We would love to introduce you to Clap Studio, a design studio we discovered through the community of instagram. We were particularly drawn to a playful retail project they designed for Spanish store ‘Little Stories’ and wanted to find out more.
Let’s meet Angela of Clap Studio.
Hello Angela, thanks for chatting with us! Could you give us some background to your studio? Where are you based? What type of projects do you work on?
Hello Emma, it is nice to be digitally here chatting with you! We are based in Valencia (Spain) a city close to the mediterranean sea that is the most of the year bathed by the sun. We are a studio focused on creating experiences through interiors, products and art installations for brands, institutions or individuals.
We loved finding your ‘Little Stories’ interior project on instagram. Your design for the children’s store felt so fresh and looked like it offered a playful and inviting space for young customers! Can you tell us a little about this project ?
Well, this was an interesting project that came up to us in the perfect moment. In the very first moment clients were just interested in us for the interior design, they had already a logo but we knew we could offer something more interesting for the brand. After the first meeting we presented our very first 360 proposal, what means branding, interior and communication possibilities. While this first proposal was not perfectly fitting their intentions they decided to trust us and count on us for the design of the whole brand: branding, interior, communication and web design. It was a very hard but super funny project. We spent almost one year developing the whole project but the hard work and dedication was definitely worthwhile.
It is refreshing to see a shoe shop aimed at children that feels bold and fun, but also restrained and focused. Is that a hard balance to strike?
Our practice comes from a minimalistic approach. My partner and I are the founders of More with less, that was an online magazine about interiors, architecture and product with a clear philosophy: more with less. We believe that if something is done using just one color and it is understable it means we do not need to use anything else. That's why we try to minimize the use of different materials, colors and shapes. But at the same time after some time working for brands we know that we need to offer something else, an experience, so we always start from a concept that can connect with the target audience.
In Little Stories we started from the branding creating the strong logotype and a playful system of lines that gives flexibility to the brand and its communication. Having this almost clear we created the interior using the brand colors that were the primary ones (blue, red and yellow) and of course white. I think the key of this design was the respect and esteem we had to the product exhibited. We knew that even we had this powerful brand colors they couldn't interfere with the product exposed so we reserved the colors to specific places like the tubes on the ceiling and the lines on the floor. The places where the product was displayed remained white and clean. The same in the facade. We wanted customers in the street to look inside the store through those big windows, so we used just white tiles and black lines. Color was inside and in the product so attention remains in the interior and in the product again. Definitely to find the balance was a process, we had to try using the stands, tubes and colors in different places and in different ways.
What was the shop like before you began working on the interior?
It was totally empty.It looks like there are some elements that can be changed or adapted in the space - how important was this element to the design?
Flexibility was a must and one of the keywords of the interior design project. Little Stories is a 70sqm space, where we had to place storage, the cashier and a fitting room. Also we had in mind that a store is not a static space, depending on the season it needs more products to be exhibited or different interior displays. Starting from this premise we designed magnetized walls where you can show 1 apparel or sneaker or you can show 100 pieces. We designed also all the magnetized accessories adapted to different kind of products exposure from hangers to plates for the sneaker wall. For the floor the stands had to be movable for the same reason.
We loved the use of the repeated shapes and patterns throughout the design. From the cylinders that function as lights, seating and plinths, to the arch shaped windows, doors and mirrors. Can you say anything about where these shapes and forms stemmed from for this project?
Yes, of course. It comes from the branding. If you have a look at the Little Stories logotype, one 't' is modified to look like a smiley face with a wink. We took this round shape as a reference also because we had the feeling that this shape is more friendly than a square or a sharp angle. At the same time we wanted to avoid sharp corners for children's safety.
How involved are you in the production of furniture or installation of projects like this?
We design everything, we draw all the technical plans and monitor all the production. Our main interest is that the whole project is completed as clients expect and as it has been designed.
Where can we find the store?
The store is in our hometown Valencia :)
Are you working on any other exciting projects at the moment?
Yes, we are. We are right now starting the concept design for a big fashion brand that we can not say anything at the moment. Also in the next month Domestika will present our first course about "Retail interior design" that we filmed and prepared during the lockdown in Spain and just one week ago we launched our first art direction for MISSANA, a furniture brand also from Valencia. We are also developing different furniture collections for other furniture brands but this is something that takes more time and have no idea about when these designs will be launched.
Your website describes you as gastronomy lovers…if you had to choose a particular dish or item of food to say sum up your design practice, what would it be and why?
What a difficult question. If we had to choose one that sum up our design practice could be the Butterfish Nigiri with a minimalistic design but full of flavour on the palate :)
