In 2018, while I was working at VBN (the predecessor of ID.CO), I designed the first store for MIMO. Seven years later, I returned to Xiamen, this beautiful island city, to design the first Xiamen store for Lonfood. Coincidentally, the core creative team of this store highly overlaps with that of MIMO seven years ago.​
Unlike emerging brands like MIMO, Lonfood is a mature brand that has undergone market tempering. Therefore, our design must not only adhere to the brand's past core concepts but also incorporate sufficient innovative elements to break the possible aesthetic fatigue of consumers.​
In the design, we continued Lonfood's brand concept with nature at its core, creating a secluded and quiet habitat in the urban space, and retaining the brand's consistent sense of nature and warmth. The innovations are mainly reflected in two aspects:​
Indoor garden design: The site of this project is in a shape that is narrow in the front and wide in the back. Such irregular store layouts are not uncommon in our past cases (another type that is troublesome). Instead of making the small storefront feel cramped, it is better to create a "habitat forest" at the entrance that can attract people. Therefore, we set up a large - area indoor garden in the entrance hall for people to rest and stay.​
Application of new materials: This is the first time we have introduced new materials into the Lonfood brand, such as the glass fiber resin used on the front of the bar. This material not only has excellent performance but also has transparent natural textures. Due to the particularity of handcrafting, the final texture and color of the material will have a certain randomness, adding more unique texture.​
From MIMO to Lonfood, seven years have quietly passed in the sea breeze of Xiamen. The same core team, with the tacit understanding of the past, has injected new ingenuity into the new space. In the end, the familiar tacit understanding and fresh inspiration have jointly built this unique space.