Fresh Bisset Adams flavour for bagel chain

London design consultancy Bisset Adams is creating the concept for a New York deli-style bagel shop, which is due to open in January adjacent to London’s former GLC building, County Hall.

The Bagel Street chain will see a complete re-branding, from its identity to its in-store graphics and interiors. The three existing stores of this latest entrant to the high street sandwich shop market will be redesigned at a later date.

The design consultancy won a creative, three-way pitch in July and began by completing audits on London’s Bagel shops, including existing Bagel Street branches in Hampstead, Frith Street and the City, and the chain’s main competitors, including the Bagel Factory chain.

Bisset Adams found problems with signage and Bagel Street’s overall brand presence, so put forward new guidelines to introduce a more distinctive personality to the store, to distinguish it from both its sister shops and its clearest rivals.

‘We wanted to make it look like an individual store,’ says Bisset Adams designer Libbi Seymour, ‘and avoid the in-your-face branding favoured by many chains.’

The consultancy has now put forward plans to create interiors and in-store graphics around Bagel Street’s core values – it specialises in making fresh bagels to order, with what it calls an ‘abundance of produce’, in the style of a New York deli.

According to founder and chairman of the company, New Yorker Danielle Downing, ‘these features have been lost along the way. We are rebranding to reassert these core values’.

Bisset Adams suggested renaming the store Bagel Street Deli, reflecting Bagel Street’s large product range and the variety of ingredients available to takeaway. Now, a new logo features ‘deli’ as a strapline, and Bagel Street is underlined to give it a retro flavour.

The colour palette features ‘sharp and earthy’ olives and maroons, interiors feature rich woods, light coloured walls and wooden bread baskets, and lighting has been used to highlight the quality of the food. These designs, the consultancy says, aim to create a feeling of ‘richness and urban sharpness’ and, as none of the products are pre-packed, there is a lack of overt branding and therefore little interference with the ‘authentic deli’ feel.

The concept is to be rolled out across a further 12 new stores in the London area over the next two years, with Bisset Adams confirmed as the lead consultancy for the job. Existing stores will be rebranded next year and each store has an allocated budget of £150 000.

Client: Bagel Street Company

CEO – Danielle Downing

Design: Bisset Adams

Designers – Libbi Seymour, Lee Middleton