Design Ideas for the Mazda Showroom
With the CX-6e electric crossover, Mazda is entering a new segment and introducing an exciting new color: Nightfall Violet. But how can this be presented effectively in the showroom while further enhancing the customer experience? The design talents at Écal came up with some exciting ideas.
The École cantonale d’art de Lausanne, located in the suburb of Renens, VD, is one of the world’s top schools for art and design. The one-year master’s program in Design for Luxury and Craftsmanship serves as a springboard for talented designers. For the second time, Mazda Switzerland is drawing on these talents and their expertise to elevate the customer experience in the showroom and during vehicle delivery to a new level. Matthias Walker, Managing Director of Mazda Switzerland, explains the idea behind the Écal collaboration: «For Mazda, craftsmanship and tradition aren’t just empty buzzwords from a marketing campaign—they’re core values of our brand. Together, we sought design ideas for the showroom and dealerships to enhance the customer experience and showcase the new Nightfall Violet color, which we’re introducing on the Mazda CX-6e, in a fitting way.»
Not art, but practical ideas
Mazda’s Head of Exterior Design, Bahram Partaw, specially invited the 18 course participants from ten different countries to Mazda’s European design studios in Oberursel, Germany, to give them more insight into the background of Mazda’s design and the rich history of the Japanese brand. The final projects have now been presented, and it’s quite possible that one or two of them could find their way into the showrooms of the approximately 70 Swiss Mazda dealers. «For me, the exchange was extremely inspiring,» explained the 44-year-old exterior designer. «The wide variety of project scope—ranging from products for the key handover to ideas for the showroom—was extraordinary.»
The diversity of ideas is impressive
Mazda’s Swiss executives were also impressed by the variety. «Vanessa Shababzadeh’s idea of a car-colored spinning top has a very playful and lighthearted quality. At the same time, its shape is reminiscent of the Mazda logo. »That’s a very clever little gift,« Matthias Walker said appreciatively. »I also think it’s a great idea to send customers something while they’re waiting for their car to be delivered.” The high-quality car key cases designed by Maxime Billoud also generated a lot of interest.
Their color gradient is also attractive, reflecting the new «Nightfall Violet» color of the CX-6e electric crossover. Billoud drew inspiration from jewelry and watch boxes, creating an additional highlight for the key handoff—a crucial moment of customer interaction. Another fun idea is a wooden Zen garden featuring 3D-printed colored stones in the various car colors. Customers—even the younger ones—could even play with them. “At first, we considered creating a real Zen garden with sand instead of one on a wooden board. But since a dealer doesn’t want sand in the showroom, we abandoned the idea,” said designer Alice Brovarone with a laugh.
A Sweet Surprise
Julianna Probst’s interpretation of lightness and color is almost too artistic for a garage-based operation. Yet her work will be on display in September at Homo Faber, one of the world’s most important exhibitions of contemporary arts and crafts in Venice. Together with the Lausanne-based fine chocolatier Blondel, Nayun Kwon has developed a sweet surprise for customers: a small box in a subtle shade of violet containing four pralines. Their shapes are quite something. These aren’t simply square, ultra-fine pieces of chocolate, but rather small works of design art that draw inspiration from car body elements or the stitching on leather seats and recreate them in chocolate form.
Creating Added Value for Retailers
One option—perhaps not for the Swiss Mazda showroom, but for an appearance at a trade show like Auto Zürich—is Júlia Claveria Baro’s «magic curtain,» made up of various small chain segments that, like the pixels of Mazda’s new Nightfall Violet color, create a play of light and shadow with great depth and look completely different from a distance. And Matthias Walker made it clear: “Here at Mazda Switzerland, it’s important to us that some of these ideas make their way out of the university labs and help improve the customer experience in our showrooms.” It will be interesting to see which ideas those will be.
