“When the first Apple stores opened in 2001, people stood in round-the-block lines to be the first inside, and the first to experience Apple’s iconic design language given form and space—an iPod reproduced in bricks and mortar,” Jack Stewart reports for Wired. “Now, 15 years later, Apple’s trying to rekindle that enthusiasm in the heart of San Francisco, with a flagship store in Union Square. And it’s a big ‘un, with 42 foot high sliding glass doors fronting a revamped interior, full of design flourishes that are likely to filter outward to Apple monoliths everywhere.”
“The company is trying to give the impression that these are not just places to hand over money in exchange for pieces of beautifully designed pieces of glass and aluminum, but spaces to come and hang out,” Stewart reports. “‘It all starts with the storefront—taking transparency to a whole new level—where the building blends the inside and the outside,’ said Jony Ive, Apple’s chief design officer, in a statement.”
“The new store is a combination of Ive’s design passion — so it has plenty of trademark glass and steel—and the work of architecture firm Foster and Partners, best known for defining major parts of London’s skyline with gem-like, faceted, curved buildings,” Stewart reports. “The same team has cooperated on stores in China, and Apple’s new HQ, a donut-shaped building nicknamed the ‘Spaceship.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The store is excellent branding.
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