Barcode Warehouse innovation centre
Interior, spatial and industrial design for an engaging and informative Innovation Centre
Based in Newark, Barcode Warehouse has been working with Ergo since 2018 on their design and branding solutions. They provide labels and consumables solutions for all use cases and have expertise in many industries compliance standards.
Their labels and consumables division is the longest established part of their business. Their specialist sales, manufacturing and print teams have nearly 200 years' combined experience and are constantly evolving with the latest technology, developing new solutions and meeting the latest customer challenges and compliance needs.
The brief
They engaged Ergo to design the interior space for Barcode Warehouse’s new Innovation Centre. Ergo provided a blend of interior, spacial and industrial design services to provide the end result to the client.
Ergo were given a blank canvas within a brand new building and challenged to design a space that was innovative, engaging and informative. The intention for the space was for visitors to the Innovation Centre to interact with Barcode Warehouse’s products and technology in areas that represented the industry and environment they would be using the products in.
Starting with each of the sectors Barcode Warehouse works with, Ergo created 9 areas, or zones. These included health and medical, retail, hospitality, warehousing, and field services.
Each zone creates a unique feel and serves its own purpose.
The challenge
Given that the space was created to showcase 'innovation’, the main challenge was to find out what was the most modern and futuristic technology available, and working out how to make each area embody a feeling of innovation that would be exciting, beyond the ordinary and make Barcode Warehouse stand out from other similar demonstration spaces visitors might have been to.
The process
On the Ergo team were Chris and Tom taking the design lead, Kristina who provided photography, and Josh who provided support for the content on the display screens and other digital assets.
The client provided an idea of how the space might look and work at the design brief stage, which the Ergo team then used as the starting point. They made a couple of site visits to assess the space and take photographs, then work began on deciding what to do with the large, empty space.
The Ergo team created sketches and illustrated elevations, working closely with Barcode Warehouse to find out how the space would be used on a practical level, which would then inform the flow of the journey and the storytelling as potential clients moved around and interacted with the space.
The result
3D representations including CAD visualisation were created. This was pivotal in making sure the planned elements for each space were a good fit, and the flow of the area as a whole worked well.
Once we received the client’s approval, these were then handed over to the contractors to create the space we had designed.
