CASE STUDY: Hot Topic - The Store
Objective
While trends come and go, Hot Topic has a focus on the world of music and musicians as inspiration. The objective of the new prototype is to entice shoppers and introduce a new reorganized entry, layout and product presentation approach.
Result
Inspired by a trip to Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin and Hamburg, a unique street front-like entry was created as a gathering place for the music-loving Net Generation within the retail setting of the mainstream mall. The store is about a point of view, living “Everything about the music”.
Design Elements
- The exterior, reminiscent of a 1900 neighborhood store is the first signal that the world inside is quite different than at mall center-court. With a recessed entry storefront element and bay window, details of brick and wood are still visible through “aged” layers of paint.
- The interior retains what appears to be the “original” tin ceiling, stripped away to expose the “bones of the structure,” exuding the character of back street retail stores – raw, unfinished and hip. Exposed concrete floors, galvanized metal slatwall fixtures, industrial lighting and a more neutral color palette differentiate this design iteration from the past.
- Rusted patina metal-like flooring accentuates merchandise in the new Music Zone featuring hot and local bands, reemphasizing “Everything about the music.”
- The use of digital media in the windows, product plexis that highlight the graphic character beyond the apparent value of T-shirts, and the integration of accessories with a collection of spinner fixtures set on a shoe display platform help provide added focus to accessories and shoes, enticing customers to explore with a great deal of detail over an extended period of time.
- The materials are common but are used in unusual ways. The use of post-industrial materials is inspired as much from the basement hangout space or the room above the garage, as from a retail space.
