Milligram - Melbourne Central | Studio Y.

Their flagship store offers a completely unique shopping experience. Diverse customisation options provide a level of personal involvement not usually found in a retail store. Customers can use the space in their own unique way which encourages a longer stay and greater interaction with Milligram’s products.

Although it exhibits a level of design not usually seen in stationery stores, its nude palette and warm timbers are very inviting and inclusive.

Initially trading as an online store, we took Milligram from a digital space into a physical one. Their first bricks and mortar shop had to reflect their style and appeal to their design-savvy clientele while remaining flexible enough to evolve as they found their feet in a retail environment.

In response we created freestanding display units in different sizes and shapes that can either fit together in different configurations or stand alone. Staff can shuffle them around as they establish the optimum layout for product display.

Combinations of smooth and textured surfaces and simple, timeless shapes were also implemented. The nude material palette acts as a backdrop to the product as well as opening up and brightening the space and curved lines create flow and dynamic circulation.

Two featured shapes are repeated throughout the store: the square and the circle. The floor grid is square and this guided our use of that format in the floor layout and product display. The circle is also a repeated motif. Starting with the small holes in the peg board system the circle is then repeated in the ‘pen hospital’ window, and the ‘porthole-inspired’ product display windows.

The different shapes inspire both a playfulness and a functionality eg. some are quarter circle and some are square which allows display units to either fit together or stand alone.

The ‘pen hospital’ itself is modelled on a pharmacy with its stark white palette and white coats worn by the staff.

Globally, stationery sales have seen steady increases, in a category previously considered obsolete due to the push for a paperless society.

We took this momentum and created something completely unique to the stationery market - a design-driven yet approachable and interactive experience.

This is where the grid provides structure and organisation while the circles add interest and soften the look overall.

The store offers customers a completely unique shopping experience. Different customisation options provide a level of personal involvement not usually found in a retail store. Customers can use the space in their own unique way which encourages a longer stay and greater interaction with Milligram’s products.

The biggest challenge was incorporating the products of one of Milligram’s main suppliers, Lamy, in a display that presents as a “store within a store”. The Lamy ‘department’ is distinctively different from the greater Milligram store which presented two key challenges: we needed to adhere to Lamy’s unique aesthetic while ensuring cohesion with Milligram’s brand and the overall shop design.

Additionally, all of Milligram’s products require highly specific display outcomes. Products like pens, notebooks, boxes, novelty items and bags all require a very particular display so we had to explore vastly distinctive and specialised options.

The key area of sustainability is in the flexibility of design. None of the display is fixed so it allows for recycling over and over again. As Milligram have lots of product in their online store they required flexibility in what they show and how they rotate stock.