At Blake Jarrett & Company (BJ&Co), we live and breathe retail design. We understand the importance of the consumer journey, and meticulously design every last detail to deliver the best experience possible, no matter what the environment. We’ve been busy at BJ&Co working on one of the US Lotteries first to market flagship retail store for Washington State Lottery. The flagship store, The Department of Imagination, is located in Spokane, Washington.

It was a great honour to have the opportunity to take this retail store design from concept through to completion. Working on a team of experts across the industry, BJ&Co designed, engineered and manufactured the “Department of Imagination”, showcasing a new and innovative, best-in-class approach to lottery retail design. The intention of the space was to allow consumers a spot to learn about the lottery, play and redeem winning tickets in a fun dynamic environment.

Blake Jarrett and Company was commissioned by Washington’s Lottery through Wunderman Thompson, to design and outfit their new “Dept of Imagination” retail store. Intrigued by some of BJ&Co’s previous work in the lottery industry, Washington’s Lottery were excited to work alongside a trusted partner to help guide the strategy behind this new space.

The Washington’s Lottery Department of Imagination features digital, interactive and graphic menu boards throughout the store. The high visibility of these key features continues to draw in consumers both reoccurring and new.

In conjunction with Washington’s Lottery, IGT, Wunderman Thompson, NCI, Optika Display, and Carmanah, BJ&Co led the new store build project from its conceptual design phase through to store completion, loaning our industrial/retail design and manufacturing expertise to the development of a new innovative lottery space.

Inspired by the notion that the Department of Imagination store needed to become a destination as opposed to a ‘quick stop’ for the lottery consumer, BJ&Co worked with the other project partners to develop a cohesive strategy for the build that made the best sense for the brand and that would create an environment with staying power.

**Imagination Tables equipped with COVID-19 acrylic shields & hand sanitizer station for consumer safety considerations. Interactive touch screen for consumers to enjoy an in-store lottery experience.**

The store design captures interactive-touch screen technologies, a ‘Winners Lounge’ and a beautifully crafted display case which has the capacity to display the Lottery’s full selection of full-size tickets, as well as a Featured tickets area. This immersive space allows the current lottery consumers to come to enjoy the lottery that they love, but also rediscover it in a new way.

The Service Area (above) integrates the illuminated scratch ticket display case, lottery branding and fully dynamic menu board system. Meticulous detail was considered to accommodate all of the POS, peripherals, accessibility requirements and ticket… — The Service Area (above) integrates the illuminated scratch ticket display case, lottery branding and fully dynamic menu board system. Meticulous detail was considered to accommodate all of the POS, peripherals, accessibility requirements and ticket inventory considerations.

Since the store opening was during the current pandemic, BJ&Co designed a sophisticated, custom COVID-19 safety solutions kit, including quality branded acrylic shields for all counters and imagination tables, hand sanitizer stations, and safety way-finding graphics to ensure 6 FT apart safety for all consumers and employees. It was imperative that BJ&Co made sure consumers would feel safe and comfortable within the space, as part of a positive consumer experience.

To date, the store has over-performed up to 3.6x the projected weekly sales, despite the current retail challenges presented by the pandemic.

Returning customers, as well as many new, comment that their curiosity is peaked by the overall design/new look and feel of the lottery store. Their interest in both the lottery offerings and the design have contributed the store’s amazing success! Here at BJ&Co we are so excited to see what is in store for year one, for this new retail space! So grateful to have been a part of this amazing journey. Looking forward to the next collaboration Washington Lottery!

The Best Lottery Retail Store Design – Washington's Lottery Department of Imagination