Atlanta, GA

The Background
Pompei A.D. was commissioned by Coca-Cola to design a retail store that would function as exit retail, support for the attraction The New World of Coca-Cola in Atlanta, GA, as well as the flagship for the new global retail concept.

This project represented a unique collaborative effort between the creative team at Pompei A.D. coke teams, as the store was intended to present a new face on one of the most recognizable brands on the planet.
The client was interested in more than just a fresh look and feel for their stores, they understood that they needed to really know who their customers were, and realign themselves with that core community, from the products and services they offered to the graphic design, store fixturing and store design, as well as new interactive digital media. Coca-Cola wanted to redefine the experience of being a part of the Coca-Cola community. The Client
The Coca-Cola Company is the world's largest beverage company. Along with Coca-Cola®, recognized as the world's most valuable brand, the Company markets four of the world's top five nonalcoholic sparkling beverage brands, including Diet Coke®, Fanta® and Sprite®, and a wide range of other beverages, including diet and light beverages, waters, juices and juice drinks, teas, coffees, energy and sports drinks. Through the world's largest beverage distribution system, consumers in more than 200 countries enjoy the Company's beverages at a rate exceeding 1.4 billion servings each day.

The Concept
The concept and inspiration for the store came from Coca-Cola’s desired customer base - the YAFS, the young, active, fun seekers. Pompei A.D. found inspiration in young designers who were creating simple, interesting work with minimal materials, environmentally responsible designs and materials, and a lot of conceptual art. Pompei A.D. also wanted to provide a combination of effective vignettes and a very flexible fixturing system, so a lot of inspiration was taken from some very Modern design ideas, doing more with less.

Pompei A.D. clearly understood that as a part of the New World of Coca-Cola, the store environment needed to provide a unique, yet efficient way to seamlessly bridge the experience of the attraction with the new global retail design concept.

The Design
The store was designed for a global community of young-at-heart fans of the Coca-Cola brand, with a specific emphasis on reaching out and connecting with trendsetters and style leaders. This idea is reflected both in Pompei’s design for the retail environment as well as Coca-Cola Retail Team’s new merchandise and product offerings.

The space is set up to create a nearly circular traffic flow, with pavilions designed to create lifestyle feature areas. These pavilions acts as a kind of “eddy” in the flow of the space, small pockets of focused attention where people can step outside the flow of traffic and see unique highlights from the product offerings. The ceiling design was particularly effective at creating an element that tied all the different areas of the store together in a simple manner and with simple lighting. A crucial design element was the creation of a custom-fabricated fixturing system that was unique for Coca-Cola. The fully customizable, affordable, fixturing system creates the appearance of a fully realized design concept, with multiple display options.

Says Scott Faucheux, Designer and Senior Project Manager at Pompei A.D., “One of the highlights of the design process was to be able to have a frank dialogue with one of the largest brands on the planet, to be able to converse about what works and what doesn’t work for them, and to develop global solutions and implementation strategies that reach out to a community that are increasingly progressive, socially conscious and optimistic.”

The Result
The response from the community of visitors has been overwhelming positive, and the sales figures have been much higher than expected.