Enabled through a unique public–private partnership between Mayor Andre Dickens’ office, Paul Nair of Savi Provisions, economic development department Invest Atlanta, and indie grocery champion IGA - Cohere helped this new brand and community asset hit the streets.
Introducing Azalea Fresh Market - a homegrown ATL small format grocery store in the iconic Olympia Building. Cohere’s role was comprehensive: defining the brand strategy, visual identity, interiors, signage + packaging, and setting the course for launch marketing — all with the goal of turning an ambitious civic idea into a viable neighborhood grocery.
Transforming Vacant Retail Spaces, Adding Grocery Access for Downtown ATL
The canvas for Azalea Fresh Market was the historic Olympia Building in Atlanta’s Five Points neighborhood—the same landmark where Coca-Cola’s formula was first developed. The building had been vacant for nearly a year following the nationwide closure of hundreds of Walgreens stores. At the same time, data from Invest Atlanta showed that 14 percent of Atlanta residents faced food insecurity, with downtown neighbors and businesses consistently asking for access to fresh produce and healthy food on the go.
This area, without a grocery store, was considered a food desert lacking access to fresh food. Not content to sit on the sidelines, Savi and the city came together to pioneer the model of a privately owned municipal grocery store, tailored to downtown residents, nearby Georgia State University students, and commuters and office workers.
Branding & Interiors that Welcome Several Demographics
Characterized by function, rooted in optimism, and with a reverence for time, space, and community, Azalea Fresh Market bridges the gaps between needs across a disparate range of people. Its design had to do the same.
Our visual identity design incorporates a SCAD exercise with local students and a former hotel designer - to bring the heart of the neighborhood back through food.
The interiors of the store balanced that same functionality with both durable features and surprises of color, materiality, and gathering-oriented furniture. From the beginning of the project, we focused on integrating an ATL-local feel across all aspects of the design, creating a new great place in the center of the city.
A Big Win for Atlanta - and a New Model for the Urban Grocery Store
Independent grocery remains a beloved, but challenged, industry, and the model put forward by Savi and the City of Atlanta is a new blueprint for how to keep cities fed, through both food access and locally-rooted design and programming.
