Gaia Polanco

Creating the design concept from zero.

While I was Head of Gaia Projects, I started collaborating with several team members on developing the core of the brand’s showrooms back in 2016. Defining the business goals for retail selling, the principles of the offline stores, creating the look and feel, material and color palettes, product selection, and layout design were part of my day-to-day responsibilities.

The first store was located in one of the most trendy neighborhoods in Mexico City called Polanco. With a unique location in an interesting historical building on the ground floor, the challenge of developing a unique, yet seamless experience was crucial to attract online customers to visit and test the items physically in the showroom. With the guidance and mentorship of an IKEA top retail designer, we developed the first showroom in 3 months and that’s how the brand’s physical stores were born.

One of the most exciting and challenging tasks was creating the whole experience from zero, and setting guidelines and references for all future projects. For me, being responsible for creating the layout for the showrooms was an amazing and unique learning experience. Also, selecting the products for each store and seeing the project coming to life from paper to reality was a huge reward in my professional career.