Young Hain, Clear Hain

Idiom Design started in April 2005 with the merger of two distinct design firms – Esign (est 1997) and Tessaract Design (est 1985).

The company provides Strategic Thinking, Design Thinking, Brand Communication & Corporate Identity. Idiom also designs Brand Experiences (architectural, interior) for corporate, hospitality, academic, retail, entertainment and wellness spaces and Environmental Graphics for townships and campuses. Idiom also designs and develops Product & Packaging,

As is often said, Idiom is in the business of design to design businesses.

The company’s esteemed clients include Future Group, Manipal Group, TVS Group, Titan Industries, Aditya Birla Group, Siyaram’s, Godrej, Uninor, CommonWealth Games Delhi 2010 and a host of others.

CASE STUDY

Telenor Norway approached Idiom to help them understand, localise their brand and connect to the Indian customers. They threw open a challenge to design for a differentiated customer experience in a very crowded and fiercely competitive telecom market in the country.

The design’s USP

Uninor was looking for a design which connects with the customers instantly with its uncomplicated approach, simple brand communications and comprehensive services under one roof. The Uninor retail design exercises was directed at addressing all these concerns of the telecom customers and open up the large untapped youth market. The design insight of “Young Hain, Clear Hain” echoes the parent brand’s philosophy of being simple and respectful and inspires the aspirational youth.

Inspiration behind the design.

Uninor’s retail design concept takes its inspiration from the quick service restaurant – casual, fast, efficient, buzzing and democratic. The idea was to create a smart, engaging retail environment as against the traditional format that was transactional and corporate.

Layout planning

The space planning placed all long duration activities to the rear and the quick ones towards the front part of the retail space. The wall displays clearly separates the products from the services. For the people in a hurry there is the ‘blue box’ with the automated kiosk that operates 24 hours.

The high stand up tables serve as casual interaction spots where the staff approaches the customer. 

The look and feel of the store balances smart corporate efficiency with the warmth of hospitality. For that desired effect the material palette uses blue transparent tints and tones along the walls and vertical surfaces with the warm wooden floor and ceiling.

State-of-the-art retail experience

The communication language inside the store is simple yet very efficient. Customer centric graphics help guide the visitors through various unaided browsing activities. The interactive and non interactive digital displays across the store make the store engaging and playful. The entire store is wi-fi enabled, making it a smart and wire-free.

The complete retail design package – the space elements, furniture, graphics and VM – have been designed to be modular. This 1000 sq ft store at Koramangala, Bangalore was launched on February 2010. 

Idiom was selected for this project by way of competitive bidding of national and international design agencies of repute and I must say that they have done full justice to the brief given to them and the results are there for everyone to see.

Shashikant Sinha, Head - Retail, Uninor

At Uninor the design was developed to be customer-centric more than operator-centric, thus developing a new culture of servicing within the organisation. At a time when mobile number portability rattles loyalty, this shift was a need of the hour.

Manu Neelakandhan, Design Director, Idiom Design