Leaping Creative’s Bosie “Space” presents shopping as an experience

As we have seen, retail outlets these days are changing from a place to buy things to an experiential location. To keep customers coming back, they need to offer an emotional experience, something hard to convey with an online presence alone. And so we are seeing the opening of shops offering truly unique concepts and settings. One particularly attractive example is Shanghai’s Bosie “Space”, designed by Leaping Creative. The studio, founded by designer Zen Zheng in 2010, is concerned with brand experience design, creating brand image and a strategy of experiences and general design services for a variety of sectors with a strong focus on visual brand communications, modelling of the spatial experience, interactive devices and research in materials, offering consumers a truly unique experience.
This is exactly what happened with Bosie, the boutique opened in an existing building in central Shanghai with a 40-metre-long façade. Strict local building regulations did not permit any changes to the building’s shape or volumetrics, so the designers covered the building’s façade with custom-made reflective stainless steel plating to suggest to passers-by on the street that there is something special inside those walls, offering a little teaser on the street anticipating the space-themed installation inside. Because, on the basis of their research, the designers tell a complete story for “bosie”’s target of "generation Z” customers, telling a story about "bosie", an intelligent species that has come from outer space to land in Shanghai and ended up opening a store in vintage futuristic style.
On the ground floor, customers find themselves in a surreal setting characterised by elements such as conveyor belts and turbo engines recalling space exploration equipment. In addition to the fashion products for sale, the ground floor offers a snack bar and a vintage photo booth. To create a visual connection with the first floor, Leaping Creative opens up a central void in which an escalator links the two floors, all with an extremely futuristic look, as if we were truly aboard a spaceship. 
The sensation is intensified on the upper level, where a huge wall made up of 92 screens and an iconic "bosie goose" welcome customers from the escalator, metaphorically forming the front wall of the spaceship. The interior recalls a hi-tech space lab in sci-fi style, reinforcing not only the space theme but the style of the products on display. Customers can try them on in 6 to 8 fitting rooms on each floor, the interiors of which are individualised to offer customers unique experiences even while trying on clothes. And bosie “SPACE” is not for humans only! The invitation to space exploration is extended to our four-footed friends, whom we needn’t abandon during our shopping spree: by the window on the first floor, Leaping Creative has created a pet hotel and playground which can accommodate two or three small dogs or cats daily. 
There is also a facial recognition installation, in which artistic "bosie plants" grow out of the faces of customers passing by, captured on a screen. Customers can download animation clips to post on social media.
The two thousand square metre Shanghai flagship store is bosie’s biggest so far. For an all-round experience, in addition to the space itself, Leaping Creative has designed visual elements in the store, including the graphic signage, motion graphics and shopping bags. Time spent in the store is time spent travelling through time and space: shopping becomes an experience indivisibly linked with the brand.

Christiane Bürklein

Project: Leaping Creative
Location: Shanghai, China
Year: 2021
Images: yuuuunstudio