Funky Buddha – Studio Park

122 Oakes St SW, Suite 120
Grand Rapids, MI 49503

In January 2020, Funky Buddha Yoga Hothouse opened its fourth location in the exciting new Studio Park development in downtown Grand Rapids. Anna Baeten, Executive Director, and Michele Bookie, Operations Manager, see this new location as the opportunity to align the look of their facility with their updated clean brand that’s on their website and marketing.

“It was time to become clear with our brand; we are intentional and simple in our approach. We believe in Growth through Practice. We want our spaces to reflect our values: Respect, Integrity, Intentionality, Caring, Honesty, and Humility,” says Baeten.

With that direction in mind, r.o.i. Design assisted in developing an interior that minimized their previous scheme of tropical fruit colors to a neutral palette of black, white, gray, cork, and wood. With touches of greenery and a focus on cleanability, there was still room for some “funk”.

A variety of shapes of wood shade lamps hang in the lobby. The desk and retail area are built from reclaimed pallet wood from Grand Rapids Pallets. Their diamond logo is featured in the tectum acoustical panels applied to the yoga studio’s ceiling. Indirect lighting was added to the waiting area as well as the studio.

We thank our collaborators Jon Blair from r2Design for architecture, First Companies for construction, and Ken Kearney for specialty millwork build-out.

For more about Funky Buddha please visit their website.

Game Room Guys
Livonia, MI

Comstock Park, MI-based Game Room Guys have been in business since 2001. As their online sales have grown, they realized that supporting major metropolitan areas with physical showrooms would increase sales tremendously.

With a large vision and sights on several cities, Doug Wildey, owner, decided to enter the Detroit market first. They already had many existing customers there and opened a location in Livonia in a former golf-pro shop space in the summer of 2018.

Game Room Guys engaged r.o.i. Design to design the Livonia store which meant developing the sales floor layouts, selecting finishes and fixtures, creating graphics and signage, and providing merchandising consult.

Game Room Guys is another in r.o.i. Design’s retail store design portfolio where the formula of Budget-Brand-Beauty delivered a successful project.

Rylee’s ACE
Grand Rapids and Walker, MI

Fuller and Michigan: Rylee’s ACE Hardware was frustrated with a contractor provided design of their new mega store. This new store was to be the epicenter of her soon to be six stores in the Grand Rapids area and they wanted to send a message to her customers that said, “local, neighborhood store with national appeal, products and services.” We were introduced as the “retail design experts” with an understanding of the “customer experience”.

When the project was complete, we got a note from the owner that we hope is the experience of all our customers: “From picking exterior brick colors, to selecting interior finishes, designing signage and consulting on layouts and merchandising, Rylee’s ACE got an ROI working with r.o.i. Design.”

In 2017, the store went through a refresh. r.o.i. Design created a new cash out experience, selected and placed new paint colors and designed a new signage program.

Fulton: When they decided they wanted to open up a new location on the city’s West Side, they came to us for the design of the new building. r.o.i. Design also created the marketing campaign “The New Store in 49504” designing postcards, banners, stickers, etc. and getting the word out about their new location.
Walker: The Walker location needed to “come along” in appeal and style and r.o.i. Design provided storefront design, a design for the cash out experience as well as provided and placed new paint colors.

Kennedy Floral
Cascade, MI

Expanding and remodeling a store is an opportunity not only to communicate your brand but to create new habits and disciplines in the sales team. Kennedy’s Flowers & Gifts in Forest Hills, Cascade MI took on the challenge in 2013.

This family business, owned by Lori Haveman, enjoying more than 20 years in the floral and gift business, decided to take over neighboring tenant space in their building to expand their store.
They turned to their architect, Don Smalligan who referred r.o.i. Design, experienced retail designers.

While the overall appeal of the new store is light, bright, clean and clear, the real success was a new layout and managing the customer’s experience. Creating definitive departments and dedicated space for merchandise not only helped the customer, it enabled Kennedy’s to monitor inventory much easier.
The discipline of eliminating clutter and opening up views in a store that has so many SKU’s will continue to be the goal for operations.