The design studio has created a series of saturated interiors for Moniker’s Oslo store as well as a new concept for its graphic and digital branding
Creating a cohesive brand identity is no small task, but for international design studio Snøhetta’s latest branding exercise, its team needed to come up with five. Its client, Norwegian fashion brand house Moniker, plays to a human need to express individuality. It manifests through five Monikers – discrete personality traits that its customers can assign to themselves as an expression of style.
These personalities form part of the user journey Snøhetta has created for the the Moniker brand, from physical zones in the design of its new concept store in Oslo, through to variations in the brand’s logo typography, built on the same skeleton but adapted to express each of the five Monikers through subtle cultural references.
These references pervade, layered, through the visual design of the brand’s space, which curates a collection of international fashion labels. Each Moniker – Distinctive, Ambitious, Sensitive, Eccentric, and Curious – has a muse in the form of an iconic female figure from the 19th or 20th century. The Distinctive Moniker claims actress, singer and fashion icon Grace Jones, for example, while Curious opts for nineteenth-century British writer and explorer Isabella Bird.
In the new Moniker concept store in Valkyrien Square, Oslo, Snøhetta has recreated these five Monikers as a series of immersive spaces with interiors mirroring the fashion and personality each represents. The Distinctive zone features bold colours and geometric shapes, while the Curious zone incorporates a mix of patterns and hues referencing exotic and far away destinations – an eclecticism reflecting its muse’s globe-trotting nature.
The Sensitive zone reflects a combination of Parisian chic and British mod style, influenced by English-French actress and singer Jane Birkin. Art collector Peggy Guggenheim’s Eccentric zone presents a maximalist, colourful backdrop for the store. The Ambitious zone, inspired by Austrian-American film star and inventor Hedy Lamarr, offers a more classic luxury and glamour.
The zones offer playful spaces for visitors, creating an experience intended as a counterpoint to fast fashion and the standardisation and predictability of traditional shops and department stores.
All photography by Hinda Fahre
