Gustavo Barroso Client Work

The Brief

Market asked me to design and execute a pop-up that embodied their brand’s irreverent humor and chaotic DIY energy… something that felt more like an inside joke than a retail store. We had a few weeks, a tight budget, and a small team to pull it off.

Concept Renders

Market’s brand mixes parody, nostalgia, and pop art iconography. The goal was translate that attitude from t-shirts and stretch it into a spatial experience.

The location was an old, long-vacant building above the Canal & Broadway station. The experience of walking up from the subway station became a frame of reference for developing an environment that could visually steal somebodies attention as they reached street level.

My initial idea was to turn the façade of the building into a log cabin but we faced some budget cuts so we pivoted to covering the building with camo net since that allowed us to cover a massive surface with cost efficiency.

I wanted passerby’s to exit the station and be confronted by a curiosity that pulled them into the space.

Installation Oversight

I lead a team of 4 installers and fabricators while also having oversight of the general contractors to make sure everything was being built to spec. To facilitate communication with the general contractors I brought renderings and spec drawings on-site and taped them to the walls in the space.

Final Product & Reflection

Soho & Chinatown are lined with clothing stores. I was interested in creating an experience that rewarded the curious by creating a moment inside people’s minds where they weren’t fully aware of what they were witnessing.

It was important to me that the main and largest room had zero merchandise.

At first there was a lot of push-back from their team on this - “We are wasting space” “People are coming here and having no idea we sell clothes” “They think we sell fish!” management complained.

“That’s the point!” I explained. I felt that those who followed their curiosity would naturally discover the general store in the back and they would piece the story together in real-time.

Many passerby's walked by and ended up making unplanned purchases. The pop-up was so successful that it got extended for 2 months.

“That’s the point!” I explained. I felt that those who followed their curiosity would naturally discover the general store in the back and they would piece the story together in real-time.

Many passerby's walked by and ended up making unplanned purchases. The pop-up was so successful that it got extended for 2 extra months.

GUSTAVO BARROSO CLIENT WORK

GUSTAVO BARROSO CLIENT WORK

GUSTAVO BARROSO CLIENT WORK