Astrae Studio brings a touch of supermarket fun to its sophisticated identity for Danish concept store, Grocery

After working closely with the Danish independent retail and concept store Grocery on a range of projects over the last year and a half (all starting out with their dynamic visual identity for the brands sports community Institute of sport ), Astrae Studio has recently designed a fresh new look for the store, collaborating on the creation of its debut selection of own-brand products.

Known for its supply of utilitarian outdoor clothing, Grocery hosts a variety of outdoor clothing brands such as Roa, Klättermusen, and District Vision, Our Lecay etc. (think gorpcore). But the store has seen a shift in stock and style over the years, “from being very much only a contemporary fashion retail store, Grocery is today much more working in intersections blending formal, work and functional wear and lifestyle”, says Nicolai Vig, creative director of Grocery. It was important then, that the clothing brand’s new visual catalogue could accommodate existing brands, “and be unique enough to feel like a brand on its own”, says Carl-Emil Storm Gabrielsen, founder of Astrae.

In collaboration with Harvey Wise and Valdemar Juul, Carl aimed to blend these different functions into a “dynamic design system that encapsulates both the technical and the organic”, leaving enough room for the boundaries of the new identity to be pushed as the brand moves forward. The studio arrived on a collection of new visuals for the store that sit within a background of structures and grid systems that make use of cross symbols, that take from the humble crop mark, to frame type and image. Through the use of this simple visual motif, the studio hoped to distinguish the store’s products “in a recognisable yet understated way, providing a consistent but subtle branding element”, Carl shares. “We aimed to create a third element apart from the logotype and logomark, that could be used in situations where the Grocery brand doesn’t need to be the focal point.”

Choosing typography to fit right in with the aesthetics of the utilitarian brand’s stock, Astrae chose Slussen Mono and Slussen Regular by Blaze type as its typefaces, for their technical feel and neutral appearance in order for the brand’s presence to mark the store’s products “without overshadowing them”. For the colour palette, however, the team were inspired by bright “sun-bleached signs and posters seen at supermarkets and kiosks” landing on a green and purple hue that are a subtle nod to the store’s name.

Astrae’s visual references to grocery stores didn’t end with their green and purple combo though — for the brand’s launch event the studio hosted a workshop where store visitors could create custom poster designs with heat sensitive paper, inspired by the mechanisms of cashier receipt printers. The organic metal forms made for these marks, and loose hand-sketched illustrations that overlay the brands graph paper grids, take visual influence from “hand-poked tattoos”, says Carl. The child-like sketches and wiggly shapes defy Grocery’s grids and spill out of crop-marked corners. A standout element of the brand’s identity for us, these illustrations bring a sense of play and wonder to the brand’s landscape of technical, utilitarian visuals.