of the product itself “light” – and how light rays travel through a diamond.

This concept was realised with a 10 meter-long LED floor and the complex geometrical tessellated mirror wall, where the highly illuminated interior becomes a metaphor for the instant tone-up effect of the skin product, with the products themselves being positioned in the very centre of the space on a-symmetric plinths.

The project’s creative director Chris Cheung Hon Him explains: “The audience will be immersed in the splendours of our mother nature, ranging from the galaxy and distant stars, rare gemstones, glistens of flowing water and refracted light beams. These resemble the brightening, moisturizing, protective and vitalizing effects of the product once applied on skin.”

In addition to viewing the product, visitors are immersed in a soundscape of alternating colours and dizzying patterns. And as an added layer to the overall concept, XEX has built-in a bespoke and strategically directional soundscape, produced in collaboration with local audio-philes Sonihouse to soak the space with an intangible atmosphere.

This is the future of retail, and it’s a future well worth investing in!

Can’t make it to Shanghai? Never mind – you can experience the space with the below video!

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