Jeff Nowak

WHEN THE PAST & PRESENT CONVERGE

Samsung KX recently opened in Kings Cross’ Coal Drops Yard– one of London’s most popular shopping districts. The new 20,000 square foot experience center merges innovation, local  culture, and history to create a place of discovery for guests. Once the marshalling yards of the industrial revolution, Coal Drops Yard used to be a place where trains were loaded with coal. The area’s transit history runs deep – and though for years following it’s been home to counter-culture artistic movements, rave parties, and more – its retail inhabitants have continued to recall much of the area’s original culture and history.  When bringing the world’s most innovative technologies to the space for its new venture, Samsung made a point to also pay homage to history with key design elements that merge past and present. Fortunately, to do just that, they found U.S.-based design engineers Oat Foundry and commissioned them to build a retro-inspired split flap display that creates the perfect synergy between the technology of today and technology of yesteryear.

A Word from Samsung

“At Samsung KX, we created a space for the local community, but we went about it in a unique way. This destination is an incredible blend of local culture, face to face learning and innovation. We have redesigned our brand experience spaces to give consumers what they want – more dynamic, flexible locations where exploration is endless, and Samsung KX is a place where infinite possibilities are made real.” 

– Y H Lee, Global CMO, Samsung Electronics

ALL ABOARD!

For the first time ever, Oat Foundry built an L-shaped two-display fixture to adorn the walls of the cafe at Samsung KX. The first display, at 15-rows tall and 24-letters wide, sits perpendicular to the second display at 4-rows tall and 64-letters wide, creating the illusion that the entire wall is adorned with clacking flaps.

The displays showcase cafe menus and events – changing continuously in rotation to draw guests’ eyes to special content. Amidst the experience center’s highly innovative display technologies, the split flap display serves as a reminder of the past, as its analog flaps loudly turn to create new messages.

With elements like the split flap display,  Samsung KX is bringing innovation to the area while still preserving the history of the past.