The Australian skin care company Aesop is always one to watch for interesting retail design. They’re know for creating interesting spaces in their stores and pop-up locations, often using re- or up-cycled materials. For their first U.S. location they stuck with this winning formula – creating a kiosk in Grand Central Station made with stacks and stacks of editions of the New York Times.
Fast Co Design explains:
The Aesop kiosk is made of roughly 1,800 torn copies of the New York Times. Laid flat, piled up one on top of the other, and held together by a wooden frame, they create little display stands for Aesop’s assorted body scrubs and facial hydrating creams.
What on earth do newspapers have to do with skin care, you ask? The design is “a response to Aesop’s respect for the written word and the history of each city with which it engages,” Aesop writes in press materials. And hey, it beats using the Times to line a bird cage!
This kind of interesting, temporary retail space is great for engaging customers in new ways. As a local example, the Cape Town based store, Church, does a similar thing with an ever-changing theme. It’s all a natural evolution of the pop-up shop idea and an interesting way for new brands to create interest, and existing brands to revitalise their customer experience.
