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You should have a site in mind and be in the negotiation stages of the lease agreement. The landlord or shopping centre will provide you with ‘lease plans’ and ‘guidelines’ for the look, style and quality of fit-out for your store.

The process includes having your business plan and corporate identity finalised, finding a site, obtaining paperwork from the landlord, engaging a retail designer like Crown Studio, submitting fit-out drawings, engaging a shop fitter, and starting the fit-out.

At Crown Studio, we are a multifaceted design studio committed to providing a comprehensive design service that results in a functional, innovative, and visually appealing result that reflects your brand and supports your business objectives. We can also create a branding identity for you if you don't have one yet. However, we do not offer any construction or building services, as we focus solely on the design aspect of your interior fit-out.

We have a graphics and branding team in-house and can work with you to create a unique branding identity that suits your needs and budget.

Fees are based on approximately 5-10% of the fit-out budget, but every company is different. At Crown Studio, we can work with you to create a design package that fits your budget and meets your needs.

In this initial stage, our team conducts thorough research and analysis to gain a deep understanding of the project's objectives, constraints, and context. We study the brand and culture, the site's physical and cultural environment, and the project's functional requirements. We'll also consider business objectives, target market, and branding to ensure that the design aligns with your goals. We will conduct a site visit and take measurements to get a sense of the space and its limitations and provide you with a site survey, measured drawings for space planning, and concept sketches. We'll review any fit-out guidelines and previous designs to understand any limitations and opportunities.

Using the insights and information gathered during the investigation stage, we begin to explore and generate ideas. We brainstorm, sketch, and gather inspiration from various sources including, but not not limited to art, nature, and fashion. Our goal is to create a concept that aligns with the your vision and captures the essence of the project. We'll consider functionality, flow, floor plans, and aesthetics to ensure the space works for your business. We'll create mood boards or sketches to help you visualise the design direction, and provide you with preliminary block and planning options for sign-off. We'll also provide sufficient detail of design and finishes for an initial cost plan.

With the concept in place, we move on to the ideation stage, where we flesh out the details and refine the design. We create drawings, models, and 3D visualisations to help you understand the proposed design. We may also explore any innovative or sustainable design solutions that could enhance your space. We'll prepare working layout drawings for presentation, your approval, and sign-off, with a selection of finishes, materials, furniture and light fittings where required. These tender drawings will provide a foundation for accurate quoting for the fit out works. Typically, you will need to submit these drawings to a maximum of three shop fitters to obtain costing. We'll also work with these contractors to review the developed design detail for cost plan revisions/value engineering and provide proposed design intent drawings for landlord and statutory approvals.

Innovation involves further refining the chosen design concept. We dive into the technical aspects of the design, working to ensure that it is feasible, cost-effective, and ensuring that the design is compliant with relevant regulations and standards. We collaborate with engineers, contractors, and other professionals to refine the design and make any necessary adjustments. We'll produce detailed joinery drawings of any custom-built items, such as counters or display units (from the approved tender proposal) and full colour schedules including finishes & decorative lighting selection, furniture, and notify you of any non-locally sourced products to ensure that the space is fully equipped and reflects your branding. It is important to note that any structural or hydraulics engineering necessary for the project will be arranged by the shop fitter and included in their quote to you. If required, the shop fitter should also be able to submit drawings for council approval on your behalf, however, any associated fees will be your responsibility as the shop owner.

The final stage is implementation, where we bring the design to life! We work closely with contractors and suppliers to oversee the construction process, ensuring that the design is executed to the highest standards in accordance to the design and specifications. To ensure that the finished product exceeds expectations, we will also submit a defects report for the shop fitter, who holds complete responsibility for the quality of building works, to schedule any necessary repairs. A reliable shop fitter should provide a guarantee in the contract to ensure this. Therefore, it is crucial to carefully read and understand the contract before signing to avoid any issues.

The timeline for completion depends on the scope of the project. For a logo project, it usually takes around 2-3 weeks. For a standard brand identity package that includes additional collateral, it can take up to 2 months.

We gather a lot of information about your business goals, audience, brand personality, and more, which sets parameters to guide the design. Since you're involved in setting these parameters, you can be confident that your brand identity will be just right.

Your brand identity, including your logo, is the face of your business. We can help you create a system of elements that represent your brand on all marketing materials, and this system should be replicable and distinctively yours.

Design principles are universal, and a strong designer can work in any industry. We research your competitors and related organisations to learn the conventions in your field and design accordingly.

Yes, all final pieces will include native source files, which are editable. Unlike other designers, we do not charge extra for these files.

We can manage the printing process for you, which includes recommending vendors, obtaining quotes, and seeing the project through to completion. In this case, a small print management fee will be added to the project. Alternatively, if you already have a trusted print vendor, we can provide you with print-ready files. We do not mark up the printer's bill, and you will be able to establish a direct relationship with the printer for future orders.

Web design and development is a specialty in itself, so we no longer take on web projects. We recommend hiring a dedicated individual or firm for this.

We begin by getting to know you and your project, and understanding the problem you're trying to solve. This stage involves a high-level conversation and a deep-dive session to gather insights about your company's background, goals, audience, and competitors. We then summarise our findings in a written brief that guides the identity design project.

This stage is all about exploring your company's personality and unique qualities. In this stage, we will review your current branding (if any) and competitors' branding to see where you can stand out. Based on the insights from the previous investigation stage, we will put together a couple of mood boards of sample images to obtain a clear vision for the direction of your brand identity.

Once we've gathered insights from the previous stages, we'll move on to developing the visual theme for your brand. This involves evaluating messaging, logo, colours, fonts, shapes, and images to present the complete brand experience. After we've created the concepts, we'll present them to you, explaining the research and rationale behind all the decisions made.

Based on your feedback, this stage involves combining all the approved elements in sample layouts to showcase the whole experience of the brand. We'll then be able to make adjustments to any elements that are not contributing to the desired brand vision. We will design the final elements of your brand identity whilst ensuring everything fits together perfectly.

The last stage involves writing your brand style guide, which specifies all the approved elements of your brand identity, including strategy, logo, typography, colour palette, icons, style of images, example layouts, etc. This invaluable reference keeps you on-brand going forward and ensures consistency in all your materials.