How do you turn up the desirability of industrial safety wear without alienating your target audience? Singaporean industrial and marine safety product supplier Durasafe has typically operated on a business-to-business basis, providing items such as hard hats, work boots, and goggles direct to the construction and industrial sectors.

Keen to reach out to individual customers and broaden the appeal of its products to the mainstream public, Durasafe opted to create its first ever retail presence. Designed by Ministry of Design (MOD), its flagship boutique is located in a 6m-high warehouse space and dramatises the shopping experience for better customer engagement.

“We had never designed anything like this before,” says MOD’s Director Colin Seah. “So the first challenge was to understand the nature of our client’s product and its customer base. It was important to design an experience that would excite and interest them.”

“The other challenge was to utilise the 6m-high ceiling to our advantage,” he continues. “We did this by creating a ’scaffold’ system for the product display.”

While it clearly evokes the familiar surrounds of industrial environments and construction sites, the black-painted ’scaffolding’ visually recedes. The colourful products thus practically glow. So do the orientation systems, which include yellow floor markings and orange light boxes.

The latter identify the locations of different product categories throughout the two-level space. The logos were also designed by MOD.

Says Seah, “The owners’ personal ambition for Durasafe is to be the advocator of safety to all people from all walks of life, making it fun, functional, and fashionable.” And there is certainly something fun about the contextual mixtures in the space – such as the watertight bulkhead doors on the change rooms.

The entrance sequence provides perhaps the most fun and exciting experience. A shallow ’lobby’ creates a bold transitional zone and allows for a dominant brand advertisement. The store interior is largely concealed by full-height orange wall panels. And with the presence of a large illuminated cross, there’s no missing the Durasafe store.

Ministry of Design
modonline.com