Cadbury 200 Years

CELEBRATION

Victorian Shop Frontage

Let’s roll back the clocks to where it all began in 1824: 93 Bull Street, Birmingham, where Mr John Cadbury opened his first grocer’s shop. Originally all Cadbury’s hot chocolate was sold as solid cocoa which he prepared himself using a mortar and pestle to grind the cocoa into powder. 200 years later we were asked to help our friends at Jubba re-create this Victorian shop frontage and create a sense of nostalgia for this iconic brand. All items within this container were hand-crafted and hand-painted. The chocolate-box frontage with swinging signage topped off with a striped canopy made for a fabulous entranceway.

Interior Shop

We began the interior construction by laying a full-colour printed exhibition lino floor across the space. An original Victorian chocolate box frontage inspired this container re-fit with the central theme being the Liquorice Allsort. The internal shop displays and interior decoration were a joy to work on and our in-house paint team loved getting their hands on the finer details required for this display. The central display area was the most intricate feature of this interior and required us to think of new ways of painting. This is where our team shines, with a lightbulb-moment which led to the creation of a bespoke spinning lathe tool that could be spun by hand manually or with an electric drill. This invention helped our paint team to paint the precise layered lines in the iconic colour shades.

RECOGNITION

Step Back In Time

Enter a space that recognises the evolution of Cadbury’s and the people who have made the global company what it is today. We started by creating a double-layered effect on the container walls, with CNC-cut panels painted gold to represent the flow of chocolate. Purple LED strip was then applied across the drips to highlight a defined curve across the wall and provide some atmospheric lighting within the space. Let us talk some tech… as guests entered they were met with a hall of digital frames made from 27” plasma screens with custom-made framed fronts. Guests were invited to listen to the stories of what it was like to be an employee back in the Bournville Factory days of 1902.   Creative technology is our thing and we set out to make this extra special for our client by designing bespoke software from scratch. This software had to have a touchscreen interface that allowed for guests to sit in a mini photo booth and interact with the screen to take an image. Once the guests were happy with their selfie they would select it and ‘hey presto’ the photo would populate a larger screen to create a photo montage. We made a bespoke upholstered stool and mini velvet drape to allow staff privacy and comfort whilst taking a selfie. It showcased the recognition of employees’ efforts and the pride in their work.

LEGACY

Filmic Experience

The third container was all about the legacy of the brand, using the strong theme of vintage imagery from 200 years of packaging. This area saw the floor laid in gold vinyl, half overlayed in plush purple carpet. The back and side walls were covered in cork which was then covered in purple exhibition felt. This enabled staff to pin up vintage postcards with messages to their colleagues in different areas of the country. A green-screen feature encompassed a curved ‘infinity’  base section and was mounted onto the wall. This space gave staff a filmic experience and was a true highlight of the event.

Canopy

Exterior

We are pretty diverse in the skill set we can draw upon in-house which enabled us to tackle the challenge of keeping the rain off guests whilst still giving them a wow factor. Our design team came up with this wonderful element which was clear-skinned and spanned the entire space creating a big top feeling for guests to enjoy well into the evening with pretty festoon lighting, topped off with purple bunting.