Suzuki Cars retail experience

Have you ever wondered why great words - like ‘fun’ - appear in ATL briefs from brands, but never seem to ‘trickle down’ into other business functions? But what would happen if fun was central to an automotive retail experience? Here's a little thought-experiment for one particular marque...
Project Overview
Some years back, we were working with Suzuki on helping them develop a set of ‘refreshment’ design ideas for the UK retail network; and at the time we were asked by an excellent (now retired) client to take a look at a new approach to retail graphics.

Something to bust the tramline approach of pictures of cars, or people in cars, or, I don’t know, snowy landscapes and car-feee roads (ha!)
My contribution to this
Given the work on signage where I had captured the idea of Suzuki = fun = happiness, it seem a small skip to thinking about backdrops that would make you smile.

And we always used to joke about garages and their flags and bunting approach to point of sale in the past. That’s always happy.

Why not re-interpret that visual language? So I did.The programme of artworks for a system of components was called ‘Happy Patterns’ and I created all the vector artworks for various ‘zones’ in the dealership to provide bright, cheerful canvases.

Even the usual dull glazing manifestations (health and safety) I grabbed to make a string of little pendant flags.
Project Overview
Design lead, illustrator, graphic designer, environmental graphic and signage design
Completed Summer 2019
In the artist impressions we commission it looked great. And then. Lockdown, again. Everything literally ground to a stop.Our client retired a year later. We had some small prototypes made of sections of the units, which have sat on a shelf in the office ever since.