Inspired by ‘Around the World in 80 Days’ Formroom created an immersive series of retail displays for the opening of Hyundai Department Store in Pangyo, South Korea.

Mission.

We were invited to originate designs and provide technical drawings for an array of bespoke installations and a stunning window scheme series for Hyundai’s South Korean department store. Inspired by ‘Around the World in 80 Days’, we translated the brief into a visionary world full of innovative inventions, hybrid vehicles and whimsical rides – all with a modern twist.

Approach.

To begin, our brand strategists delved into the Hyundai customer by first conducting market research and consumer insight, considering the customer needs and behaviours. We identified a need to engage the family unit within the in-store experience and encourage social media opportunities – these insights were translated into the development of our initial concepts.

Throughout the store, customers become immersed in the spectacle of a fictional voyage through wonderful oddities of disproportionate scales. Inspired by adventures of the sea, Formroom designed a show-stopping leather whale that is steered by a mannequin and accompanied by fish encased in acrylic bubbles for a truly fantastical retail design. Elsewhere, weird and wonderful vehicles are the centrepieces of elegant mannequins, including a giant rose-gold flying propeller, delicate unicycles with silver wings and a hybrid penny-farthing and Ferris equipped with plants and a leather seat.

Communicating a modern aesthetic, we designed an interior window scheme that was to be extremely high-end, furnished out of luxurious materials and to showcase unforgettable design. To capture the imagination of Hyundai customers, we produced a bespoke rose gold bicycle with contrasting silver wings that is suspended in a sky of geometric clouds. This is paired with two window schemes that display an abundance of silver miniature ships in a sea of waves.
We revelled in the collaborative process, working alongside the client and in-house team.

Results.

A highly visual and creative store experience that transported the Hyundai customer into an escapist adventure through in-store installations and window schemes. All of which displayed the high-end luxury products available at the department store. The end result was a spectacle, bringing Hyundai’s ambitious retail design concept to life.

“Throughout the store, customers are immersed into the spectacle of a fictional voyage through wonderful oddities of disproportionate scales.”