Glendale, California is The Jewel City. Their Gap store recently received a redesign by Portland's own OMFGCO.
The Official Manufacturing Company is a Portland-based trio of makers. Fritz Mesenbrink, Jeremy Pelley and Mathew Foster have put their design minds, handiwork and expert branding skills to work for an impressive roster of clients over the years. This summer they added The Gap to that list.
Though The Gap is now one of the largest retailers in the world, that wasn’t always the case. The multi-national apparel retailer grew from humble beginnings as a single shop in San Francisco that originally specialized in Levi’s jeans, vinyl records, and cassette tapes. The Gap gained popularity in 1969 during San Francisco’s “Summer of Love,” and eventually evolved to produce their company line of clothing.
Jeremy and Mathew hard at work on installation.
OMFGCO worked to reconnect The Gap with their small-scale roots by concepting and executing an experimental store in Glendale, California. True to their “if you can do it yourself, do it yourself” ethos, the trio headed down to Southern California to install handmade elements in the store.
The last time the graphic design community paid attention to The Gap was during their re-branding fiasco last year. These days, the apparel giant is not re-branding themselves with modern, Swiss-style design. Instead, with the help of OMFGCO’s creative wizardry, they’re looking back to their humble beginnings and projecting a homemade authenticity.
Using the vernacular of hand-painted and neon signage, OMFGCO created a more down-to-earth, human atmosphere for the mega-brand's experimental store.
Vintage-inspired typography and found materials created a sense of nostalgia with a contemporary twist. Language-based installations found throughout the shop revealed a human voice that many Gap shoppers are probably not used to — but hopefully were pleased to discover.
Scout Books and custom pencils unite!
One element of the store design was a custom Scout Book featuring the Jewel City branding. The Scout Books were printed with a custom opaque blue ink, which creates a nice shimmery effect as the ink contrasts with the texture of the recycled chipboard cover. Paired with custom pencils urging customers to “Fall Back Into The Gap,” the pocket notebooks round out the varied collection of individual elements that combine to create a unique and unrivaled shopping experience.
The "Gals" side of the shop in Glendale.
Be sure to check out the rest of the experimental store design at OMFGCO’s website. You will be delighted. Thank you to OMFGCO for the use of their images.
