Revolutionizing Retail: The Fragrance Gallery by Yuan Jiang and Chen Song

A Multi-sensory Experience in Perfume Retail Space

The Fragrance Gallery, a retail store designed by Yuan Jiang and Chen Song, is a breakthrough in the design of tangible smell experience. Unlike traditional commercial spaces that primarily focus on visual experience, this project prioritizes the customers' olfactory experience. It raises intriguing questions about how to provide an olfactory experience, how to combine smell and vision, and how to offer sensory experiences beyond these two senses.

The unique properties of this design lie in its innovative approach to space planning. Instead of merely integrating multimedia into the space, the designers explored new design methods. The fragrance retail space is presented as an art gallery, breaking away from the traditional sales environment. The gallery offers customers a multi-dimensional experience of fragrance through visual, auditory, olfactory senses, and interactive experiences.

The primary material of the media entrance is the brand's perfume bottles. Constructed from around 5,000 recycled perfume bottles, this entrance serves as a reflection of the brand's image and a surprise to the customers. Each used perfume bottle represents a memory, an emotion, an experience, and a sensual connection between users and the brand.

The design process involved studying the display methods of various perfume stores and the experience of museums. The designers created an exclusive experiential space for the brand, guiding consumers to understand the history and product characteristics during the exhibition and self-guided tour. This approach contributes to the improvement of product sales.

One of the challenges faced during the design process was how to design the experience circulation and create a reasonable tour rhythm. The designers tackled issues such as how to invite customers to settle down and get to know the products, how to guide people to participate in the interaction, how to continue the surprises discovery, and how to encourage guests to take pictures and share. The final showroom meets these requirements and achieves a promising communication result.

The Fragrance Gallery has been recognized for its innovation and excellence, winning the Silver A' Interior Space, Retail and Exhibition Design Award in 2022. This award is given to top-of-the-line, creative, and professionally remarkable designs that illustrate outstanding expertise and innovation. These designs are admired for their strong technical characteristics and splendid artistic skill, showcasing a remarkable level of excellence and introducing positive feelings, amazement, and wonder.