Amazing Retail Designs
Retailers across North America are upping their game, enlisting A-list design firms from inside and outside the cannabis industry to stand out and to keep customers coming back for years to come.
While some of the following stores reside in well-established markets and set the bar high for competitors, others operate in newer markets and act as ambassadors for the entire industry.
Marijuana Venture spoke with the leading designers behind many of these retail stores to get insight on the design decisions and why they work in their respective markets.
Enlightened
Chicago, Illinois
When The McBride Company took on the task of designing a 4,500-square-foot flagship store for Enlightened, the only thing set in stone was the store’s name.
Focusing on the root word — light — the firm set out to create an inclusive experience that could appeal to a wide demographic but would universally feel serene.
“I think if there’s one overarching kind of principle, it’s utilization of light to get you enlightened,”
The McBride Company creative director Ryan McBride says. “The underlying meaning was that you’ve found the light, you’ve kind of entered this lighter mental state.”
The firm designed the store so visitors would be greeted by a heavenly stark-white lobby with splashes of color just beyond the entry point. Then, through thousands of LED lights behind translucent acrylic panels that line the walls, the store glows in an almost breath-like fashion, as if the store itself were meditating.
“Essentially, it’s freeing your mind of clutter and exposing it to one principle,” McBride says. “By placing those lights all over the place, and then shining different color lights and different light tonalities through them, it puts you in the mindset but also created a really interesting design component.”