Using design to transform a business and redefine the home and living category
CLIENT
DFPCL
ROLE
Creative Director
TYPE
Consumer Research, Brand Identity , Visual Language, Branded Environment & Signage, Service Design
AGENCY
Idiom Design & Consulting
CHALLENGE
The challenge for Ishanya lay in its identity crisis: conceived as a pioneering home specialty mall, over a decade and through a slew of format changes it had failed to establish a clear brand image. This disparity between it’s mall description and niche home offering lead to confusion among visitors expecting a conventional mall experience. The challenge was to redefine ‘the role of the mall’ leverage its unique mix and open physicality, creating a distinct experience.
STRATEGY
Our strategy spanned a year and encompassed a holistic transformation approach. "Creativity makes life worth living" and the purpose of “Democratization of Creativity” guided us in reimagining the mall as more than a commercial center, but as a creative hub promoting community, co-creation, and enriching lives in diverse ways. The brand became a creative platform and partner expanding beyond home to lifestyle, food, art, education and entertainment.
DESIGN
We began with a complete rebranding, followed by an immersive Experience design that turned the space into a vibrant living campus. Renamed as 'Creaticity', the brand identity embodies its 'un-mall' essence, while the tagline 'Let’s Express More' promotes inclusive expression. Experience design focuses on creating a destination atmosphere, renaming mall sections based on physical characteristics like 'Fountain House' and 'Sky Loft', akin to tourist destinations. A robust signage system, comprising over 300 pieces, enhances navigability aiding footfall irrigation.
SERVICE
DESIGN
The service design solutions aimed to improve shopability, enrich experiences, inform and empower. Key interventions included Curated Trails and Experiential Maps, which guided customers through offerings across categories while promoting business opportunities for retailer-partners. Additionally, the redesign of THE FOYER created a central landing zone with a Design Café for visitors to access category-related knowledge. This provided interactive guided mastery for customers, reinforcing Creaticity's status as a Knowledge Leader in the Home & Interior category.
A curated Events framework further enriched the visitor experience. Internally, we ran design-thinking workshops to align the work culture with the customer-forward approach and brand ethos that everyone was creative.
The footfall increased by 45% from April to October 2017 to 2018, a significant impact.
