We all know (or suspect!) how expensive showrooms can be to run and maintain, so it cannot be overstated how important it is to make it a place that specifiers will make a bee-line to. Whilst sharing a showroom with likeminded industries isn’t something new, its perhaps an underused aspect of our industry. After all, interior designers, architects will be immersed in your products whilst they browse furniture, textile, or bathroom accessories. As a softly nuanced marketing platform you couldn’t wish for better.
A case in point is the new Phos showroom, based in Clerkenwell, London, at ‘The Market’ building.
As project manager Xander Cadisch from Phos told the Light Review,
‘There are a lot of benefits from having a joint showroom, such as combining resources, the cost saving and filling-out the space. It also allowed us to reduce the risk, at an uncertain time due to Covid. We have recently signed up to Clerkenwell Design Week, where the showroom will debut. The benefit of sharing a space with companies that we don’t directly compete with, but where each collaborator shares a similar pool of cool clients, is a massive benefit’
Looking around the showroom it’s no surprise to find out that Coalbrook is a ‘bathroom and high-end accessories company’ and it was important for Phos to be aligned with a company that shared some of their history and values, as Xander mentioned –
‘The underlying theme from Coalbrook was to have good quality brands that specifically are a little bit industrial, but also well finished. The precision-engineered element aligns well with Phos’ 135 years of precision engineering here in the UK .’
In respect to benefits of seeing products in the flesh, as I was walking round the space I realised that many of those used were variants of Phos’ ORBA range designed by Trevor Morgan. This struck a chord because, when Trevor first presented this product at a design meeting some two years ago, my first thought was the aesthetic was more suited to that of a webcam. Actually seeing it in use gave me a whole new perspective; it just looks great. Top one Trevor, how could I have doubted you !?!.
Seeing a product in context as a sales tool is just so important. Not only do you get a better feel for the applications it can be used in, but the product itself takes on a new persona; you also have a 360 view of its aesthetic, colour rendering and light distributions available. seeing how fixtures perform can be invaluable when you are specifying for a project.
In a world where everyone is constantly on the lookout for the next best platform to promote their products on, you just can’t beat seeing something in real life.
Designed by Lewis Solomon (elected an associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1871 and a fellow in 1883) as a warehouse and completed in 1905, the original building had just three floors, with two further storeys added, in 1998 and 2000
The Coalbrook showroom (Coalbrook is a 200 year old company working in the bathroom industry) has been achieved through a collaboration between Coalbrook, Bard and Brazier, Bard and Blackwood, Menu Space, Phos, Steel&Form, Ekinex and Holloway Li whose products and skills created a tactile, interactive venue, the interior designers have really managed to blend the old with the new in a way that is interesting and engaging.
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Photo credits: Gavriil Papadiotis
Website: www.gavriiLux.com
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