What started as just an idea has become a reality for us over the past year or so. SORT store is truly an extension of the studio, a place to share the objects we love with the city and community around us. We opened SORT ultimately with the hope of connecting with the city—sharing our passion for design through tangible tools and objects while communicating and exploring the impact of design on our everyday life.

Everyday objects often go unnoticed as their beauty is determined by the way they seamlessly fit and shape our daily activities. Yet, once in a while, they catch our attention and change our perspective, allowing us to see the objects around us anew. This sort of revelation is what we want to share with our customers. Beyond the objects, we see SORT as a creative hub—a go-to place to spark curiosity and gain inspiration. Whether it’s through workshops, exhibitions, or conversations, we want SORT to be a place that is not defined by retail, but rather, by the creative community around it.

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Custom furniture taking shape—some early sketches from our process working with Henry Sun

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Vince and Megan brainstorming during a meeting

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We created a floor plan in Adobe Illustrator to aid us in the interior design process

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Testing the placement of our store logo and window vinyl

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Alvin brought back sample books from Takeo Paper after a trip to Japan. The paper samples were later used when sourcing paper for the shop business cards.

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Design process

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The transition from sketches to digitalized letterforms

Typeface Design
The typeface for SORT originally started as a typeface called SF Counter, a neutral sans serif designed for studio use. Therefore, as we were searching for a neutral sans serif to use for the store collateral, we revisited SF Counter and decided to adapt and complete the set of base glyphs for store use. The SORT typeface currently consists of two weights—W3 and W1. While there are countless sans serifs available to choose from, we felt it was important to use a typeface that was created in-house. Designing our own typeface also allowed us to have greater control on the weight and overall feel of the typeface.

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SORT wordmark, tagline, and shop hours

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Business cards

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Signage and window graphic

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Christmas window graphic

Application
For our store cards, we started with the idea of a multi-functional card. Unfolded, the card can be used as a bookmark. Once folded in half, the card becomes the size of a business card, able to fit inside a wallet. The design allows plenty of extra space to write notes or thoughts. Meanwhile, the selection of Takeo Paper in green, blue and brown was inspired by the colour of the natural landscape in Vancouver.

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Mobile screens

Website
We designed a very simple and light-hearted journal-style website. The journal photo gallery appears immediately on the homepage and by scrolling down, the gallery overview appears.

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Connaught Park near our shop

Interior/Connections
After opening our doors in 2017, we realized the objects were only the catalyst for so much more. Since opening SORT, we have had the opportunity to built great relationships through this space, from Rosina and her son Chase (and Luna the dog) who visit us from the Broadway wine store down the street, to our friend and shop regular, Fabrizio. We made Kitsilano our home as this neighbourhood embodies so much of what we value—the desire for a slower pace of life; an appreciation for the natural environment around us; and an understanding that richness can be found in the simple moments of each day.

We weren’t exactly sure what SORT would bring, but from the people we have met who have come from far and wide and the conversations that we’ve had, we are grateful for where SORT has taken us so far and where it will go from here.

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Sector
  • Identity

    • Location
    Vancouver, Canada

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