22 March 2011 - All systems are go!

The last month has certainly been interesting here in Christchurch. On 22 February we were sitting around the lunch table when a magnitude 6.3 earthquake hit Christchurch. It was a pretty terrifying experience, riding out the earthquake under the lunch table, and we evacuated as soon as possible to the carpark, and relative safety. After accounting for all the staff from Designability and Miller Studios, who were all unharmed, we headed home.
A month on and we are all go. We've been working for a couple of weeks out of a house in Ilam, and we have had to access our building to remove our computers and files, so we've got all our work with us here. Our building has a green sticker, but is still within the CBD cordon with no solid timeline on when we might be able to move back in. When we do get back into the building we'll have a fair bit of tidying to do!¦



At this time, our thoughts and prayers are with anyone affected by the earthquake. If there is anything we can do to assist you in the recovery, both professionally and personally, please get in contact.

15 November 2010 - Christmas is coming!

It's been a mixed year, especially looking back on the last couple of shakey months, but as we get close to the end of it, overall it has been a good one. The earthquake has certainly made an impact on everyone in here Christchurch, and our thoughts go out to everyone affected.



Mid August saw the expansion of Marion McKellow's jewellery venture from her store in Merivale to a concept area in the middle of Ballantynes fashion area, on the first floor of the iconic Christchurch shopping destination. The opening was very timely, with the Merivale store temporarily inaccessible due to the earthquake, it provided an opportunity to keep business going.



The branding arm of our business is growing, with this branding for the soon to launch skinfairy.co.nz website, an online store will be selling top quality skincare and beauty products. Our client for this job is also the owner of the successful Beauté skin bar and beauty clinic in Dunedin, which we also designed the store and the branding for.



Our most recently completed project has been an upgrade of the visitors' terminal at Milford Sound. This included new exterior signage, an interior makeover with custom seating pods, and our first ever bus wrap!





Here's a sneak peak at a job that's currently in the works; this souvenir shop is at the top of Queenstown's Skyline gondola complex, and should be completed May/June 2011. As well as all this stuff there are a couple of projects that we've had to keep on the down-low this year - more info and pics to come as these progress further!

23 June 2010 - Anyone for a haircut..?

Tuesday saw the opening of Janine Jensen, a hairdresser, in Northlands Mall Christchurch. Janine Jansen aims to provide quality hairdressing within the convenience of the mall setting.

This was the second of two recent hairdressers, with Hi-Jinks for Hair opening in Highfield Mall, Timaru, last Friday. More pics to come...

31 May 2010 - NZRIA Red Awards

Designability had a good weekend attending the Red Awards in Auckland. The Red Awards is an annual celebration of the best in retail design, run by the New Zealand Retail Interiors Association NZRIA). We managed to win two divisions this year...



Crabtree & Evelyn continued its successful fitouts, taking away the prize in the Health and Beauty Division for the new fitout in Newmarker, after winning in 2007 with the Silvia Park store. More pictures of this shop will follow in the next couple of days.



R&R Sports relocation of their store was a huge project for us last year, and took out the Sports and Recreation Division.



We're shaking things up again in Invercargill, with the construction of a daring new kiosk for Icebreaker. The joinery is underway at the moment, and should be all installed within the month. This won't be the end of our work for H&J though, as we've got a few other projects lined up in the months to come.



March saw the opening of the latest Simply New Zealand store, this time in Coastlands Mall, Wellington.

4 November 2009 - Time for an update!

It's been a while, and we've had so many stores open in the last few months!

Our biggest job this year was probably the relocation of R+R Sports Outdoor Adventure store from Lichfield St to Colombo St in Christchurch. The old building had to go to make way for the new bus exchange, so R+R had to find a new one; the site they chose actually comprised of several different tenancies, previously a bike shop, a menswear shop and a hairdresser. The challenge during the concept stage was visualizing the space as one open area.



During construction, a large portal was created in the wall dividing the ground floor spaces, removing 6000 bricks to reveal the extent of the shop area!



The design of the shop had to be rugged to be suited to the adventure sports equipment that was to be sold; and also honest to the 90 year old building and it's construction. The result is a store that has the right feel for the stock it's selling, and everyone involved is happy with the finished result.


The t house at Ballantynes, which opened last Monday, is a Dilmah branded concept tea house, showcasing 26 flavoured teas from their tea time rocks collection. The menu has been specifically designed using the teas as characteristic ingredients, and are paired with teas on the menu for the complete experience. It's the first one outside of Sri Lanka, and the second in the world. We designed the interior with references and influences to colonial Sri Lanka, while creating a contemporary dining area.




Impress is a clothing store in Winton, which has just relocated into a brand new building. The new site gave Impress the opportunity to expand and enhance its shop. The shop opened in mid October with a bevy of stationary also designed by us.




Arrowtown has another exciting clothing store in the form of Te Huia. The shop sells high end New Zealand made clothing, jewelery and art. There are a few finishing touches to be happen yet, but they have been trading for a couple of weeks now.




June saw the opening of a new Sassys store at Westfield Riccarton. The move into Westfields saw a slight change of focus for Sassys, targeting a slightly younger demographic. To help achieve that, the branding was updated (by us!) before designing the new store.




Bridgeman and Dean Optometrists in Dunedin reopened in September with this updated store.




Graemes cafe has been in The Plaza, in Palmerston North, for 20 years. So with the mall upgrade came the chance for the cafe to step it up, with this new fitout, more seats and bigger kitchen.




Pics of the Kabbaba fitout are now in the projects gallery.




This update has been a while coming, it shouldn't be as long a wait for the next!

18 March 2009 - Waxx, Graemes Cafe and Kabbaba

Waxx is now in the projects gallery! Not only did we design the shop, but we did the branding as well, so go check it out!

We've also had a couple of projects open in Palmerston North, as part of the mall upgrade at The Plaza. Graeme's Cafe is already a twenty year veteran, and has now opened an exciting new site. We also did the branding and fitout design for Kabbaba, an authentic turkish kebabs shop in the foodcourt. Photos are coming soon...

15 Oct 2008 - Surf Store opening soon...

24 Sep 2008 - Waxx is coming...