Re-Crafted To 'Keep Rising' Blackberrys, Hyderabad

Twenty five years ago, Blackberrys began its journey in the by-lanes of Chandni Chowk in New Delhi.  Today a leading brand in men’s fashion in India, Blackberrys has been synonymous with many firsts in India; for instance, The Whitest white shirts and wrinkle free Khaki. As part of the natural evolution while keeping with times and having an eye to the future, Blackberrys in 2018, relaunched its brand in a completely new avatar with Firebird as its logo and ‘Keep Rising’ as the tag line. The soul of the brand lies in Burning Drive, synonymous to the core of its consumers.

Designed by Four Dimensions Retail Design, the store design objective was to interpret the burning drive of the Blackberrys’ man into a space that inspires him to rise above his peers. The environment persona was created in close collaboration with the brand’s DNA and the core consumer’s aspirations to ‘keep rising’.

Spread over two levels, the new flagship ‘House of Blackberrys’ store in Himayatnagar in Hyderabad houses Blackberrys Casuale and Urban in the lower level to highlights its dominant presence in the semi-formal and casual wear segments. While the upper level houses its popular mainline Blackberrys range. While the sub-brands speak their own distinct language within their zones, the overall store concept resonate Blackberrys’ brand story as a singular voice.

For the store front, bold modern architectural lines created in a configuration of double height fluted aluminium and in-lit acrylic with the backlit logo, create an interesting contrast.

Walking in, the store interiors are inspired from visual cues of elements of the smart business café. This is reflected in its interior design, furniture, fixtures and visual merchandising. The spatial palette is created in a sharply contrasting premium palette of creams and dark classic brown with dashes of Blackberrys accent orange. Open and spacious layout allows for leisure browsing through the store with each category being highlighted with floor ‘fashion staging point’ complemented with ‘style spots’ that draw attention to lifestyle statements on perimeter ‘style wardrobes’. Installation using props like bell jars, trays, wooden serving boards, cocktail bottles, mugs and pastry cases help in drawing special attention onto special products and fashion statements.

The mainline Blackberrys takes on the leading language of the store with its fixtures coded in a premium café’s design impressions rendered in the display tables and cutlery station like storage cabinets complemented with a wooden highlight on the ceiling above the fashion staging point in the heart of the store to add the warm sophistication to the fashion environment. An interesting pattern on the flooring completes the look of the space. 

The travel lifestyle of the Blackberrys Casuale customer is expressed in the brand’s zone in a subtly different ID in the fixtures and visual merchandising with tasteful retro cues of premium classic luggage and vintage plane models. The Blackberrys Urban area, features its ID inspired from ‘New York’ streets coded in the material palette, fixtures and visual merchandising language.

The double height area is embellished with a stylised and backlit fluted ‘fire bird’ logo and graphics that compel walk-ins on the upper level visually encouraged by a modern arty chandelier installed on a premium wood panelled ceiling.

The store also incorporates inspiring and quirky in-store ‘brand speak’ communication urging its customers to ‘Keep Rising’. A boutique lighting concept presents the store environment as premium and special social place by drawing attention to the storytelling elements in the store.

Overall, the store design is coded to present a very differentiated environment that delivers an emotive, aspirational and sensorial experience to the Blackberrys customer of today.

Ramesh Kaushik, VP- Brand Experience, Blackberrys

“We chose Four Dimensions Retail Design to craft a unique yet identifiable retail identity for Blackberrys and its house brands -- Casuale and Urban. The mandate was to introduce a new retail look for the brand/s that is authentic and standing true to the journey of today’s man. The store has clean lines and brings a transparent navigation to a consumer. All three brands of Blackberrys, namely Blackberrys Formals, Blackberrys Casuale and Urban, along with accessories and footwear are perfectly coming together while demonstrating a winning statement. Having “travel with a purpose” at the centre of our new identity; the colours, fixtures, material selection is an extension of the whole proposition. A true manifestation of the Burning Drive, which is the soul of the brand, the store interiors enable the journey in making wardrobe selection which is true to the brand positioning of being an enabler and guide.”

Nagaraja R, Founder & Director Design, Four Dimensions Retail Design

“The overall store concept design concept is inspired from a ‘Smart Business Café’ rendered through architecture, materials palette and visual merchandising that come together to create a unified and distinct store design signature that cues the ‘keep rising’ story.”

CREDITS:

Store Concept Design: Four Dimensions Retail Design

Visual Merchandising Design: Four Dimensions Retail Design & Team Blackberrys

Project Management: Four Dimensions Retail Design

Fixtures: Space Design

Retail Lighting: Plus Light

Decorative Lights: Light Zone

Signage and Props: Sasha Retail Solutions

Mannequins: Indo Nippon

Store Build Contractor: Source One

Photography: Infocus (Roshan)