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Tag: museum

  • Starbucks Debuts Culture-Inspired Concept Store in Hong Kong Palace Museum: Merging Art, Coffee, and Custom Engraving Experience

    Starbucks Debuts Culture-Inspired Concept Store in Hong Kong Palace Museum: Merging Art, Coffee, and Custom Engraving Experience

    Starbucks has unveiled a novel concept store at the Hong Kong Palace Museum in West Kowloon, positioned as a serene oasis amidst the hustle and bustle of the city.

    Store Design and Art Collaborations

    The store showcases unique design collaborations with three prominent local artists. Calligrapher Westley Wong is the creative genius behind the Chinese “Starbucks” brush signage that welcomes visitors at the entrance. Elsa Ngai, another inspiring artist, has enriched the interiors with layered botanical artworks that narrate the life cycle of a coffee plant using mineral pigments and gold leaf.

    Drawing on the serene landscapes of Yunnan and the wisdom of Chinese philosophy, porcelain sculptor Leo Wong has crafted a remarkable ceramic wall installation. Patrons of the store can also enjoy an uninterrupted view of Victoria Harbour while sipping their coffee.

    Exclusive Beverage and Food Menu

    The concept store has launched a new seasonal range of beverages inspired by the plum blossom. The range includes oolong tea and coffee-based creations, all served with plum sauce, a whole plum, and a topping of creamy foam. Customers can choose between hot and iced versions of the drinks, with an option to add tonic water to the chilled variants. The store also offers an exclusive Turmeric Oatmilk Latte, only available at this particular location.

    In terms of food, the store has introduced two unique desserts inspired by Ancient Egypt: the Golden Pistachio Pyramid Cake and the Mummy’s Secret Roll.

    New Services and Experiences

    This concept store is the first in the city to offer a Starbucks engraving service, providing customers with the opportunity to personalize their tumblers. The store will also be hosting Coffee Micro-Experiences like hand-brewing sessions, latte art demonstrations, and curated coffee tastings.

    General Manager of Starbucks Hong Kong and Macau, Alan Chan, states that the HKPM store aims to reflect local culture in its design, range of products, and in-store experiences. The goal is to reimagine the Starbucks Third Place experience by integrating local elements to foster deeper and more meaningful connections with the community.

    Questions & Answers

    What unique design features does the new Starbucks concept store offer?
    The store showcases design collaborations with local artists, including a Chinese “Starbucks” brush signage, botanical artworks, and a ceramic wall installation inspired by Yunnan’s landscape and Chinese philosophy.

    What exclusive beverages and food items are available at the new store?
    The store has introduced a plum blossom-inspired beverage range and an exclusive Turmeric Oatmilk Latte. The food menu includes two Ancient Egypt-themed desserts: the Golden Pistachio Pyramid Cake and Mummy’s Secret Roll.

    What unique services and experiences does the new store offer?
    The store offers a Starbucks engraving service and hosts Coffee Micro-Experiences such as hand-brewing sessions, latte art demonstrations, and curated coffee tastings.

  • Cristiano Ronaldo will visit Hong Kong for the opening of his CR7 Life Museum

    Cristiano Ronaldo will visit Hong Kong for the opening of his CR7 Life Museum

    Hong Kong’s football fans were all in a tizzy when the news broke earlier this year that a Cristiano Ronaldo museum is opening in Hong Kong. It has now been confirmed that the CR7 Life Museum will officially open on July 7.

    Housed within the sixth floor of K11 Musea, this museum will span over 12,000 sq ft, featuring immersive exhibits, authentic memorabilia, and interactive storytelling that highlight Ronaldo’s discipline, resilience, and excellence over the course of his three-decade career. If you’ve been following him since Alex Ferguson signed a young Ronaldo to Manchester United back in 2003 – making him the first Portuguese player ever to be signed to the club – then CR7 will allow you to take a fond walk down memory lane, and even see some of Ronaldo’s jerseys and trophy collection up close.

    What makes things even more exciting is that Ronaldo will be visiting Hong Kong in person to celebrate the museum’s opening, which will be the first of its kind in Asia. Exact details about his arrival and the events that will inevitably take place are yet to be disclosed, so watch this space for updates!

    Apart from the museum, the brand is also opening the first-ever CR7 Life Museum Official Flagship Store in Times Square, which we expect to be packed with exclusive Cristiano Ronaldo signed merchandise and memorabilia.

  • Top-class Upgrade for Porsche’s Iconic Museum

    Top-class Upgrade for Porsche’s Iconic Museum

    The Porsche Museum at Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen is a big attraction for automobile lovers worldwide.  Porsche has confirmed a stunning new upgrade to this iconic museum with lasting changes. The latest additions to the museum commemorate Porsche’s work in the electric car category that dates back quite a few years. The museum now pays tribute to a lot more than Porsche’s racing models, road cars, and engines.

    A lobby sits at the museum entrance, which is Porsche’s prologue. An escalator goes up to the top, and this is where visitors can journey back into the history of the chequered global brand. The Head of the Porsche Heritage and Museum, Achim Stejskal, has already stated that the prologue has been revamped and upgraded after more than one year of planning, research, and execution. He has also confirmed the installation of several interactive and brand new touchpoints for visitors along with 20+ stations, unique exhibits, and three models which are fully functional.

    The first car here is the oldest surviving car that Ferdinand Porsche worked with. This Egger-Lohner C 2 model dating back to 1898 and is a whopping 123 years old! It has an octagonal electric motor rear-mounted and gets front-axle steering! The very first Porsche was an electric car which is astounding! You will then view the Ferry Porsche and the 356 No 1 Roadster, the first vehicle with the Porsche brand name. Ferdinand Porsche did not limit himself to only electric cars but also designed the first full-hybrid vehicle and wheel hub motors. Curator of the museum, Iris Haker, has also stated that the shift towards hybrid is a critical milestone in the history of Porsche, especially since the iconic founder started not with combustion engines but with electric motors instead. According to him, the wheel hub motor is an innovative exhibit and it also made the motor more steerable as per his opinion.

    The Lohner-Porsche model had a couple of generators paired to gas engines that enabled power supply to the batteries, which drove the wheel hub motors at Porsche. The key objective of this museum remains more awareness about Porsche and its history. Many connoisseurs automatically equate the beginning of the brand with the iconic 911 but it goes back a lot earlier than this model.

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  • Staycation theme for luggage label Lojel’s new K11 Musea pop up

    Staycation theme for luggage label Lojel’s new K11 Musea pop up

    Boutique luggage brand Lojel has launched an immersive pop-up store in Hong Kong’s K11 Musea, opening today, focusing on the concept of staycations.

    Dubbed “The Art of Staycation”, the event is a first for the brand, featuring the opportunity for visitors to customize a limited-edition Voja suitcase as well as an augmented reality experience exploring the future of how travel could evolve in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

    The pop up is intended to provide a travel solution for a staycation in Hong Kong, selling hand-carried luggage as well as backpacks and travel accessories.

    Visitors will be able to create their case from any pair of colors using the in-store tablet before seeing it assembled in person. A personalized tag will be laser-engraved for each customer and stored in a leather tag holder.

    Customers’ final purchases at the pop-up will be delivered to their doorsteps at no charge.

    The Art of the Staycation pop-up will be open through to December 31.

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  • Nespresso Hong Kong launches coffee selection at K11 Musea

    Nespresso Hong Kong launches coffee selection at K11 Musea

    Nespresso Hong Kong has launched a new boutique at K11 Musea featuring more than 50,000 square feet of green walls.

    The walls are meant to serve as a reaffirmation of the brand’s commitment to sustainability by unveiling their collaboration with the Nature Discovery Park at K11 Musea to offer planting workshops to members of the public.

    The new 452sqft boutique is Nespresso’s fifth retail store in Hong Kong. The space features sustainable elements, such as table-tops made of used coffee grounds from the Nespresso factory in Switzerland, wood sourced from reforestation programmes, and a capsule recycling collection point where guests can drop off their used capsules.

    A new set of “Hong Kong Selection” coffee assortment is available exclusively at the new boutique to celebrate its opening, featuring five well-loved coffee capsule flavours by Hong Kong consumers.

    The Nature Discovery Park will also showcase Nespresso’s latest Re:Cycle bike created in collaboration with Swedish bike brand Vélosophy. Nespresso has globally launched a limited quantity of 1000 city bikes made from recycled aluminum coffee capsules, designed to illustrate the potential of recyclable aluminum and to inspire customers to recycle their capsules.

  • Museum of Modern Art Hong Kong store planned to Open

    Museum of Modern Art Hong Kong store planned to Open

    New York’s Museum of Modern Art will open a Design Store in Hong Kong.

    The Museum of Modern Art Hong Kong store will open in the new K11 Musea art mall. It will be the largest in Asia following two locations in Japan.

    The 6000sqft retail store, which celebrates innovative design in products from around the world and serves as a platform for emerging artists and designers, will showcase works from leading Hong Kong artists such as Kaws and Yayoi Kusama. Every product at the store is exclusive and undergoes a series of eight criteria filters to ensure a strong fit with Moma’s vision of good design.

    K11 Group founder Adrian Cheng, who was recently named the first Council of Fashion Designers of America global ambassador, is a board member of Moma and led the introduction of the store in Hong Kong.

    The Museum of Modern Art Hong Kong store will open in August.

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  • The exhibition of Polaroid at National Museum of Singapore

    The exhibition of Polaroid at National Museum of Singapore

    Singapore mentions “Polaroid” and most people will think of the retro, palm-sized instant prints often stuck on refrigerators or posted in scrapbooks. Not many will associate it with artwork – much less the sort of art you might hang in a gallery. The exhibition of Polaroid in National Museum of Singapore features 10 large Polaroids which are each 20 by 24 inches (50cm by 60cm) – bigger than a sheet of A2-sized paper – and is on display at the National Museum of Singapore as part of an exhibition on the history of Polaroid photography and art using Polaroid, “In An Instant: Polaroid At The Intersection Of Art And Technology”.

    Also on display are about 160 other photographic artworks – in various sizes and styles – by artists such as Andy Warhol, Ansel Adams, David Hockney and others.

    This is the Asian debut of the exhibition, which has traveled in the United States and Europe and will return to North America next year.

    “In An Instant”, which is on until the end of March, starts off by charting the history of the Polaroid camera, the brainchild of American scientist Edwin H. Land.

    The exhibition also features a short film demonstrating the effect of polarised lenses. All the museumgoer can see is a white glare until he puts on a pair of Polaroid sunglasses.

    The Polaroid artefacts and artworks are on loan from the MIT Museum at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the WestLicht centre for photography in Vienna, The Polaroid Collection and various artists, as part of a collaboration between the National Museum of Singapore and the Foundation for the Exhibition of Photography.

    The Singapore edition of the exhibition ends with a series of video projections of “influencers” talking about what “in an instant” means to them.

    Among them are comedy site SGAG’s co-founder Karl Mak, YouTube star Jianhao Tan, YouTuber and comedienne Preetipls, socialite Jamie Chua, Instagram twins Yafiq and Yais Yusman, and Angie and David Sim from the lifestyle and travel blog Life’s Tiny Miracles.

    Visitors who want to take home a memento can head to the photo-booth and selfie station outside the exhibition space.

    The exhibition has also a ‘Silent Cinema’ section where visitors can watch a movie wearing Polaroid sunglasses.

  • Gucci adds 6 new intriguing Gucci Places

    Gucci adds 6 new intriguing Gucci Places

    Luxury fashion brand Gucci has labelled six international destinations as ‘Gucci Places’ – a list that includes Daelim Museum in Seoul. The Gucci Places were selected by the Italian Fashion House as destinations that “surprise, arouse interest, and inspire a creative response”, according to a report in Prestige Online. They were chosen in collaboration with well-known artists who were tasked with visiting the place and record their impressions, establishing a visual journey of photographs, travel notes and sketches.

    Daelim Museum was named for its association with Coco Capitan, an artist whose calligraphy has appeared on Gucci collections.

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  • The Palace Museum in Beijing promotes beauty products

    The Palace Museum in Beijing promotes beauty products

    For 500 years the Forbidden City in central Beijing was the seat of power in imperial China. Today it is home to the Palace Museum, a tourist magnet that houses some of the country’s most treasured cultural relics from the Ming and Qing dynasties. But this shrine to the past is rapidly becoming a very modern fashion phenomenon thanks to a new range of beauty products that have proved a massive hit with young Chinese women.

    Online buyers snapped up more than 100,000 lipsticks developed by the Palace Museum within four days of their launch earlier this month, helping to turn the historic landmark into a trendy consumer brand.

    What captured their hearts was the lipstick’s elegant packaging inspired by the national treasures on display in the museum – the lipstick tube bears patterns such as royal embroideries, antique furniture and fairy cranes – heavenly birds symbolising longevity.

    Lizzy Wong, a 24-year-old from the southern metropolis of Guangzhou, is one of millions of loyal new fans of the Palace Museum.

    “I bought them mainly for the beautiful cases. Their functionality doesn’t really matter to me,” Wong said. “We girls just can’t resist the charm of pretty designs.”

    For several years, the former imperial palace has attracted something of a cult following by developing and selling its own original products, from Chinese-style paper tapes to modern essentials like phone cases, with designs or branding inspired by the past.

    Before cosmetics, the Palace Museum found success with products which usually added a humorous twist to the serious traditional culture.

    Veronica Wang, associate partner at OC&C Strategy Consultants, which specialises in consumer goods, said the Palace Museum has turned itself into something more than a brand.

    “Young consumers are seeking things that are different and new. The Forbidden City captured this need,” Wang said.

    The success of the make-up range hasn’t been without challenges. The museum has two online outlets, the Palace Museum Cultural and Creative Store – which is accessed via WeChat and the Palace Museum’s Taobao store, and this has caused some confusion.

    The Palace Museum’s brand management was chaotic and would benefit from marketing and brand professionals, said Shaun Rein, the managing director of China Market Research Group.

    “When you think of The Metropolitan Museum of Art (in New York), you know that the quality will be pretty good and authentic. But when it comes to the Forbidden City, we really don’t know what the position is,” he added.

    Analysts also worry about whether the Palace Museum can replicate its past successes in the future.

    “The sustainability of this success will depend on their products and capability to continually innovate,” said Wang.

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  • The Seiko Dream Square opens in Tokyo

    The Seiko Dream Square opens in Tokyo

    Seiko Watch Corporation has opened an interactive hub of its watchmaking to allow visitors to “look, feel and experience” the rich history and heritage of the brand. The Seiko Dream Square is a new four-story retail complex in the heart of the watch brand’s birthplace in Tokyo’s Ginza district and showcases its heritage of watchmaking since 1881 with a museum, showrooms and entertainment areas.

    The aim of the new retail complex is to become a “point of destination” for visitors as well a centre for communicating the brand’s story globally said the watchmaker in a statement.

    It features a small museum on the first floor in the image of the symbolic Wako clock tower’s interior, a historic symbol of Seiko and a proud landmark of Ginza in which Seiko founder Kintaro Hattori placed its headquarters.

    On the other levels, visitors can shop Seiko’s leading collections, Prospex, Presage, Lukia, and Astron, with each displayed in a “refined setting” based on the particular brand’s unique identity.

    Commenting on the opening, Seiko Watch Corporation chairman and chief executive, Shinji Hattori said: “A Seiko watch is not merely an industrial product. It can be a partner to one’s life journey and story. It is our dream that Seiko Dream Square be the place where visitors from around the world would want to find this particular partner.”

  • A New Breed of Museum Retail in Singapore

    A New Breed of Museum Retail in Singapore

    Collecting things, it can be said, is the bane of modern living. So it is refreshing to see just how Gallery & Co. boldly eschews the easy materialism of museum retail. Modeled to offer visitors a curated experience of its bookstore, bar, cafeteria, café and museum store in one continuous space, the new design merchandise and dining venue opened at National Gallery Singapore on Thursday, taking up 8,800 sq ft space on the first floor of the Southeast Asian art-centric museum’s City Hall Wing.

    As a museum store, Gallery & Co. is quite unlike any other in Singapore to date, and understandably so, being the result of a partnership between the National Gallery Singapore and interdisciplinary collective & Co. The latter comprises industry movers and shakers in the form of hotelier and restaurateur Loh Lik Peng; creative designers Yah-Leng Yu and Arthur Chin, and Luxasia managing director Alwyn Chong.

    Heading the retail strategy is Chong, who worked with Yu to drive merchandising, brand curation and exclusive collaborations. The culinary direction is helmed by Loh; Yu and Chin lead the branding, space and product design.

    Across the varied categories of fashion, design collectibles, home decor, publications and more, all the objects elected as part of the store selection come with creative appeal. Brands carried in-store include Maison Kitsune, Smile Q&Q, Garance Dore, Marou, Supermama, General Object and Matter Prints. As Chong commented, nothing in this “living and evolving space” is permanent. “We do not want to be a museum store that just accumulates, but rather one that truly curates our offerings.”

    With the museum’s Southeast Asian art focus, the space will merge artisanal design with artistic encounters in the museum itself. Products inspired by current artworks on display, as well as of the heritage building’s architectural features, will be part of the retail offerings. Collaborations between regional and international creatives are in the pipelines; in the works are a capsule collection by Matter Prints and artwork-inspired candles by Mud Rock and Candles of Light.

    There are also plans to introduce limited run menus inspired by the museum’s blockbuster exhibitions at the all-day dining cafeteria. Not that the contemporary Southeast Asian menu by Restaurant Ember chef Sufian Zain — including the Green Curry Seafood Pasta and the Otah Stack, a sandwich with grilled mackerel fish cake — is lacking at all.

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