N O T H I N G S A Y S “ C H O C O L A T E ” L I K E A 2 1 5 - F O O T - T A L L

Sign Spectacular looming over Times Square. Hershey Foods grabbedat all the modern technology at its disposal to create a dazzling aurafor itself and its new New York store. Inside and outside of the store,retailers today are using technology to make statements, create envi-ronments, show off merchandise, direct attention and sell goods.

S W E E T S P O T

When Hershey’s decided to create a huge retail presence in New York,the renowned chocolatier put the sign before the store.

“Usually the signage is the thing you think about when you alreadyhave a store and you want to put your name on it,” says Gordon Eason,creative director at design firm JGA Inc. (Southfield, Mich.). “In thiscase, Hershey’s decided it needed to have a Times Square icon and, inthe process, recognized a great opportunity to put a store underneath it.”

Outside, rising 15 stories above the store, and measuring 215 feettall and 60 feet wide, Hershey’s erected one of the largest permanentfixtures ever to appear in Times Square. “The idea is that this was builtin Times Square 100 years ago and over the years, as the candy lineexpanded, there was no place for the sign to grow to the sides, so itgrew up,” says Eason.

a The Original Hershey’s AutomaticGravitational Chocolate machineallows visitors to create customblends of candy mixes. Candy trav-els from chutes in the wall and downa giant funnel before dropping intoTimes Square collectible tins andboxes. b The store was designed asif Milton Hershey had located hisoriginal factory in New York. Someperiod touches include porcelainflooring arranged in a brick pattern,a style prevalent in the early 1900s;and oval-shaped bins, inspired byactual bathtubs used to transportchocolate in Hershey, Pa.

a b

Hershey’s marked the opening ofits New York retail store by erect-ing the largest permanent fixtureto ever call Times Square home.Rising 15 stories above the storeat Broadway and 48th Street, theSign Spectacular (the industryterm for oversized Times Squarebillboards) comprises every majorsignage technology used today.

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This way to the CHOCOLATEHershey ’s announces i ts brand in T imes Square

Signage Case Studies pages 36-42

Signage Resources page 60

Signs o f L i f e

Eason says designers mod-eled the store after the notionthat Milton Hershey might havechosen to build his first choco-late factory in New York in 1903(rather than in Hershey, Pa.).The brick building featuressmokestacks and a water tower,as well as signage highlighting

some of Hershey’s revered brands (the chocolate bar, theKisses and Reese’s, to name the three most popular).

Inside the 2500-square-foot store, where chocolatelovers can buy branded chocolate, collectibles, apparel, toysand novelties, the old-style factory environment is reinforcedthrough bright white surfaces, factory kitchen-inspiredfixtures and finishes and porcelain tile flooring arranged in abrick pattern – a prevalent turn-of-the-century style.

“The envelope of the space is a white, clean, kitchenfactory,” says Stephanie Bourdon, color and materialsdesign manager at JGA.

JGA collaborated on the Hershey’s Times Square projectwith ClearChannel Spectacolor (New York), which wasresponsible for project management and construction of the

Sign Spectacular (an industry term referencing the vast bill-boards in Times Square), and the Brand Integration Group, aunit of Ogilvy & Mather (New York), Hershey’s ad agency.

The store is arranged around the presentation of thethree major brands. “All of the color that you see inside isfrom the Hershey’s brands, whether it’s graphics or packag-ing,” says Eason. “It was a nice coincidence of theme andbrand communication.”

For the Reese’s brand, which goes after a younger audience,designers created an energetic space inside a cut-out of a giantfactory smokestack. Brick walls are painted white, while kineticlighting infuses the space with orange color and motion.

While the exterior façade relates the history of Hershey’sbrands, it also represents almost every major signage tech-nique used today. For instance, the horizontal Hershey’sname located on top of the water tank consists of individualincandescent lights, representing the Great White Way. Thevertical Hershey’s lettering mimics the popular Broadway-style marquee. The logo for Reese’s, one of Hershey’s newerbrands, consists of enclosed neon, one of the more contem-porary signage technologies. A ribbon of LED lighting wrap-ping around the store, representing a Hershey’s Kissesplume, can project personalized messages.

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The Reese’s brand, which appealsto a younger audience, includes askateboard prop and kinetic light-ing, creating an ethereal orangespace. Across the aisle, in the Her-shey’s chocolate area, a collage ofbrand logos adorns four 20-foothigh panels hanging from the ceil-ing. The vertical panels rotate, dis-playing Hershey’s chocolate barwrappers on the opposite side.

Tying into the activity of candy-making are several kineticsigns, including a Breath Savers roll that rotates and a YorkPeppermint Patty that looks like a spinning top. Even themug of Hershey’s hot chocolate emits steam.

The Hershey’s Times Square signage features a total of34 dimensional props, four steam machines, 4000 chasinglights, 30 programmable lights, 56 neon letters and 12 front-lit signs. “There’s such a rich history of signage in TimesSquare, that this was a fantastic opportunity for the team tofeature all of it in one place,” says Eason.

Signage also plays a major role inside the store. Forinstance, four 20-foot-high Hershey’s Times Square wrap-pers hanging from the ceiling signal the Hershey’s MilkChocolate collection. The panels rotate in synchronized pat-terns, displaying a collage of Hershey’s brand labels on thereverse side. An oversized plume rises from the Hershey’sKisses area, adding a sense of height and motion to the area.

“We wanted to make sure that people would leave herewith more than just chocolate,” adds Eason. “There tend tobe a lot of cameras flashing.”

-Anne DiNardo, Associate Editor

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The large plume rising to the ceil-ing marks the Hershey’s Kissesbrand area. Behind that, the Wallof Brands houses additional prod-ucts in a modular fixturing system.On the catwalk level is a display ofvintage Hershey’s ad art on slidingpanels, which double as doors tostorage areas.

Client: Hershey Foods Corp., Hershey,Pa. – Donald Papson, general manager;George Sick, assistant general manager;Lael Moynihan, assistant general man-ager; Frank Sheehe, manager retailoperations; Jared Bernatt, manager,Hershey’s Times Square

Design: JGA Inc., Southfield, Mich. – KenNisch, chairman; Gordon Eason, creativedirector; Brian Eastman, graphic designdirector

Outside Design Consultants: ClearChan-nel Spectacolor, New York (creativedirection for Sign Spectacular); Ogilvy &Mather, Brand Integration Group, NewYork (advertising agency/creative direc-tor); MorseHarris LLC, New York (projectmanagement consultant); Gannon Vitolo,New York (construction manager); Illu-minating Concepts, Farmington Hills,Mich. (lighting design); Penwal, RanchoCucamonga, Calif. (thematic elements);Lighting Management Inc., New City,N.Y. (lighting)

Architect: Allen and Killcoyne Architects,New York

Suppliers: Exoscope, Sanford, Fla. (the-matics); Silver Stream, Lakeview Ter-race, Calif., MegaWall, Comstock Park,Mich. (fixtures); Rusco, Oxboro, N.C.(millwork); Virginia Tile, FarmingtonHills, Mich. (porcelain/marble flooring);MD/3 Ltd., Deerfield, Ill. (metal flooring);Texas Kiln Products – Native TexasWoods, Smithville, Texas (wood flooring);Corian®, Wilmington, Del. (solid surface);

Benjamin Moore, Strongsville, Ohio(paint); Stromberg Architectural, W.Greenville, Texas (exterior brick); Sym-metry Products Group Inc., Lincoln, R.I.(interior brick); Amerlux, Fairfield, N.J.,Stero, Cleveland (lighting); Spectrum,Fall River, Mass. (Hershey’s Kissessconces); Coemar USA, Hollywood, Fla.(theatrical lighting)

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