Spotlight: Milktrain
Instagrammable interiors for Milk Train ice cream shop
Cloud-like ceilings and neon signage are just some of the playful features that design studio FormRoom employed to create this Instagram-friendly ice cream store in central London.
Located in central London's bustling Covent Garden district, Milk Train has been designed by Shoreditch-based design studio FormRoom to "cater primarily to [the brand's] diverse Instagram demographic".
It is the first retail space of the brand, which has become popular for its wacky ice cream offerings, and will act as a blueprint for the design of all upcoming Milk Train branches. Until now they have exclusively traded out of pop-up food venues.
"The product itself holds such a sense of playful surrealism, and [the client] wanted to carry over that magic to the store environment. As this was their first permanent space, the design needed to be unique and interchangeable across all seasons; allowing the brand interior to evolve as swiftly as Instagram trends do."
Playing on its brand name, the aesthetic of a classic British steam train was the main inspiration for the store's interiors. Upon entering, customers can choose from a menu that's printed on blackboards in white block lettering, intended to look like typical split-flap display boards that show train departure times at a station.
Seating booths numbered like train platforms have been completed in pale blue leather, a nod to the pastel hues seen throughout the feed of popular Instagram account Accidentally Wes Anderson.
Mind the melt – a play on Transport for London's cautionary phrase Mind the Gap – has been printed on the store floor, which the studio hopes will encourage customers to engage with the photo-sharing app's well-used hashtag #IHaveThisThingWithFloors.
A sequence of arched frames runs down the centre of the eating area, each topped with spherical pendant lamps. Two-dimensional cloud shapes have then been suspended from the ceiling, mimicking the steam emitted from a train's chimney.