Alternative furniture company LoveSac announced that it recently opened a new store in The Woodlands Mall (1201 Lake Woodlands). The company says that the opening marked the debut of a transformative new store design created for LoveSac by the global creative consultancy Pompei A.D.
Occupying more than 1,600 square foot on the upper level, the store offers LoveSac’s unique, patented specialty furniture, featuring “Sacs” and “Sactionals”.
While LoveSac furniture has been featured in movies, TV shows and celebrity houses, its comfort and versatility also make it an ideal fit for any home’s media or family room. “Our revolutionary approach to furniture makes so much sense in so many ways,” says Shawn D. Nelson, founder of LoveSac and creator of its products. “It’s washable, changeable, modular, durable—and superbly comfortable.”
Sacs are, in essence, massively oversized bean bags filled with chopped Durafoam, which is far more comfortable and resilient than styrene beads—and feels like a gigantic pillow. Sactionals consist of two simple pieces which can be combined (like Legos) in any quantity and configuration imaginable to build any furniture desired—chairs, sofas, chaises, ottomans, and sectionals—with no tools necessary.
LoveSac’s Evolution
LoveSac was born when Shawn D. Nelson—then an 18-year-old college student—created a giant seven-foot bean bag and started taking it out to parties and other venues. Word of Shawn D. and “the Sac” spread and interest grew fast. There were ups and downs along the way, but Nelson stayed true to his entrepreneurial vision. He even rose to national fame by winning Sir Richard Branson’s 2005 Fox reality TV hit “The Rebel Billionaire”.
What began as college fun has now grown into a major manufacturing and retailing enterprise. With planned expansion, Shawn D. decided it was time to make the store design and branding as distinctive as the furniture itself.
“Our store experience needed to match the expectations of our evolving customers. But at the same time, we never want to lose the free-spirited, eclectic side of LoveSac,” says Shawn D. Nelson. So he embarked on a search for a creative consultancy that aligned with his ethos—and found a match with Pompei A.D.
LoveSac’s New Look
According to the Pompei A.D. design team, “Together with the LoveSac team, we created a new and inspiring brand experience that supports the varying lifestyles and aspirations of the brand’s diverse customers. The new LoveSac retail experience is designed to engage the visitors on several emotional levels and will speak differently to various customers depending on the degree to which their personalities and lifestyles tend more to the practical, the creative, the elegant, or the playful. These four “personalities” are represented with four fabric wall elements seen throughout the store.”
Justin Kruse, Pompei A.D. Project Manager explains, “The design is organized around a central consultation hub where the customer is guided through the process of Sactionals design and fabric selection.” In addition, “To allow customers the experience of laying back, watching a movie or playing a videogame, a quirky projection wall with speakers is located in the rear of the store.”
Pompei A.D. also created a new logo for LoveSac—a core wordmark with an underline in white, set inside a black icon. The icon itself can be anything—giving the company the ability to show different aspects of their brand.
Shawn D. concludes, “We share similar values with Pompei A.D.—a mix of serious business combined with fun. Their branding and design approach has helped us to elevate LoveSac—while keeping the down-to-earth nature of our company and product. They balanced what made us what we are and what we are reaching out to become.”
About LoveSac: LoveSac (www.lovesac.com) is an alternative furniture company that was founded in 1995 when Shawn D. Nelson (then a teenager) constructed the world’s largest beanbag and filled it with foam instead of the usual styrene beads. Now, with 48 U.S. stores and more on the way, LoveSac is both a manufacturer and a retailer, renowned for inventing unique, fascinating, and comfortable patented furniture concepts. LoveSac’s visionary founder, Shawn D. Nelson, is also known as the winner of Sir Richard Branson’s “Rebel Billionaire” entrepreneur reality television show.
About Pompei A.D.: Pompei A.D. (www.pompeiad.com) is a creative, multidisciplinary design and branding firm that brings a unique blend of expertise to preeminent retail brands throughout the U.S and internationally. For the past 20+ years, the Manhattan-based firm has been creating and defining brands for prominent clientele such as LoveSac, ING DIRECT, C. Wonder, Anthropologie, Urban Outfitters, Free People, Disney Stores, Discovery Stores, Levi’s, L’Oréal, Monsoon, Coca-Cola, M&M’s World, The Art of Shaving, and others. The company was founded in 1990 by Ron Pompei, who pioneered the concept of a “transformative environment” that impacts the user not only on a physical level, but emotionally and intellectually as well. This concept is embodied in Pompei A.D.’s “C3” philosophy, which integrates Commerce, Culture, and Community into the design and brand experience.