Herzog & de Meuron

About Herzog & de Meuron

Herzog and de Meuron have long been revered not just in architecture circles, but beyond thanks to their unique and groundbreaking buildings including 56 Leonard Street in New York, The Birds Nest Olympic Stadium in Beijing, Prada’s flagship store in Tokyo and the gravity defying VitraHaus in Germany.

After 45 years as an architecture group, Herzog and de Meuron took the decision to offer their inimitable styling and quality to fans of their brand by creating a range of furniture and accessories which can be purchased by anyone, online.

Herzog and de Meuron are renowned for their elevated sense of design and attention to detail, so it was important we approached this project in a way that the brand themselves would.

We spent time pouring over their new collection looking at ways to adopt similar sensibility in the design of the store. The brief was unlike most; they didn’t want this to look and feel like a regular online store, furthermore, the objective wasn’t really to sell a huge amount of products.

This, as you might imagine, was music to the ears of our design team…

During the initial design phase, we thoroughly explored a diverse array of options, ranging from stark minimalism to more unconventional approaches. Our exploration encompassed various aspects such as scale, typography, and interactions, with the aim of crafting an exceptional design. However, it was a pivotal moment in an early meeting where they shared their design philosophy that profoundly influenced our direction.

Their phrase, "We find freedom in exploration," left a lasting impact on our minds and served as the guiding principle for our design endeavor. Taking this concept quite literally, we embarked on creating a homepage that defied the norms of a typical Shopify Store. By amalgamating various elements from their work, including inspiration, usability, design, and the products themselves, we crafted an interactive mood board that allowed for seamless navigation and the absorption of information in a holistic manner, departing from a linear approach.

The resonance of this idea with the team encouraged us to extend its application to other facets of the design, resulting in a cohesive and innovative design concept.