Xiangxiang Luo

About

Xiangxiang Luo is an interior designer with a background in business and entrepreneurship. 

After graduating from business school in Macao, she discovered the potential of the youth rental market in Shenzhen. After research and insight into the needs of users, she designed and operated a youth hostel and several apartments. These experiences led her to discover her love and boundless passion for interior design. 

She has always been enthusiastic about combining interior design with the brand design. Her working experience and studies at the Royal College of Art allows her to create inspiring spaces that reflect the identity and enrich people’s experience.  

Contact

Degree Details

Statement

The way of retail, especially over the past several months, is moving forward so much quicker in the way interact with its clients, and with its brand. How can we improve the physical brand space in the context of the rapidly changing retail environment? What might the future of experience look like? 

My project is trying to exploring how to combine the advancements of the online experience with the sensorial and theatrical elements of the offline by designing a concept store for the Swiss bag brand FREITAG. Every bag is unique and made of recycled truck tarps. Four years ago, I went to FREITAG's flagship store in Zurich without knowing the brand. The store is cool, but I didn’t buy anything. Last year, I read FREITAG 's story online and fell in love with it. I think its stores can do better to tell their brand story and communicate their brand value to customers.

FREITAG's concept store in London

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Swiss bag brand FREITAG has 26 global stores with over 4000 unique products, ranging not only their signature bags but accessories and apparel. With so many products on offer, the future concept store looks to explore a narrative rich environment that exemplifies the brand story of Freitag while challenging the function or purpose of why a physical space is relevant in our current economy.

Medium: Design concept images

Design Concept

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The design concept is about time; old and new, past and the future. Each of FREITAG's unique bags is made from recycled truck tarp, and every piece of their clothing can degrade in the soil over time, they waste nothing but time. To represent the spirit of the brand, we will not only let guests experience what FREITAG has now; unique materials, handmade process and a wide variety of products but also display FREITAG's future social role as a sustainable and innovative brand.

Materials and Lighting

Materials and Lightings
Materials and Lightings — This Gif shows how the recycled wood, plastic, steel, leftover tarps and lighting used in space.

We will use FREITAG‘s leftover materials as the main material of the space. I’m trying to adopting things currently exits. Materials should not only be Eco-friendly but also create a sense of industrial and futuristic atmosphere. Industrial is what FREITAG looks like. Futuristic conveys Freitag’s spirit of exploring the unknown. For lighting, we use fluorescent and LED lights to create the atmosphere.

Medium: GIF

SITE

Site and Spatial Sequence
Site and Spatial Sequence — The spatial sequence will follow the journey of feeling the past, experience the present and explore the future.

Using the Old Sorting Office in Chelsea as FREITAG's UK flagship location, the store acts as the pilot space for which the following 26 global stores will assimilate over time. The place as an ex-industrial site adheres to the aesthetic of the brand whilst simultaneously speaking to the subtle reference of export and delivery, core to the original truck tarp material on which the company was founded.

Journey

Section
Section

We have the industrial first floor, futuristic ground floor, and the white library in the middle of the space. The library is like a time tunnel, connecting the past and the future.

Space and experience

The truck installation
The truck installation — The scale of the material is unique, and it's exciting for customers to realize that their bags are part of such a big tarp. In the customised studio, you can use plexiglass templates to choose the pattern you like and custom your bag from outside of this truck. Inside is a video room where you can watch Freitag's videos.
The semi-open making studio
The semi-open making studio
Freitag's bag library
Freitag's bag library — I display the drawer of the original shelf system vertically; each drawer is like a book. You take a book from the shelf; it's more natural. Choosing a bag is like choosing a book in the library. Before you enter, you can see the bag’s catalogue and information on the touch screen. Two elastic bungee cords are attached to the side of the drawer to keep the bag from slipping off.
The Future Transportation space — People can try their bags on bikes because FREITAG's first bag was designed for the Biker. They are functional and water-repellent. We will install an energy harvesting system, which can convert kinetic energy into electricity. When you’re cycling, the lights on the floor will follow you. The kinetic energy you generate as you walking through space also provides power to the lighting. You can see mirrors on both sides, creating a sense of an infinite city.
The Future Fabric Lab
The Future Fabric Lab — The installation expresses FREITAG's exploration of new materials artistically.
The Future Fabric Lab
The Future Fabric Lab — The weightlessness of the spaceman reflects the lightness of the new material in the bag. The installation on the right shows the material is made from recycled plastic bottles. All installations are not permanent, we’ll work with designers and often launches new installations to attract customers.
The Future Communication space
The Future Communication space — People can exchange bags with other FREITAG's fans in these phone booths. They can try bags through the AR mirror, or scan and upload the bag you want to change. Guests in the phone booth are like us during the epidemic. We are all isolated islands but connected.
Zero waste Cafe
Zero waste Cafe — We will have an indoor micro-farm of Algae. Algae is considered a healthy and readily available food of the future. People can grow and eat algae indoor.
The Virtual Journey Animation — Video link for visitors from Mainland China:

Installing experience-rich moments into the store to promote customer engagement and connectivity, customers no longer act as observers instead become active participants and students in the story of the brand. The store categories these moments into 'Future Spaces'; Future Transport, Future Fabric Lab, Future Communication and Future Cafe, conveying not only FREITAG's recycling philosophy but also embodying the brand's innovative spirit of continually exploring the unknown.

Medium: Images and GIFs

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