Hershey Foods

Nothing says “Chocolate” like a 215-foot-tall Sign Spectacular looming over Times Square. Hershey Foods grabbed at all the modern technology at its disposal to create a dazzling aura for itself and its new New York store. Inside and outside of the store, retailers today are using technology to make statements, create environments, show off merchandise, direct attention and sell goods.

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 already have a store and you want to put your name on it,” says Gordon Eason, creative director at design firm JGA Inc. (Southfield, Mich.). “In this case, Hershey's decided it needed to have a Times Square icon and, in the process, recognized a great opportunity to put a store underneath it.”

Outside, rising 15 stories above the store, and measuring 215 feet tall and 60 feet wide, Hershey's erected one of the largest permanent fixtures ever to appear in Times Square. “The idea is that this was built in Times Square 100 years ago and over the years, as the candy line expanded, there was no place for the sign to grow to the sides, so it grew up,” says Eason.

Eason says designers modeled the store after the notion that Milton Hershey might have chosen to build his first chocolate factory in New York in 1903 (rather than in Hershey, Pa.). The brick building features smokestacks and a water tower, as well as signage highlighting some of Hershey's revered brands (the chocolate bar, the Kisses and Reese's, to name the three most popular).

Inside the 2500-square-foot store, where chocolate lovers can buy branded chocolate, collectibles, apparel, toys and novelties, the old-style factory environment is reinforced through bright white surfaces, factory kitchen-inspired fixtures and finishes and porcelain tile flooring arranged in a brick pattern – a prevalent turn-of-the-century style.

“The envelope of the space is a white, clean, kitchen factory,” says Stephanie Bourdon, color and materials design manager at JGA.

JGA collaborated on the Hershey's Times Square project with ClearChannel Spectacolor (New York), which was responsible for project management and construction of the Sign Spectacular (an industry term referencing the vast billboards in Times Square), and the Brand Integration Group, a unit of Ogilvy & Mather (New York), Hershey's ad agency.

The store is arranged around the presentation of the three major brands. “All of the color that you see inside is from the Hershey's brands, whether it's graphics or packaging,” says Eason. “It was a nice coincidence of theme and brand communication.”

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

While the exterior façade relates the history of Hershey's brands, it also represents almost every major signage technique used today. For instance, the horizontal Hershey's name located on top of the water tank consists of individual incandescent lights, representing the Great White Way. The vertical Hershey's lettering mimics the popular Broadway-style marquee. The logo for Reese's, one of Hershey's newer brands, consists of enclosed neon, one of the more contemporary signage technologies. A ribbon of LED lighting wrapping around the store, representing a Hershey's Kisses plume, can project personalized messages.

Tying into the activity of candy-making are several kinetic signs, including a Breath Savers roll that rotates and a York Peppermint Patty that looks like a spinning top. Even the mug of Hershey's hot chocolate emits steam.

The Hershey's Times Square signage features a total of 34 dimensional props, four steam machines, 4000 chasing lights, 30 programmable lights, 56 neon letters and 12 front-lit signs. “There's such a rich history of signage in Times Square, that this was a fantastic opportunity for the team to feature all of it in one place,” says Eason.

Signage also plays a major role inside the store. For instance, four 20-foot-high Hershey's Times Square wrappers hanging from the ceiling signal the Hershey's Milk Chocolate collection. The panels rotate in synchronized patterns, displaying a collage of Hershey's brand labels on the reverse side. An oversized plume rises from the Hershey's Kisses area, adding a sense of height and motion to the area.

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

Client: Hershey Foods Corp., Hershey, Pa. – Donald Papson, general manager; George Sick, assistant general manager; Lael Moynihan, assistant general manager; Frank Sheehe, manager retail operations; Jared Bernatt, manager, Hershey's Times Square

Design: JGA Inc., Southfield, Mich. – Ken Nisch, chairman; Gordon Eason, creative director; Brian Eastman, graphic design director

Outside Design Consultants: ClearChannel Spectacolor, New York (creative direction for Sign Spectacular); Ogilvy & Mather, Brand Integration Group, New York (advertising agency/creative director); MorseHarris LLC, New York (project management consultant); Gannon Vitolo, New York (construction manager); Illuminating Concepts, Farmington Hills, Mich. (lighting design); Penwal, Rancho Cucamonga, Calif. (thematic elements); Lighting Management Inc., New City, N.Y. (lighting)

Architect: Allen and Killcoyne Architects, New York

Suppliers: Exoscope, Sanford, Fla. (thematics); Silver Stream, Lakeview Terrace, Calif., MegaWall, Comstock Park, Mich. (fixtures); Rusco, Oxboro, N.C. (millwork); Virginia Tile, Farmington Hills, Mich. (porcelain/marble flooring); MD/3 Ltd., Deerfield, Ill. (metal flooring); Texas Kiln Products – Native Texas Woods, Smithville, Texas (wood flooring); Corian®, Wilmington, Del. (solid surface); Benjamin Moore, Strongsville, Ohio (paint); Stromberg Architectural, W. Greenville, Texas (exterior brick); Symmetry Products Group Inc., Lincoln, R.I. (interior brick); Amerlux, Fairfield, N.J., Stero, Cleveland (lighting); Spectrum, Fall River, Mass. (Hershey's Kisses sconces); Coemar USA, Hollywood, Fla. (theatrical lighting)

Laszlo Regos Photography, Berkley, Mich.