5. Oli!

What is Oli?

Oli is a conveince store in the heart of San Jose, which is Costa Rica’s capital city.

How is Oli revolutionizing the convenience store in Costa Rica?

Oli curates the best local products for their customers and keeps their doors open beyond traditional conveince store hours.

What does the company seek to do?

Oli seeks to disrupt the San Jose convenience store market.

Why?

The San Jose convenience store market has become known for overpriced products and dull service.

How did the opportunity to create Oli come about?

The opportunity to create Oli was born after several businesses closed down or disappeared in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.

What opportunity did the store’s creators see?

The store’s creators saw an opportunity to take advantage of an abandoned lot in the neighborhood to launch a unique convenience store.

What company did Oli contact?

Pupila

What is Pupila?

Pupila is a local design studio, who created the store’s brand identity and became business partners in the project. This was a first for Pupila.

What research step did Pupila’s design team take?

Pupila’s design team started researching the area where the store would open, visiting the neighborhood at different times of day and night. They paid close attention to the location’s surroundings, analyzing competitors and the history behind this type of business, and familiarizing themselves with the local community and visitors.

What was one of the agency’s first steps?

One of the agency’s first steps was to come up with a short, easy to spell, but slightly witty name.

How did they come up with the name, Oli?

“Holi” is a modified version of the Spanish word, hola, meaning “hi.” Pupila removed the letter H and added an exclamation point to create the new name.

What goal did this achieve?

Cook up a tongue-in-cheek name that portrays a young and chill attitude.

Like its customers, what is Oli?

Oli is young at heart.

How did they align with that “young at heart” attitude?

To align with that attitude, Pupila selected a bold, extruded logo accompanied by the Futura typeface as a supporting font.

Describe the brand’s color palette.

The brand’s color palette is vibrant, harmonious, and uses contrasting colors. It is radically different from competitor stores, fully aligned with Oli customers, and serves as hook to catch the attention of passerbys

What goal did this achieve?

Define a colorful palette that blends with the neighboring scenery.

Descrbibe the approach Oli used.

The brand uses an unconventional approach to traditional brick-and-mortar shopping.

What set the stage for the brand’s unconventional approach?

Mosaic-like patterns, created with slightly tilted rectangles and solid colors.

What goal did this achieve?

Provide a simple but stunning visual universe that can be easily expanded.

Oli was never meant to be just another convenience store. True or false?

True.

Since its conception, what has been Oli’s idea?

The idea has been to stand out from the crowd through both its offerings and its looks.

Describing the Oli shopping experience.

A convenience store with a DJ booth, colorful aisles, and the best curation of local products available.

What goal did this achieve?

Position Oli as the best and trendiest convenience store in the hood.

What has Oli become?

Oli has become a reliable standy for barhoppers and nightlife revelers because it matches the energy and vitality of the city’s party district.

What are their future plans?

Oli has tentative plans to open a second location on the west side of San Jose.