design by Fragile
text by Laura Traldi
To create a relationship of dialectical exchange with clients. To facilitate access to a wide, varied range of products. To underline the Italian character of the brand. With a new image created by Fragile, Trony tries to make the renewal in progress of its retail outlets more visible, proposing a shopping experience based on the idea of simplicity.To attract the public, seduce it with dialogue, orient its purchases through a visual language that speaks to everyone and should last in time. Communication in the world of retailing is complex, appealing first to emotions, then to the intellect. This intrinsic complexity is joined by the presence of more competition and the resulting need, for retail giants, to reposition themselves in a coherent, attractive way with respect to an audience that is increasingly varied and volatile. This is the context for the updating of the image of Trony, the big Italian consumer electronics chain. The starting point is a new sales model for the stores, followed by a new image for all outlets, designed by Fragile. This Milanbased studio, guided by Mario Trimarchi and Frida Doveil, has been commissioned to design a system of communication and signage to facilitate dialogue between the consumer and the commercial space, underlining the Italian character of Trony – something often not perceived by younger consumers. A universal system, then, easy to understand, using contemporary languages, but capable of connecting with the historic characteristics of the brand (like the color blue), and open enough to guarantee longevity. The solution proposed is a visual alphabet composed of a few elements, to use together or separately in a rigorous way, in keeping with a precise visual order inside the retail spaces, from the entrance to the price cards on the shelves. The main characteristic of this alphabet is the presence of ‘instant people’, stylized replicas of normal folks, consumers who different greatly in terms of taste and age, and become the icon of the variety of Trony’s customers. There are also numbers written out in letters, to underline the Italian background of the brand. To connect all the elements of the system, Fragile has utilized a red ‘colon’ punctuation mark (red is the color of the underlining of the Trony logo), to indicate an open system of dialogue between the brand and its clients. The new communication exists on a white background, the new color of the Trony stores: the furnishings and walls will be white, for greater visibility, transparency and clarity of communication. The four elements of the new identity constitute a dynamic system: the same alphabet can be combined in different ways, in extended or shorter versions, through the sales outlet: from the entrances to product signage; from the uniforms of the sales assistants to the streetfront media, shop windows and external facades. “The capacity to adapt, to change and evolve inside a pre-set scheme that is immediately recognizable,” Frida Doveil explains, “is one of the aspects we feel is most important in the design of the image of a retail space, which exists today but will also exist tomorrow”. Because a brand experience can only be consolidated over the long term.
