Special Mention: Kitkat Chocolatory by Unique Store Fixtures

For the Kitkat Chocolatory we were approached with the design opportunity to create the first permanent North American location for a brand which exists in a couple other markets throughout the world, including Japan and Australia. We created a new retail experience concept that would be tailored for the Toronto and Canadian markets and specifically for the high-end market at the Yorkdale shopping mall – the mall with the highest revenue per square foot in all of Canada. The store is also considered to be the North American Flagship location.

Our design concept was centered around the ideas of a “Chef’s Table // Maker’s Studio”. Working on this concept would determine what would resonate with the optimal spectrum of client demographics enabled us all to have groundwork for the design decisions being made throughout the project. Keeping true to these customer profiles also ensured that the resulting design would not only be beautiful but would work well for the malls target and existing clientele.

A major factor which was important to keep aligned with at every stage was the core value that the store should be engaging and interactive for the various clientele that would be using the space. We purposefully focused on methods to stay true to the Kitkat tagline, “Have a break, have a Kitkat”. To do so, we created a small seating area with Instagram booth along with spaces where you could photograph your creation were ways to enable the customer to take a break from their day to have a little fun.

Technical and research for the project was centered around our extensive combined operational experience at Model ctzn in tandem with related knowledge gained from a Chocolatory Pop-up that the Kitkat/ Nestle team had run the previous year.

The success of this project rested very heavily upon detail execution and coordination. In the approximately 1100sq’ store, it is made up of around 60% custom millwork pieces. Unique Store Fixtures was the company responsible for executing the millwork. Using various CNC technologies all pieces were able to be executed to our specifications.

On our end, utilizing BIM software for the design development, rendering, and drawing execution, we were able to work through our design stages rapidly, parallel pathing the project on multiple fronts to expedite the entire process in a tight timeline. This translated into clear messaging to the client, the various trades, and the custom fabricators, while helped to ensure that few errors and revisions were needed throughout the project at critical stages.