TRY Design create a fresh and playful look for Oslo’s grocery store-kiosk-bakery hybrid Innom

A new convenience store concept for Norway, Innom is an innovative mix of grocery store, kiosk and bakery that blends the best of all three into one. With a name that translates to ‘drop-by,’ Innom promises a quick and convenient shopping experience, taking inspiration from the shopping habits of downtown Oslo – where a quick bite to go is the preferred choice. As the store is owned by REMA 1000, Norway’s premier convenience store franchise, it was important for its visual language to reflect this relationship but with a bolder and more playful twist aimed at a youthful target audience. This was the task of Oslo-based design studio TRY Design, who have developed Innom’s identity and brand language.

When deciding on the typographic direction, TRY Design’s Håvard Bergo and Sunniva Grolid explain, the studio were looking for a display typeface that not only feels familiar to REMA 1000 shoppers, but is also “distinct, playful and bold enough to fit the store's ambitions.” As a result, TRY Design came across Benoît Bodhuin’s fun, bouncy tubular typeface Pimpit, “and knew straight away that it was the right one.” They reached out to Bodhuin to aid in developing a customised version for ‘Innom’ that could be used for the brand’s communication and logo. “With the help of Benoît,” Bergo and Grolid tell us, “we adjusted the height of all the letters, and made a new ‘Ø’ that works better on the surfaces it was supposed to be on.” The characterful display typeface is joined by the quirky yet robust serif, Colophon Foundry’s Grenette, creating a warm and contemporary duo. 

Jonathan Averstedt’s vibrant and humorous illustrations perfectly complement the typographic combination, and feature throughout Innom’s many outputs, from shop windows to employees’ uniforms. “The illustrations are a continuation of the style from the typography,” Bergo and Grolid recall. “Filled with colours, they become distinct and recognisable, and we get a richer toolbox.” Not only “beautiful eye-candy,” the duo reveal that they also act “as informative helpers,” providing explanations of some of Innom’s unique or unfamiliar features, such as weighing your own fruit in order to squeeze your own juice. 

The end result is an undeniably fun identity, which is no doubt aided by the bright colour palette that, according to Bergo and Grolid, “adds flavour and a little spice” to the profile. “Some of the colours are inspired by REMA 1000, but adjusted to be fresher and more appropriate for the new store,” they note. “Most of the colours in the palette can be combined, which results in a playful identity that can appeal broadly while retaining its distinct look.”

TRY Design