Featured Projects & Brand Showcases
Transforming Concepts into Retail Reality
At Custom Display Works, we bridge the gap between creative vision and manufacturing precision. From high-end cosmetics counters to immersive tech launch booths, we engineer and build physical displays that not only attract attention but drive sales. Explore our global portfolio of custom retail fixtures and see how we elevate brands worldwide.
Real Production View: No Filters,Just Quality
Case Study: Pilot Pen – A Landmark Display for an Iconic Brand
When a product is as iconic as the Pilot Permanent Marker, its retail presence must be equally memorable. Pilot Corporation approached us with a challenge: to create a high-capacity, freestanding floor display that would not only organize and showcase their products but also become a powerful, unmissable branding statement in any retail environment.
The Vision
The goal was to move beyond traditional shelving and create a “destination” display. The design needed to be instantly recognizable, leveraging the iconic shape of the Pilot Permanent Marker 100 to attract customers from across the store. It required a large product capacity, 360-degree accessibility, and the durability to withstand a busy retail setting.
Design & Engineering Highlights
Our solution was to transform the product itself into the display—a giant, scaled-up replica of the Pilot marker that serves as a beacon for the brand.
Iconic Replica Design: The core concept is a large-scale, structurally sound replica of the Pilot Permanent Marker 100. This “product-as-display” approach is a powerful form of visual marketing that creates immediate brand and product recognition.
High-Capacity Helical Shelving: Wrapping around the central column is a series of tiered, jet-black acrylic shelves. This spiral or helical arrangement provides exceptional product density while allowing customers to view and access the full range of markers from any angle.
Custom-Molded Pen Trays: Each shelf is fitted with precision-molded trays. Every slot is perfectly sized to hold a single marker upright and secure, ensuring a consistently neat, organized, and professional presentation, even in high-traffic conditions.
Robust Freestanding Base: The entire structure is anchored by a weighted, circular metal base, providing excellent stability and a low center of gravity to ensure safety and durability in the retail space.
Advanced Manufacturing & Craftsmanship
Bringing this ambitious design to life required a precise blend of industrial techniques and expert craftsmanship.
Acrylic Thermoforming & Cylinder Fabrication: The main challenge was creating the large, perfectly cylindrical body of the marker. This was achieved through large-format acrylic thermoforming, where premium-grade blue acrylic sheets were carefully heated and molded into the iconic shape. The pieces were then seamlessly bonded and polished to create a flawless, continuous surface.
High-Fidelity Silk-Screen Printing: To replicate the marker’s branding with absolute accuracy, we employed a multi-pass silk-screen printing process. This technique ensures the “Pilot Permanent Marker 100” logo and text are incredibly sharp, opaque, and durable, perfectly matching the brand’s official typography and color codes.
CNC Fabrication for Shelving: The intricate, multi-level shelves were precision-cut from high-gloss black acrylic using CNC (Computer Numerical Control) routing. This guaranteed that every shelf was identical in shape and dimension, allowing for perfect alignment and stability when assembled around the central column.
Structural Integration & Assembly: A hidden internal metal framework reinforces the tall acrylic structure, ensuring long-term rigidity. Our skilled assembly team then meticulously fitted each component, from the base to the final cap, ensuring a seamless and structurally sound final product ready for the showroom floor.
The Result
The Pilot Pen floor display is a triumph of form and function. It serves as a highly effective sales tool that can hold hundreds of markers in an organized fashion, while simultaneously acting as a powerful, three-dimensional advertisement for the brand. This case study demonstrates our ability to transform a simple product into an unforgettable retail experience through innovative design and precision manufacturing.
Authentic Factory Shot: Assembly & Testing Phase
Project Case Study: The Bobbi Brown Interactive Beauty Counter
This project showcases the design and fabrication of a luxurious, multi-functional countertop display for the prestigious cosmetics brand, Bobbi Brown. The goal was to create an immersive and interactive brand experience that not only showcases a wide range of products but also invites customers to engage, test, and discover.
The final result is a sophisticated “beauty station” that functions as a powerful centerpiece in any retail environment, perfectly embodying Bobbi Brown’s ethos of modern, effortless beauty.
Design Philosophy & Key Features
Our design was centered around creating an intuitive and elegant user journey. We moved beyond a simple product showcase to develop an interactive hub that encourages customer participation.
360-Degree Circular Layout: The display is built on a multi-tiered, circular base, allowing for customer access and visual appeal from all angles. This open design creates a welcoming and high-end feel.
Central Interactive Mirror: The centerpiece is a large, beautifully framed mirror, transforming the display into a personal makeup vanity. This encourages customers to try products on the spot, significantly increasing engagement and conversion.
Integrated LED Illumination: Soft, ambient LED lighting is seamlessly integrated throughout the structure. It glows from the edges of the tiered base and within the vertical towers, creating a sophisticated ambiance while ensuring products are presented in their best light.
Modular Product Bays: The unit features a main circular display with dedicated slots for lipsticks and other core products, complemented by separate satellite trays for showcasing new collections like the “New Weightless Skin Foundation” and “Luxe Velvet Matte” lipsticks. This modularity allows for easy updates and promotional flexibility.
Luxe Branding Elements: The iconic BOBBI BROWN logo is prominently featured, while elegant graphics and mirrored back panels reinforce the brand’s premium identity.
Craftsmanship & Material Excellence
The premium quality of this display is a direct result of meticulous craftsmanship and the expert use of high-end materials.
Material Fusion: The structure is a hybrid of high-gloss black acrylic and durable metal. This combination provides the sleek, polished aesthetic of acrylic while ensuring the structural integrity and longevity required for a high-traffic retail setting.
Precision Fabrication: All acrylic and metal components were cut using high-precision CNC technology to ensure flawless lines and perfect symmetry. The circular tiers and intricate product slots demonstrate an exceptional level of manufacturing accuracy.
Advanced Finishing: The acrylic elements feature diamond-polished edges, giving them a crystal-clear, glass-like finish that exudes luxury. The mirrored surfaces are perfectly integrated to add depth and reflect light, making the entire display feel more spacious and dynamic.
Seamless LED Integration: The LED strips are expertly embedded within the structure to provide a continuous, even glow without any visible wiring or hardware. This sophisticated technique is crucial for achieving the display’s clean and modern aesthetic.
By blending interactive design with flawless execution, this Bobbi Brown display successfully elevates the in-store customer experience, driving both brand loyalty and sales.
Project Case Study: The Maison Francis Kurkdjian Architectural Wall Bay
For a brand as synonymous with Parisian luxury and olfactory artistry as Maison Francis Kurkdjian, a standard retail display is not enough. The objective of this project was to create a complete architectural statement—a permanent wall bay that serves as an immersive backdrop for the world of MFK, blending sophisticated textures, materials, and light.
The result is a masterful fusion of a retail fixture and an art installation, providing a versatile canvas to showcase fragrances while embodying the brand’s core principles of elegance and craftsmanship.
Design Philosophy & Key Features
The design is a study in contrasts and harmonious balance, creating a rich sensory experience even before the fragrances are explored.
A Symphony of Textures: The display creates a powerful tactile and visual narrative. It masterfully contrasts a raw, artisanal concrete-effect finish on the left with a clean, vertically fluted wood panel at its center. This is balanced by the smooth, matte white finish of the lower cabinetry, creating a composition that is both modern and timeless.
Asymmetrical Elegance: The design rejects simple symmetry for a more dynamic and visually engaging asymmetrical layout. The subtle debossed branding (“MAISON FONDÉE EN 2009”) and cantilevered shelves on the stone-finish side are balanced by the integrated lightboxes and tester units on the right.
Integrated Multi-Layered Lighting: Lighting is not an addition; it is a core component of the design. A backlit brand marquee provides a powerful focal point. Soft downlighting, vertical ambient light strips, and illuminated display boxes work in concert to create a warm, inviting glow, sculpting the display and highlighting the products with dramatic effect.
Brushed Gold Accents: Accents of brushed gold-toned metal are used with precision to elevate the design. From the sleek, minimalist drawer pulls and decorative inlay strips to the elegant trim on the shelving and the main logo plaque, these elements add a touch of warmth and luxury.
Functional Sophistication: Below the stunning visual display lies a foundation of practicality. The seamless, handle-integrated lower cabinets offer ample, concealed storage, ensuring the visual focus remains on the product presentation above.
Manufacturing Process & Material Craftsmanship
Executing this design required a blend of traditional woodworking and modern fabrication technology to achieve a flawless, high-end finish.
Core Construction & Woodworking: The entire structure was built using high-density fiberboard (HDF) and solid wood supports to ensure absolute stability and a perfect substrate for the various finishes. All components were precision-cut using CNC (Computer Numerical Control) technology for flawless alignment.
Specialty Finishing: The distinctive stone texture was achieved through a multi-stage process of applying a specialized cementitious plaster, which was then hand-finished by artisans to create the desired look and feel. The main body and cabinetry received multiple coats of premium matte white lacquer, hand-sanded between coats for a perfectly smooth, durable finish.
Metalwork & PVD Coating: All metal accents were fabricated from stainless steel. To achieve the rich, consistent brushed gold color and a highly durable finish resistant to fingerprints and wear, the components underwent a PVD (Physical Vapor Deposition) coating process.
Precision Fluted Panel Creation: The vertically reeded back panel was crafted using CNC routing to ensure every groove was identical in depth and spacing, creating a perfect, rhythmic pattern that interacts beautifully with the integrated lighting.
Seamless LED Integration: The LED lighting systems were meticulously integrated into milled channels within the wooden structure. This technique hides all wiring and hardware, allowing the light to emanate organically from the display itself and creating a truly seamless, high-end installation.
This Maison Francis Kurkdjian wall bay is a testament to our capability in translating a luxury brand’s essence into a physical form, demonstrating excellence in both complex design and multi-material fabrication.