IKEA joined forces with global fashion brand H&M to launch Atelier100: an ‘ideas factory’ for emerging local talent, whose products are sold at the Atelier100 store in Livat Hammersmith, as well as IKEA’s shopping centre in west London. Atelier100 came to ON to create, expand, and maintain their online home.
From the very beginning, the joint venture was driven by a commitment to foster community and creativity. Atelier100 promotes a network of makers, producing products that are equal parts sustainable and innovative. All products in Atelier100’s concept store have been designed and manufactured within 100km of central London by independent creators making waves in their respective crafts.
The goal of the new website is to champion the creatives involved in Atelier100, as well as creating a flexible platform that can accommodate different stages of the programme cycles, with ON managing the development of the site through its various stages.
The brief: an e-commerce platform for emerging makers
Atelier100 came to ON to create a digital experience that celebrates the sustainable, locally-focused nature of the project, showcasing the makers, their stories, and products.
The project was centred around the opening of the Atelier100 store in Livat Hammersmith, and was conceived and realised as a digital gateway to the physical retail space. Atelier100 is characterised by a yearly cycle: each year there is a graduating class. With each graduating class, a new offering of products are uploaded onto the site.
To keep up with their expansion, the new Atelier100 website needed to support e-commerce by enabling products to be bought through the platform. The challenge lay in delivering an e-commerce platform that worked with ease and speed, whilst maintaining the ‘DIY’ aesthetic of the project and encouraging visitors to the Atelier100 physical store.
Working in close collaboration with Bibliothèque — who designed the brand identity — we created a platform to support two different phases of the project. The first phase aimed to introduce A100 to creatives and sign them up to the project. The second was the creation of the public digital platform in full as a place to host product selling.
Bringing the ideas factory to life
Building the foundations of the Atelier100 digital platform with an informative application portal for London-based creatives and makers.
In its initial iteration, the website served to introduce Atelier100 to makers and creatives, encouraging them to join their producer-centred project. We created a platform that hosted applications for makers to sign up to the programme via a portal.
This open-call platform was designed to effectively show makers the forward-thinking nature of the Atelier100 endeavour, by highlighting the sustainability and community incentives for sourcing products within a local radius. The portal also transparently displayed the key stakeholders in the project cohort, alongside their values for independent product design.
The site was launched in tandem with a London-wide marketing campaign to increase awareness of the open call application, and created the foundations for the second phase of the product and producer centred e-commerce website.
Displaying Atelier100 products
We created an e-commerce platform that places products and their creation stories on the centre stage.
The second phase of the Atelier100 site coincided with the opening of the store in Livat Hammersmith, and formed a digital gateway to the physical retail space.
Configured to stimulate curiosity, the website allows users to roam around the page and explore products in a scatter display. The unconventional nature of the navigation creates a space which, like Atelier100 itself, showcases the atypical and original. Our approach to displaying products was inspired by the experience of exploring physical stores, mimicking the serendipitous nature of browsing items as they catch your attention.
The platform also places emphasis on the individual stories behind the products. Each product features a ‘meet the creative’ card, as well as detailed information about the materials and product manufacture. On top of this, there is a section dedicated to the Atelier100 collective, displaying all the featured creatives in a cohort yearbook.
User-centred e-commerce
We created a flexible e-commerce solution that balanced functionality with the unconventional Atelier100 brand.
A core aim of the site was to balance best practices for user-friendly e-commerce with the unconventional aesthetic of the products on offer.
So, whilst we took a playful approach to displaying products, the checkout experience is designed to be smooth, simple, and time efficient. We utilised Shopify to create an add-to-cart functionality and payment management integrations that are user-centric across all devices.
An acclaimed collaboration with IKEA and H&M
We worked flexibly and adaptively with Atelier100 partners and sponsors to create a platform that has been celebrated in the mainstream media.
The Atelier100 project was an exciting opportunity to work with a range of creatives and partners from all walks of the creative industry. With branding from Templo and Bibliothèque, and sponsorship from IKEA and H&M, we provided the design and strategic foundations for developing and maintaining the website.
The wide press coverage Atelier100 has received is tantamount to its success as a pioneer of locally made, high-quality goods, being covered by media outlets from The Guardian to The Independent to Design Week.
The result
As a design-minded technology partner, we’re proud to have created the online home for Atelier100, and to continue to help build their ‘ideas factory’ for emerging talent that celebrates London as an engine of innovation.
Our devotion to bringing the brand to life online, whilst ensuring optimal functionality of the website, worked to create a robust and flexible platform for Atelier100’s unique project.
.avif)
.jpg)
