Across Spain, unusual structures that look like clusters of overlapping umbrellas rise over the landscape, serving as eye-catching identifiers of the country’s largest gas station brand. Energy company Repsol commissioned the architects at London’s Foster + Partners Ltd. to design its brightly colored fuel canopies as a visual accent for its new chain of Sprint convenience stores.
“The challenge was to update its roadside identity while delivering an innovative yet highly flexible solution capable of being easily constructed at 200 sites planned across Spain,” a spokesperson for Foster + Partners said. “Alongside these canopies, the associated shop unit, car wash, petrol pumps and signage elements belong to a related family of pure, box-like forms. Together, they provide maximum flexibility in planning and accommodating numerous variations in site configuration.”
After offering this heady description of the project, the spokesperson summed up the project in plain English: “On the road, the stations are clearly identifiable from a distance and vivid and inviting when approached.”
Therein lies the ultimate goal of any fuel canopy design.
“Canopies can become the most important piece of brand communication a company has to distinguish [itself] in ways that elevate the customer experience,” said Joe Bona, president of Bona Design Lab, New York. “The question being considered as fueling has mostly become a commodity purchase is how we can elevate the customer experience by using the canopy as a major element in the design of future roadside retail facilities.”
John McCauley, director of brand design for Paragon Solutions, Fort Worth, Texas, said the fuel canopy is often a motorist’s first impression of a fuel or retail brand.
“It’s about putting the best face on that [first impression]. Communicating something about the style, the tone or the personality is an opportunity,” McCauley said. “It’s a chance to say, ‘We’re not your typical convenience store,’ and hopefully that piques interest about what’s inside of the store. It can be a brand statement.”
That’s exactly the goal representatives from fuel brand Cenex had in mind when adopting its current Cenex Halo canopy design.
“There is a great deal of value in making a canopy design stand out from the typical look,” said Shannon Moseman, retail image and equipment manager for Cenex, the energy brand of CHS Inc., Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota. “In an evolving industry where it is increasingly difficult to get customers to turn left, any opportunity to catch a consumer’s attention is an opportunity to gain a new customer.”
Moseman said paying attention to lighting is one of the most significant trends in canopy design today.
“Lighting is truly the fastest way to capture consumer attention and stand out,” she said. “A well-lit canopy not only attracts travelers’ attention from a greater distance but also provides a safe environment to fuel up and get them back on the road. Independent research shows that consumers rank quality of the forecourt not only as a basic requirement but as a primary way to enhance the experience.”
“Illumination can act as a beacon to get you noticed,” McCauley agreed. He pointed to Rutter’s 2016 canopy design—still used today—that features not only an unexpected curve across the forecourt but also technology that highlights stripes in the retailer’s corporate colors of red and yellow and transitions to a dramatic black canvas for thinner stripes.
“The canopy is one of the first things a customer sees when they’re driving by a c-store,” said Chris Hartman, vice president of fuels, advertising and development for York, Pennsylvania-based Rutter’s, “so having it catch their eye is a good marketing tool to drive traffic.”
Repsol’s brightly colored, overlapping umbrella-like canopies create a strong 3D image and clearly break the mold of the established service station forecourt.
BP commissioned this kiosk gas station, dubbed the Helios House, in Los Angeles to foster discussion about environmental stewardship. “This was a highly charged, iconographic project,” architect Nader Tehrani, founder of NADAAA, told NACS Magazine. “It was a big corporation branding exercise.”
Opened in 2007, the site has a geodesic design built with solar panels, a green roof of native plants and a full complement of geothermal recycling tech; it is now branded Speedway. It was the first gas station in the world to earn LEED certification.
Nouria built the canopy over the fuel island at its convenience store near Boston’s Logan International Airport with angled support beams to reflect the sloped roof of the store. Both “give the feeling of takeoff and flight, a nod to the nearby airport,” according to architectural design studio Pure + FreeForm, which supplied the high-performance aluminum for the site.
Shannon Moseman, retail image and equipment manager for Cenex, said there is “a great deal of value in making a canopy design stand out.” Cenex’s Halo canopy design includes a 360-degree LED band and backlit 3D blue arches.
When Sheetz erected the fuel canopy at a store in Tyrone, Pennsylvania, it included a message to those above. “At Sheetz, we’re the ultimate one-stop shop, whether you’re from Earth or just visiting. When alien chatter lit up social media last December, we saw the perfect opportunity to let the galaxy know that aliens are welcome to stop by, grab a bite and use our free Wi-Fi to ‘phone home,’” said Public Affairs Manager Nick Ruffner.
Rutter’s fuel canopy changes color as it goes from day to night. Its dramatic curve around the c-store allows for an unexpected lot layout. “It was critical that the design had the desired effect of drawing customers in while also fitting the look of our locations,” said Chris Hartman, vice president of fuels, advertising and development.