Retail Focus #81 November 2016

#80

retail focus

NOVEMBER 2016 : £6.75 #81

November 2016/issue 81 Surface & Materials Show : Apple Regent Street : Jigsaw : Axel Arigato : Restaurants : Car Showrooms : Museum Shops : Digital Display : Q&A with Ning Li, Made.com

retail focus WWW.RETAIL-FOCUS.CO.UK

The big Apple Inside the tech giant’s revamped London flagship

Surface & Materials Show : Window Shopping : Jigsaw St James’s Market : Axel Arigato Restaurants : Car Showrooms : Museum Shops : Digital Displays

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contents

CONTENTS The big Apple

28-30

Technology giant Apple has reimagined its store on London’s Regent Street to create a richer, more dynamic experience for customers.

51 Museum shops

& Materials 11 Surface Show 2016

7 8

Leader Diary

12-18 News 20-22 Window shopping Inspiring window displays from around the globe.

24 27

Top of the POPS Karl McKeever In a relatively short space of time, artisan food has gone from a niche industry to something more commonplace and commercially viable, observes Karl this month.

www.retail-focus.co.uk

68 Focus on: Digital displays

45 Car showrooms

41 Restaurant design

28-38 P roject Focus

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Apple Regent Street : Jigsaw St James’s Market : Axel Arigato

Opinion Kevin Gill, co-founder and UK CEO of customer experience design consultancy .start, talks new people empowerment tools for experience-led retailers.

57-66 Products Products and services for the retail industry.

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Q&A Ning Li, founder and chief executive of Made.com, talks about setting up the company, collaborating with designers and why it’s important to have a physical presence.

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welcome November ‘16

Technology giant Apple threw open the doors to its eagerly anticipated store on London’s Regent Street in October following a complete redesign.

Created in collaboration with Foster + Partners, the expansive interior incorporates the brand’s new features and services, and allows customers to touch, feel and try out the products in an engaging and hands-on way. Take a look inside the new space on pages 28-30.

Down the road, in the new St James’s Market development, premium fashion brand Jigsaw has opened a new store that is said to be the perfect grown-up sister to the robust and raw Duke Street Emporium, which opened in 2014. Both stores have been created in partnership with Dalziel & Pow and feature shop-inshops for The Shop at Bluebird, though each is distinct and tailored to its locality (pages 32-34).

With Bentley, Jaguar Land Rover and SEAT all opening store concepts inside UK shopping centres, this month we look at how the car buying experience is changing (pages 45-46). We also look at how museums are using their retail spaces as a more accessible art and culture experience for visitors (pages 51-52), and find out what’s on the menu in terms of restaurant design in the UK (pages 41-43).

Don’t miss the December issue with our special VM supplement, featuring many of this year’s festive window schemes and coverage of the VM & Display Awards. Good luck to everyone involved!

Gemma Balmford Editor

Managing Editor

Editor

Gemma Balmford e. gemma@retailfocus.co t. +44 (0)7908 895 906

Lyndsey Dennis e. lyndsey@retailfocus.co t. +44 (0)7500 138 810

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Industry associations

Search Retail Focus For subscription enquiries please email: subscriptions@retailfocus.co Retail Focus is published 12 times a year by Retail Focus Promotions Ltd, Yeomans, Bassetts Lane, Woodham Walter, Maldon, Essex, CM9 6RZ. system or transmitted in any form without permission. Please address all enquiries to the editor at the above address. The opinions expressed in Retail Focus are the views of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the publisher.

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diary

DIARY

Retail Design Collective New York City 7-9 December 2016 A collection of the world’s top visual suppliers will come together in New York City to showcase the latest and greatest visual products and trends in intricate showroom settings. Events include a two-day intensive workshop by WindowsWear, providing a real-world understanding of the latest visual merchandising and store design disciplines, which also includes a full-day New York City retail safari. Retailers, visual merchandisers, designers or anyone in the retail design industry will benefit from attending Retail Design Collective, which takes place during Shop! Market Week. shopassociation

www.shopassociation.org/ retail-design-collective/

Retail’s BIG Show Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, New York City 15-17 January 2017 NRF’s Annual Convention & EXPO earned the nickname ‘Retail’s BIG Show’ years ago, and because the name was so appropriate it stuck. The three-day event offers unparalleled education, 510 exhibitors spanning two expos totalling 21,832 sq m, more than 300 speakers and plenty of networking opportunities.

NRFnews

nrfbigshow.nrf.com

retailTRUST Celebration 2017 Old Billingsgate, London 26 January 2017 The retailTRUST Celebration returns to Old Billingsgate in London for a third year, bringing togther the great and the good in the industry to help retailTRUST in improving the wellbeing of the retail sector.

You’ll be able to network with industry leaders and pioneers whilst celebrating the great and diverse retail industry. Visit the website for ticket details. retailTRUST

www.retailtrust.org.uk

Surface Design Show Business Design Centre, London 7-9 February 2017 Surface Design Show returns to London in February 2017, showcasing the newest and best surfaces that the design industry has to offer. More than 130 exhibitors have already signed up, with more to be confirmed over the next few months. Returning brands include Altfield, Concreate and James Latham. surfacethinking

www.surfacedesignshow.com

www.retail-focus.co.uk /Events keep up-to-date with the latest events in your industry

Photo: Messe Dusseldorf / ctillmann

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show review

show review

Surface & Materials Show 2016

The Material Lab Central Hub formed a focal point of the second annual Surface & Materials Show, which took place alongside UK Construction Week in October.

The Surface & Materials Show returned to the NEC in Birmingham in October for a second year as part of UK Construction Week. The event took place over three days and showcased some of the latest inspiring surface solutions, from ceramics and wood to concrete and carpet.

A highlight of this year’s show was the Material Lab Central Hub, designed by Here You Are Studio. The 118 sq m space showcased a curated collection of new work and samples by surface design pioneers such as Giles Miller Studio, Daniel Heath, Evan James Design, Burel and Solomon & Wu. It also played host to a series of live making events, inviting visitors to immerse themselves in a world of craft and creativity.

Daniel Heath Studio Daniel Heath is a London-based wallpaper, textile and surface designer, renowned for his illustrative and engaging designs. Craft artistry and sustainability are at the heart of Heath’s ethos, seeking out new approaches to time honored materials by celebrating their imperfections. During the Surface & Materials Show, the designer hosted an interactive screen-printing workshop and printed a selection of luxurious wallpapers from the collection.

Solomon & Wu Solomon & Wu creates handmade sheet material for the luxury market. Its products are based around the idea that details in our environments are the most interesting elements. The studio takes the simple moulding formats that you find in any house and redesigns them using new shapes.

Its luxury resin-based panels are framing some of the world’s most famous brands, including Alexander McQueen, Christian Louboutin and Harrods Shoe Heaven.

Giles Miller Studio Did you see the Billboards at Clerkenwell Design Week, made of thousands of handcrafted metallic glass tiles by Giles Miller Studio? The company continues to impress with its innovative threedimensional surface, material and sculptural artworks. It’s client list includes Hermes, Omega Watches and Stella McCartney, among others. At the Surface & Materials Show, Material Lab showcased some of the Studio’s Hoxton Cladding; its first surface designed primarily for exterior use. Pieces from Heliot & Co (a new surface design brand from Giles Miller Studio) were also on display in the central hub.

The Material Hub also hosted a dedicated innovators section, presenting a

hand-picked selection of work by emerging talent, including new rug designs made with recycled carpet off-cuts by Isabel Webb, aluminium artworks by Rachel Howarth and concrete tiles by Anni Tavener.

Speaking ahead of the event, Jim Biddulph, projects and materials manager at Material Lab, said: ‘We’re dedicated to be seeking out and supporting the latest surface material makers and manufacturers, so it’s exciting to be able to bring a selection of the very best innovators to a show that is equally as devoted.’

The next Surface & Materials Show takes place from 10-12 October 2017.

www.surfaceandmaterialsshow.co.uk

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news

NEWS

Victoria Gate launches in Leeds Victoria Gate in Leeds opened its doors to the public in October. The £165 million scheme by Hammerson forms part of the new 53,400 sq m Victoria Estate shopping district, which also includes Leeds’ Victoria Quarter arcades.

Designed by architects Acme, the development provides Leeds with a 21st century retail arcade and is an exceptional addition to the city’s rich merchandising and textile history. Its striking façade takes inspiration from the surrounding architecture of Leeds’ historic buildings and uses a mixture of white terracotta and red bricks, which were manufactured in Yorkshire

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and Staffordshire.

The scheme is anchored by a flagship John Lewis store, which is the first in Leeds and the largest outside of London, with Victoria Gate’s two street arcade also housing 30 new retail brands and restaurants, as well as a casino.

The retail line-up includes global brands such as Russell & Bromley, Nespresso, GANT, Hackett, Tommy Hilfiger, CAU, Joules, Aspinal of London, Le Pain Quotidien, Neom Organics, T2 and Anthropologie.

David Atkins, CEO at Hammerson, comments: ‘This is a truly unique development and there is nothing else like it in the UK. We are confident that Victoria

Gate will set new standards for retail across Europe as it becomes an iconic piece of Leeds’ retail heritage.’

Leeds City Council Leader Councillor Judith Blake, adds: ‘Victoria Gate is already making a big impact on Leeds.

It has introduced a significant number of employment opportunities locally. It is a striking scheme which has redefined the skyline in that sector of the city centre and its opening will further cement Leeds as one of the best places to shop and visit in the UK. I’m delighted to welcome its opening on behalf of the city and I’m confident it will be a fantastic addition to our existing diverse offer of independent, high street and luxury retailers.’

news

Diesel opens Knightsbridge flagship Diesel has unveiled its new retail design concept in Knightsbridge. Nestled between Harrods and Harvey Nichols at 73 Brompton Road, the two-storey flagship spans 230 sq m and is a collaboration between Japanese architectural firm Wonderwall and Diesel’s artistic director Nicola Formichetti.

The flagship marks the second

instalment of Diesel’s new retail strategy following the opening of Madison, New York last year and opens two decades after Diesel arrived in the UK. Led by Masamichi Katayama, Wonderwall specialises in creating cutting edge design concepts that pay respect to conventional and traditional design philosophies. Diesel Brompton is a fully

Models Own opens first stand-alone store

Following the success of its Bottleshop (a retail kiosk in the shape of a nail varnish bottle), UK nail varnish and makeup brand Models Own has now opened its

realised example of this ethos with the idea of a ‘home’ inspired space serving as a fitting backdrop for Diesel’s extensive men’s and womenswear offerings.

‘It’s exciting to introduce an amazing new store concept that I’ve been working on with Japanese architect firm Wonderwall,’ says Formichetti. ‘It’s inspired by a modern day living space for modern day Londoners and international shoppers.

It’s going to be an exciting place to experience the new Diesel energy.’

Design features include a hallway area at the store entrance, a wine cellar-inspired space on the basement menswear floor, a stainless steel and glass installation, high definition screens and a cement mortar facade.

This new beginning serves as a key development for Diesel, which has undergone an overhaul in recent years.

Central to the brand’s revitalisation process is the reimagining of its contemporary and lifestyle lines, which followed the appointment of Nicola Formichetti in 2013.

The new venture is set to be rolled out across the globe.

first stand-alone store, called Boxshop at Westfield Stratford City.

The vision for the concept, developed in collaboration with The Yard Creative, is a brighter, bolder and bigger retail experience.

‘The progression from the Bottleshop to the Boxshop takes inspiration from the idea of a make-up box,’ explains a spokesperson for The Yard Creative. ‘The core categories — eyes, lips, face and nails — wrap around the perimeter of the store and high-level digital displays stream Models Own’s vibrant video campaigns.’

The centre of the store features an open pink box, housing promotions and a play table, which promotes experimentation.

‘A particular focus was on designing a user-friendly store that helped shoppers understand how to use the products, as well as how to curate en vogue looks,’ says the spokesperson.

The backdrop of the store uses gun metal grey and exposed services to create a raw and stripped back platform that allows the glossy, bold colours of the brand, cosmetics and communications to pop.

A second Boxshop is opening in Trinity Leeds this month.

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news

In continued Inbrief, brief...

Sandals opens digital store in Chelsea Sandals Luxury Travel Store has opened a new retail experience on Chelsea’s Fulham Road, designed to complement the international luxury travel operator’s online and agent presence in the UK. The store immerses visitors into the world of Sandals through a range of interactive, educational and sensory experiences.

Designed by Wanda Creative alongside design and build specialist ODB Group, the new space boasts highly sophisticated integrated lighting and AV systems, exquisite joinery and individually commissioned feature pieces and artwork.

‘The brief was to provide first-hand evidence of the quality of Sandals’ luxury offer,’ says Guy Crabb, managing director at ODB Group. ‘Sandals felt that the closer they could bring customers to experiencing what their holiday would be like, the more likely they would be to want to go.’ Instantly recognisable Carribean features include a cocktail bar, rondovals, a water feature and replicas of the fittings and furnishings used in Sandals’ resorts.

£1.4 billion redevelopment planned for Brent Cross Shopping Centre Hammerson and Standard Life Investments have been announced for a £1.4 billion redevelopment of Brent Cross Shopping Centre in London. The scheme is part of a larger £4.5 billion regeneration plan for Brent Cross and Cricklewood.

The plans will renew and revitalise this significant area of North London into a new urban quarter. One of the main elements of Brent Cross London that will be the

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Highly energy efficient, the store is equipped with heat recovery air conditioning systems and LED lighting throughout with fingertip controls for atmospheric mood settings.

Upon entering the store via a bridge over a digitally delivered waterfall and stream running underneath, the customer enters the main reception where the Sandals experience is delivered through 55in digital screens controlled locally with a tablet. People can view different Sandals resorts and compare the offers available from a relaxed hotel lobby environment.

The store is made up of several individual zones that take the customer through the Sandals journey, including a research area, the Sandals Showcase where dedicated team members take customers through a personable and stress-free booking service, a wedding lounge, a Family Zone complete with Xbox stations and photo booths to occupy children, an excursions desk, and lastly a Sandals bar allowing visitors time for relaxation and to soak up their surroundings.

focus of the public consultation and the detailed planning application is more than 200 retail brands, 40 new restaurants, a cinema complex and hotel accommodation.

Whilst doubling the size of the existing shopping centre, John Lewis and Fenwick will be retained and a new Marks & Spencer anchor store will be delivered. All three were part of the original Brent Cross when it opened in 1976.

In order to ensure the scheme remains relevant to the changing retail and consumer demands, the new centre will attract leading international and UK brands alongside space for local and pop-up businesses and concept stores to test consumer appetite for the latest trends.

A major new addition will be the creation of a market level on the upper floor paying tribute to London’s popular foodie heritage. Set to be a destination in its own right with restaurants, food stalls and producers, the architecture for this quarter will be inspired by the urban markets in Europe.

Nespresso Gap has announced has announced plans plans to close to open its UK four Banana new boutiques Republic stores acrossand the UK concentrate

by December on the 2016 North in Bristol, American Leeds, Sheffield market. The andbrand London. will The continue retail with expansion online sales forms in the part UKof instead. the brand’s vision to provide increased access to its quality the UK,as with Edhigh Burstell has coffee left hisin position the ambition of opening boutiques managing director of Liberty London to across theascountry sopartnerships. that every British join HBC head of customer is no more than an hour’s drive from boutique.

John away Wringe hasajoined branding and retail design agency, The Yard Creative Swedish furnishings retailer IKEA as its firsthome ever non-executive director, has a DIY restaurant bothopened to bolster thepop-up agency’s senior in London’s Shoreditch 15 days management team andfor help galvanise this month.

Theofso-called its next phase growth. Dining Club enables customers to host their own dinner party a homely kitchen Urban Decay hasinopened its European environment free-of-charge, under the flagship in Carnaby Street, London. supervision of a a head chef.of firsts, The store offers number including UD makeup products not stocked anywhere else. The luxurious UD wonderland features eight makeup stations, neon lights and a whole wall dedicated to UDOPRO brushes.

Male beauty retailer Beast has opened its debut store at Seven Dials, in London. Designed by Nirvana CPH, the 130 sq m shop is spread across two levels and will stock a range of products, including fragrances.

All Saints pops up at Selfridges London A pop-up space has been unveiled at Selfridges London in celebration of limited edition collection, All Saints Limited. Millington Associates worked alongside set designer Jack Flanagan, who created the concept.

The space features exposed concrete and brushed steel, as well as a number of old television sets from the 80s and 90s, featuring content that loops at different stages to provide a video wall with a twist.

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news

Littlesmith takes up residency at Topshop

Bespoke jewellery start-up company Littlesmith has opened a concession at Topshop’s flagship Oxford Street store. Designed

by Aberrant Architecture, the Littlesmith stand celebrates the qualities of craft by featuring handmade tiles, recycled materials, interactive displays and luxuriant indoor planting.

Aberrant has created a platform for retail theatre in store, allowing customers to watch their unique and bespoke finished piece of jewellery made right in front of them.

Photography: Simon Kennedy 2016

©

To complement the polished gold, silver and rose-gold jewellery items, the concession stand features handmade Jesmonite tiles designed by Katie Gillies, and solid maple and brass details against a raw perforated plywood and a special plastic developed from recycled food packaging. These humble materials are simply and minimally styled, in contrast with the high-value finish of the Littlesmith collection.

Planting plays a big part in the overall scheme, in a mix of individual pots and purpose-built wooden planters. The use of plants softens and complements the harder and highly finished choice of materials, creating a pleasant and soothing environment within the hustle and bustle of this busy flagship.

The maple counter units feature angled tops clad with the handmade Jesmonite tiles, which are specifically proportioned to highlight and display Littlesmith’s delicate pieces of jewellery.

Behind the display counters, a generously sized workstation allows for Littlesmith’s signature ‘live’ jewellery production.

Chorley town centre set for £17 million transformation Chorley Council has announced plans to invest £17 million in the town centre to improve existing retail and leisure provision.

The Market Walk shopping centre will get a seven-unit extension with the aim of bringing a new cinema, high street retailers and restaurants to the town. Lambert Smith Hampton has been appointed to market the units, which together total 6,781 sq m.

‘We’re anticipating starting work on site in the new year, with roughly 80 per cent of the floor space signed up on pre-lets. Once we announce the tenants in the next few weeks we expect the remaining units will be filled very quickly,’ says councillor Alistair

Bradley, leader of Chorley Council.

The £17 million investment will include £12.6 million for the Market Walk extension and associated works and a further £4 million being put towards improving the public realm. The extension will be built adjacent to the existing 34-unit shopping centre, which itself will be fully occupied in the next few weeks.

‘The investment in the town centre is just one of many major developments we have taking place across the borough with proposals for a digital health park and re-development of the iconic Botany Bay mill site in the pipeline,’ says Bradley.

Plans submitted for £300 million Meadowhall Leisure Hall British Land, joint owner of Meadowhall in Sheffield, has submitted a planning application to Sheffield City Council for a £300 million Meadowhall Leisure Hall. The proposed extension forms part of a five-year vision to extend the leisure offer at the centre, helping to

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further grow the appeal of the Sheffield city region.

The extension comprises a 30,658 sq m multi-level extension housed under an elegant glazed roof, which will add dining and entertainment options not currently available at Meadowhall, as well as high quality internal and external spaces for events and community use. These include new restaurants, a state-ofthe-art cinema to replace the existing cinema, a new café court, gym and additional leisure space to offer new experiences and activities. The plans also include a new open-air terrace that will allow visitors to dine outside. The Leisure Hall will be integrated with the front of the existing centre to create a new multi-levelled, landscaped open space.

Sustainability is also central to the proposals, with solar panels planned for the roof of the new cinema to reduce carbon emissions and will provide at least 10 per cent of the Leisure Hall’s energy consumption. There will also be a number of areas of new planting to help reduce air pollution and aid bio-diversity, including the new multi-storey car park’s ‘green walls’.

The extension is the next phase of Meadowhall’s evolution and will follow a £60 million refurbishment that is underway and due to complete at the end of 2017.

international news

International

NEWS Viktor&Rolf: Fashion Artists exhibition opens in Melbourne International luxury fashion house Viktor&Rolf is showcasing some of its spectacular and avant-garde creations in a new exhibition developed in collaboration with the National Gallery of Victoria.

Viktor&Rolf: Fashion Artists opened last month and will run until February 2017 at the NVG in Melbourne, Australia, exploring the brand’s career-defining ethos of wearable art.

The exhibition explores the 25-year career of Viktor&Rolf, which has carved an identity that pushes the boundaries between art and fashion, often juxtaposing contrasting elements such as romance and anarchy, exuberance and control, classical and rebellion.

Featuring some of the most show-stopping and innovative

works by the Dutch-duo, the exhibition includes more than 40 haute couture pieces from their collections, presented alongside earlier designs from the brand’s archive and international museum collections.

Also on display throughout the two fashion galleries are 21 dolls, which are traditionally handmade by the Viktor&Rolf atelier using porcelain, papier-mâché and human hair, and each wearing an intricately crafted miniaturised version of a key collection of work. First created for ‘The House of Viktor&Rolf’ (2008, Barbican Art Gallery, London), the designers have celebrated each major collection since with a new doll dressed in an emblamatic design.

The Met Museum to welcome Rei Kawakubo/Comme des Garçons exhibition

Institute’s first monographic show on a living designer since the Yves Saint Laurent exhibition in 1983.

‘In blurring the art/fashion divide, Kawakubo asks us to think differently about clothing,’ says Thomas P. Campbell, director and CEO of The Met. ‘Curator Andrew Bolton will explore work that often looks like sculpture in an exhibition that will challenge our ideas about fashion’s role in contemporary culture.’

The exhibition will feature approximately 120 examples of Kawakubo’s womenswear designs for Comme des Garçons, dating from her first Paris runway show in 1981 to her most recent collection, and will be organised thematically rather than chronologically.

The exhibition will open 4 May 2017 and run until 4 September 2017.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City will play host to Rei Kawakubo/ Comme des Garçons, an exhibition exploring Kawakubo’s fascination with interstitiality, or the space between boundaries. Existing within and between entities — self/other, object/ subject, fashion/anti-fashion — her work challenges conventional notions of beauty, good taste, and, ultimately, fashionability.

Not a traditional retrospective, the thematic exhibition will be The Costume

Frankie goes to LA Denim brand Frankie (formerly known as Frankie B and relaunched by founder and chief creative, Kevin Chen) has opened a one-of-a-kind retail space in LA’s Downtown Arts District, designed by Bureau Spectacular.

The 185 sq m interior is fitted with one of Bureau Spectacular’s iconic Super-Furnitures — a structure too small to be a building but too large to simply be a piece of furniture.

The nine-piece, 8m-long modular

staircase, when assembled, accommodates activities such as seating, a fashion runway and a performance stage.

When disassembled, each one of the nine modules is designed to meet the needs of retail functionality, from product display to fitting rooms to storage and transactions.

The store design is inspired by an earlier project completed by Bureau Spectacular’s founding partner, Jimenez Lai entitled Briefcase House — a house within a house located inside a 130 sq m Chicago warehouse loft. It also references Image: Injee Unshin

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Speechbuster/99 Chairs, a sculpture that operates as both furniture object and performative space.

The retail space will feature products from the Frankie line, as well as fragrances, candles, accessories, and books from other companies. In addition to its role as a retail store, Frankie will act as an incubator and collaborative centre for fashion and design talents across the globe.

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visual merchandising

Inspiring window displays from around the globe

Clarks For the latest AW16 scheme focused around its boots collection, Clarks wanted to make a bold statement about quality. Working from visuals supplied by the design team, Harlequin Design developed, produced and installed the scheme exclusively for the Regent Street store windows.

Using more than 1,200 vac formed shoe lasts, the team created two large walls of tightly packed lasts with sprayed slogans running through the middle.

Vinyl of oversized product has also been added to the glass, with a single shoe stand in each window holding a complementing boot.

Harrods These windows at Harrods on Brompton Road showcase the retailer’s collection of Superbrands, including Burberry, Chanel, Gucci and Valentino.

The scheme, created in collaboration with Global Display, features more than 30 bespoke torso forms, which appear to be floating in the window, alongside a subtle backdrop, flooring and plinths.

Harrods unveiled the new Superbrands space on the first floor in the Knightsbridge store in the summer.

See more window installations online:

www.retail-focus.co.uk/vm 20

visual merchandising Le Bon Marché Christian Louboutin To celebrate Le Bon Marché’s exhibition entitled ‘Paris!’, Christian Louboutin has taken over a run of 10 windows at the iconic department store.

‘Christian has conceived an almanac that invites viewers to dive into his world through the windows, all whilst showcasing his latest creations,’ says a spokesperson at StudioXAG, which collaborated with the designer on the scheme.

Each window takes the viewer on a trip around Paris from Spring through to Winter, exploring the Louboutin-themed Cabaret and Christian’s unique take on the Jardin des Tuilieries.

‘Each window comes to life through automats and paper pop-ups revealing facets of the creator’s multiple universes,’ explains the spokesperson.

Jimmy Choo Taking inspiration from the Jimmy Choo press event, Harlequin Design produced a vertical table decorated with hand-crafted tableware and food items all covered in sparkling Swarovski crystals. New products from the collection are placed on small clear shelving units attached to the plates.

Photography: Melvyn Vincent

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visual merchandising

Dunhill To further communicate Dunhill’s ‘made to measure’ bespoke tailoring service, the British luxury goods brand has unveiled a window display in its Madison Avenue store that exudes premium craftsmanship. Created in collaboration with Seen Displays, the scheme is set to a backdrop of painterly royal blue hues and features three gentlemen-like figures donning fencing attire, engaging in swordsmanship.

The Watch Gallery Taking inspiration from The Watch Gallery’s ‘Objects of Desire’ editorial shoot, Millington Associates was tasked with creating a beautiful snake sculpture to slither through the window of the brand’s Covent Garden store. Influenced by the Garden of Eden, The Watch Gallery compares timepieces from high-end brands to the forbidden fruit.

The snake is wrapped around a tree trunk, dressed with foliage and a vinyl layer to add depth to the window.

See more window installations online:

www.retail-focus.co.uk/vm

Fenwick Bond Street In support of the V&A exhibition celebrating the era-defining significance of the 1960’s upon life today, Propability was briefed to produce a large-scale platform plinth among other key props and features for the Fenwick window on Bond Street. Iconic images mounted onto a dibond panel were hung from a steel cable and used as a backdrop with the platform at the front of the windows used to position mannequins showcasing key designer items in store.

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pop

TOP pops of the

Company:

arken P-O-P

Client: Models Own

Sector: Health & beauty

Display title: Models Own full range POS

Location(s): Superdrug nationwide

The brief: Beauty brand Models Own has more than 500 different eye, face and lip products.

The new POS display solution was required to support the launch of the brand’s first full market collection in Superdrug stores across the UK. The brief was to create a display concept that would put brand awareness and product education centre stage — vital for Models Own, as it sought to attract today’s trend driven shoppers for fast beauty, and get them to buy-in to its all-new makeup and accessories line.

The solution: The redesign represented a major overhaul of the brand’s existing in-store presence.

As a result, a great deal of consideration was required by the arken P-O-P project team around range selection and product spacing within the new POS units. The team worked in close collaboration with Models Own and Superdrug to curate the range and define merchandising principles in a way that was distinctive, inviting and true to the brand’s brave and bold attitude, allowing shoppers to create a look that expresses their individuality. Completed within a five-week lead-time, all of the new units were not only designed but also manufactured in the UK. The brand’s first full makeup collection and the remodelled POS have both proved transformational. arken P-O-P is rolling out the new displays in more than 100 Superdrug stores.

www.arken-pop.com 24

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15.09.16 12:37

column

Karl McKeever

The rise of artisan bakeries We live in a world that is often defined by technology and consumerism, and where the traditional nuclear family is diminishing. In spite of this, there has been a creeping, almost defiant shift towards home cooking, locally sourced produce and artisan skills. Clean eating, where processed food is rejected in favour of something more natural, is one example of this movement, as is the fact that people travel more widely and as a result, their kitchen cupboards are stocked with ingredients that would have been unfamiliar even five years ago.

This is also reflected in the popularity of home baking, and the recent surge in artisan bakeries. Social media is awash with pictures of cakes and sourdough bread, and there are many people who are happy to spend upwards of £2 on a loaf from a small-scale producer.

It is not just independent businesses that have benefited from this growing demand for artisan goods. Major retailers are getting in on the act too, with even Greggs offering sourdough pasties.

Supermarkets are also moving away from bulk selling bread and instead offering sourdough and rye loaves, baked in store and sold unpackaged. But when it comes to artisan, it is important that the big players get it right. Inferior goods or poor messaging will not appeal to shoppers looking for something authentic.

More than any other product, bread represents a simpler and more wholesome way of living, even if it is somewhat idealised.

Shoppers, it seems, are shunning the mass-produced white sliced loaf in favour of something more traditional. A good example of this is craft bakery Bothams of Whitby, which has been run by the same family since 1865 and uses recipes that have been handed down the generations.

Health concerns are another reason behind the bread trend.

Although there is little evidence to suggest that the ingredients used in mass-produced goods are dangerous, this has not stopped the proliferation of natural, organic and so-called ‘clean’ food.

For the high street chains, investment in artisan has proved to be a good move. Discount supermarket Lidl, for example, has replaced conventional shelving with baskets and chalkboard displays, while Marks and Spencer draws heavily on the handKarl McKeever is creative director of visual merchandising and brand delivery consultancy Visual Thinking.

Email Karl at karl@retailfocus.co www.visualthinking.co.uk

crafted aesthetic with wicker baskets and staff decked out in bakers’ uniforms. Of course, it might be questioned whether this bread is actually better than factory loaves or if it is simply effective marketing and strong messaging that coaxes customers into choosing something with a hefty price tag.

Making artisan bread is a labour-intensive process so it seems almost counter-intuitive that it is now being produced on an industrial scale, but it’s easy to see its appeal. Certainly, it has valuable marketing potential as a business can tell the story behind a product and the people who make it, creating a different kind of shopping experience based on something other than price or convenience.

The artisan aesthetic is also one that can be easily replicated at a low cost so many bakeries, shops and cafes are decked out with serving boards, chalkboard signs, gingham tablecloths, baskets and handwritten labels. It is also a way of making product appear more wholesome than it is, for example, non-packaged bread in a supermarket could contain more preservatives than plastic-packed varieties but shoppers would not necessarily know this.

When done well artisan is a strong proposition, helping to create memorable experiences for customers and enabling businesses, particularly independents, to flourish. Being genuinely authentic is essential, however this must be balanced by effective visual merchandising whether it is in a supermarket or single market stall.

In a relatively short space of time, artisan food has gone from a niche industry to something more commonplace and commercially viable. With demand at an all-time high there is a danger that it will soon crash out of fashion, and it is certainly attracting negative comments for its connotations with hipsters and ‘yummy mummys’.

The artisan aesthetic is arguably so over-used that it barely registers with consumers and some may feel these products have no USP so they are not worth the premium price. Fluctuations in the economy may mean that, in future, people have less disposable income and expensive bread is likely to be one of the items they cut back on.

As in all areas of retail, a superior product will stand the test of time and attract loyal customers time and again. But when it is mediocre, customers will be driven by price rather than ethical credentials or sustainability, particularly in a tougher economic climate.

Artisan bread is a hot topic at the moment, and it is something I will be discussing further on the Channel 4 show Supershoppers, which airs later this year.

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project focus Photo credit: Nigel Young

Apple

Regent Street, London Design: In-house; Foster + Partners Opening date: October 2016 Store size: 1,040 sq m Apple has reimagined its store on London’s Regent Street to create a richer, more dynamic experience for customers.

The design creates a relaxed environment while incorporating Apple’s new features and services, and is the result of a close collaboration between chief design officer, Jonathan Ive, senior vice president, Angela Ahrendts and London architects Foster + Partners.

Characteristic of the new Apple flagships, the interior features a 7.2m double-height grand hall, forming a ‘town square’ like space that is flexible and welcoming. ‘The new Apple Regent Street is about a respectful dialogue between

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old and new, carrying forward a heritage of craftsmanship in a contemporary way,’ says Stefan Behling, architect at Foster + Partners. ‘Contained within its historic fabric is a new grand “town square” with trees that bring nature into the interior spaces.’

Using a warm palette of materials, including stone, wood and terrazzo that is sympathetic to the historic nature of the building, the store has a calm setting, with the increased height allowing for the addition of 12 Ficus Ali trees on the ground level. The grove of trees have planters, designed by Apple’s ID studio and Foster + Partners, that double up as seating.

Meanwhile, the signature Apple display

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Photo credit: Nigel Young

Photo credit: Nigel Young

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project focus

Photo credit: Nigel Young

tables are set against the backdrop of the new ‘Avenue’, the completely redesigned wall display that allows people to touch, feel and try out the Apple products and accessories in an engaging and hands-on way.

Located in the middle of the space is ‘The Forum’, a new learning environment that hosts daily entertainment and educational events. It occupies a prime position in the store with a vast video wall that acts as an animated backdrop for the entire store.

Along the side walls, on either side of the screen are twin staircases that draw visitors up to the new mezzanine level, which is set amongst the treetops. The walls and staircases are made from sandblasted

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stone, while the balustrade — seemingly carved into the wall — has a smooth, curved and honed finish.

Overlooking the grand hall, the mezzanine hosts the Apple Geniuses, where visitors can get assistance to set up their device or answers to any productrelated questions. It is also home to the ‘Boardroom’, where app developers, digital entrepreneurs and other small start-ups can hold meetings and conversations.

The store design enhances transparency from the street and floods the interior with natural light, improving the visual connection between the two levels.

It also features what is thought to be the longest luminous ceiling panels in the world. The custom-made lighting panels

emit a pure, even white light and have the capability to absorb ambient noise.

‘Everything from the vast luminous ceiling to the sculptural stone handrails create an experience that is warm and inviting, providing a calm backdrop for everyone to experience Apple’s incredible products, in addition to a diverse and vibrant programme of events,’ says Behling. ‘It is a place for people to meet and collaborate, and most of all, it will be an exciting experience that goes beyond retail.’

Apple opened its first European store on Regent Street in 2004, and the new space occupies the same building, with the Grade II listed historic facade now restored and preserved.

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project focus

Jigsaw

St James’s Market, London Design: Dalziel & Pow Opening date: October 2016 Store size: 300 sq m (plus 100 sq m for The Shop at Bluebird) The new Jigsaw store in St James’s Market has been given a premium treatment in tune with its iconic Piccadilly surroundings.

Designed by Dalziel & Pow (the agency behind Jigsaw’s Duke Street Emporium concept), the store houses the brand’s full range of men’s and women’s clothing, footwear and accessories, as well as a shop-in-shop for sister brand, The Shop at Bluebird.

The two spaces are differentiated

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with contrasting aesthetics, yet framed and connected using iridescent panels, while lifestyle products from brands such as Aesop and Tom Dixon are interspersed among the apparel.

On the ground floor, Jigsaw’s offer has the light, clean white box feel of a gallery, with warm feature colours that contrast in the space. Here, Dalziel & Pow has created four mirror artworks measuring one metre in diameter that inject drama and personality into the store.

The entire floor is clad in marble terrazzo that reaches 2.7m up the walls, with two circular cut-outs added to accommodate large-scale visual

project focus

merchandising. Double-height fixtures and circular brass lighting features accentuate the lofty space for a feeling of grandeur.

With close proximity to the tailors of Jermyn Street, an edited selection of menswear is positioned to greet customers on arrival, with womenswear complementing to the right, and a central mannequin display to attract passers-by.

Another key focus of the ground floor is denim, with customers drawn to the embossed brand statements wrapped around the high level wall, creating a feature area to showcase Jigsaw’s extended denim range. In this section, bespoke denim swing tickets are designed

to help categorise the different range of fits.

The customer journey then continues to footwear, accessories and apparel, while the A collection range (recently debuted at London Fashion Week) has a prominent call-out on the perimeter.

The dominant material changes from polished terrazzo on the ground to a raw skimmed plaster to indicate The Shop at Bluebird, located on the floating mezzanine level. Messaging leads customers up to the space, which is stocked with luxury brands, such as Burberry, Victoria Beckham and Alexander Wang. The found vintage furniture and glass blown lettering applied to the wall in The Shop at Bluebird

reference the Duke Street Emporium.

‘There’s a sense of continuity between stores, though each is unique and tailored to its locality,’ explains a spokesperson for Dalziel & Pow. A large glass wrapped cash desk accentuates the terrazzo used in-store and is complemented by a grand iridescent backdrop that connects the two floors.

The fitting rooms on both levels are finished with two-tone metallic surfaces and large-scale mirrored walls to create a boutique feel.

The store also houses a press room in the basement that will become the go-to destination for Jigsaw fashion shows, media

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project focus

‘We set out to create a unique Jigsaw experience’

launches and collection previews.

Commenting on the new store, Peter Ruis, chief executive at Jigsaw, says: ‘We set out to create a unique Jigsaw experience.

The idea of a slick ‘fifth avenue’ store but with all the quirks and warmth normally associated with our brand. We wanted also to make a truly international statement and St James’s Market will be incredibly visible as a tourist destination’.

David Dalziel, creative director at Dalziel & Pow, describes the refined and considered St James’s Market store as the perfect grown-up sister to the robust and raw Duke Street experience.

Through the redevelopment of two historic blocks, St James’s Market is kick-starting The Crown Estate’s long-term vision to re-create Regent Street St James’s as a world class destination for high quality fashion and lifestyle shopping in the 21st century.

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Axel Arigato Soho, London

Design: Christian Halleršd Opening date: September 2016 Store size: 155 sq m Swedish footwear brand Axel Arigato opened its first physical retail space in September, in London’s Soho as part of its global expansion plans. Designed by creative director Max Svardh in collaboration with Christian Halleršd (the architect behind Acne, Byredo and Frame stores), the 155 sq m site on Broadwick Street adheres to Axel Arigato’s minimalist aesthetics.

‘Selling strictly online and marketing through social media was our entry to the market; a way for us to begin our story,’ says CEO Albin Johansson. ‘But having our own flagship store has always been on our minds and I’m really excited to now offer a brand new platform where we can express our identity in a different setting

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project focus

‘We needed a minimalist palette because the products we offer are so diverse and individualised’

and perspective, while staying true to the same philosophy.’

The design uses concrete, metal and mirrors, and a white colour scheme throughout to complement the brand’s generally muted visual identity. The intentionally clean and sharp finishes allow the products to stand out in the space.

‘We needed a minimalist palette because the products we offer are so diverse and individualised,’ explains Svardh. ‘Instead, we started looking for different surfaces that could add depth to that tonality.’

A number of 450kg white tables, carved from a boulder of terrazzo stone and each with different architectural characteristics, take pride of place in the centre of the store and provide a feeling of walking into a gallery.

‘I wanted to create a space that is

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inviting and open, the same feeling you get when you walk into a gallery,’ adds Svardh. ‘I also wanted to allow flexibility for upcoming projects and collaborations. Axel Arigato is a young brand that is constantly evolving. For us it only made sense to create a space that could evolve as well.’

The Soho store carries the full range of men’s and women’s shoes, accessories and clothing as well as a selection of rare Japanese books, magazines and objects.

‘We already knew before launching our website that physical stores were going to be important for us to show what the brand is all about,’ adds Johansson. ‘And now that we have opened our first store, and are very satisfied with the outcome so far we have the confidence to launch more flagship stores in the near future. I think people really get what the brand is all about now.’

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16/09/2016 15:09

restaurants

Restaurant design:

What’s on the menu?

Customer expectations are driving new trends in the restaurant world, from the design, to the food, to the service, finds Retail Focus

Designed by Shed, Cha Chaan Teng in Holborn, London is inspired by the infamous Cha Chaan Teng culture of post war Hong Kong.

London restaurant German Gymnasium scored a hat trick at the Restaurant and Bar Design Awards in September, winning Best Restaurant or Bar in a Heritage Building, Best UK Restaurant and Best Overall Restaurant. The all-day dining establishment from D&D London beat off strong competition from around the globe, with its soaring roof structure, Victorian archways and black steel staircases. But, how important is design to the overall restaurant experience?

Conran + Partners, the design studio behind German Gymnasium as well as around 100 other bars and restaurants,

believes that we have higher expectations of almost every aspect of the dining experience, from the design, to the food, to the service.

‘We don’t want silver service, but we do expect reliable, honest and down-to-earth attention to detail,’ says Tina Norden, director at Conran + Partners. ‘We no longer feel privileged to be eating in high-end establishments, but expect to feel comfortable throughout the experience over good food and good company.’

German Gymnasium opened towards the end of 2015 in King’s Cross, in a building originally constructed as a purposebuilt gymnasium. Inspired by the grand cafes and brasseries of

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restaurants

central Europe, it offers an all-day dining experience in a setting that celebrates bygone days of Victorian sport and entertainment, architecture and glamourous travel.

More recently, in its first foray into the UAE, Conran + Partners has designed a new Anatolian-themed restaurant and bar concept located inside the Grosvenor House Hotel at Dubai Marina. Called Rüya (meaning ‘dream’ in Turkish), the restaurant and bar is the brain child of Turkish restaurateur Umut Ozkanca and backed by d.ream, who plan to expand the concept to key cities around the world, including London. ‘We set out to create a vibrant and contemporary new concept which would showcase the rich heritage of Anatolian and Turkish cuisine, but with a modern styling for a contemporary international audience,’ explains Norden.

Mandy Savan, head of food, beverage and hospitality at innovation research and advisory firm Stylus, believes that Middle Eastern-inspired food has become more inventive with contemporary twists, citing London restaurants The Palomar and Yosma as two cases in point.

Yosma is a Turkish meyhane, mengal and raki bar on London’s Baker Street, which opened earlier this year by restaurateurs Levent Büyükuğur and Sanjay Nandi. Designed by AfroditiKrassa, the restaurant is inspired by the streets of Istanbul with simplicity and textures at the heart of the design.

‘Nowadays, customers buy experiences,’ claims Krassa. ‘Going to a restaurant or a cinema isn’t just about the food or the movie you are consuming, but it’s about the social interaction that is created around it. In this respect, spaces need to be designed with a maximum of flexibility, to allow for communities to get together.’

With any restaurant design project, Krassa always takes the food as the starting point. ‘Based on the menu we will look at a space through the customer’s eyes to create a 360 degree experience,’ she says. ‘We never design for ourselves or designers, but for customers and their experience; from the chair they are sitting on, what they will share on Instagram to what they can smell, it is all part of our holistic approach.’

Martin Reid, innovation researcher at GDR Creative Intelligence, agrees that customer expectations in the UK are driving new trends towards dining experiences that engender a genuine sense of community, and that are grounded in bolder design themes and narratives. ‘More restaurants and cafes are experimenting with the arrangement of space to encourage a more social and casual atmosphere, from several parties sharing the same tables to more open-plan seating and taking aesthetic inspiration from its local environment,’ he says.

‘The explosion of restaurants that satisfy the latest food trends or that centre on unexpected journeys and interactions, from as small as Pret and Costa serving alcohol to the fully realised quirky dining experiences offered by Hipchips or Squirrel, demonstrate how much customers value varieties of experience,’ adds Reid.

It seems there has also been a shift in the restaurant world to simplification; not necessarily in terms of design style but from a menu perspective. ‘The expectation of standards is now so high, especially in London, that doing fewer things well is the only way of maintaining quality,’ claims Matt Smith, director at interior design company Shed, which has worked on all of the MEATliquor sites, as well as Cha Chaan Teng in Holborn and French patisserie Orée in Fulham.

Saven has also noticed the singular focus catching on, as

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Top: Cha Chaan Teng is divided visually into three areas: the bar, bao and main dining area, each rife with their own Cha Chaan Teng persona.

Bottom: Scandinavian-inspired 26 Grains in Seven Dials, London is geared towards the breakfast market, serving wholesome porridge, smoothie bowls, bircher museli and coffee.

hospitality operators focus on doing one thing really well. ‘I think 26 Grains in Covent Garden is a great example of this; its porridge done all sorts of ways,’ she says. ‘This is a smart way of elevating simple ingredient or recipe and upgrading a meal occasion.’

Homeslice is another homegrown success story, which opened its first permanent site at Neal’s Yard in Seven Dials and recently expanded to create a bigger flagship restaurant.

‘Overall, people will still always want a concept to be original, high quality, well executed and reasonably priced rather than gimmicks or a gap in the market,’ says Julia Wilkinson, portfolio and group restaurant strategy executive at property firm Shaftesbury.

‘Delivery services such as Deliveroo and Uber Eats will continue to grow due to convenience, but they won’t replace the social interaction or pleasure of dining out with friends.’

restaurants

‘Nowadays, customers buy experiences’ Afroditi Krassa

Clockwise from left: German Gymnasium walked away with three awards at the Restaurant and Bar Design Awards in September, including Best Overall Restaurant; Yosma, designed by AfroditiKrassa, is a Turkish meyhane, mengal and raki bar on London’s Baker Street; German Gymnasium, designed by Conran + Partners; Rüya (meaning ‘dream’ in Turkish) is a new Anatolian-themed restaurant and bar concept inside the Grosvenor House Hotel at Dubai Marina, designed by Conran + Partners.

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car showrooms

SMOOTH RIDE

The way we are buying cars is changing, as customers look for more accessible ways to purchase a car like they shop for fashion, food and gadgets.

Text: Lyndsey Dennis

A new, relaxed car buying experience has arrived. Car manufacturers are setting up interactive experiences in shopping malls and town centres in a bid to move away from conventional out-of-town showroom set ups, allowing them to reach a far wider demographic. They’re even letting people test drive models unaccompanied.

Bentley has opened a personalisation studio at Westfield London, offering a glimpse behind the walls of the brand’s factory in Crewe. A mix of traditional materials such as wood and leather sit alongside facial recognition technology to help customers specify their perfect car.

‘Configuring a Bentley is an intensely personal experience; like fine tailoring and couture fashion, it is a reflection of your personality and taste, so a location next to other luxury brands in the Westfield Village is a natural fit for the Bentley brand,’ says Sarah Simpson, regional director UK at Bentley Motors.

Using emotional recognition technology, shoppers are guided through an immersive film that is shaped, directed and inspired by their facial and emotional reactions. Based on their measures Above : Saturn Communications provided signage and touch-screen technology for the SEAT Store at intu Lakeside, including 10 digital interactive customer hubs, five video walls and four large format display screens.

of engagement — captured by their device’s camera — a bespoke Bentaya or Mulsanne is recommended for them from a selection of exterior paint colours, wheels, leather hides and wood veneer.

At Westfield Stratford, Rockar has launched a new experience for Jaguar Land Rover. Designed by Dalziel & Pow, the digital store is inspired by its setting amongst well known fashion brands, with a store window featuring constantly changing displays and content to create engagement with visitors.

Rockar ‘Angels’ are on hand to guide customers, but without the pressure to make a purchase. The focus is on creating brand engagement, empowering the customer to purchase a car and putting them firmly in control. Customers can configure their new model, agree a value for their trade-in and arrange finance using in-store technology that makes the process seamless, fast and enjoyable. The ‘Angels’ will help customers use the ‘create’ space, which includes colour swatches, examples of interior trim and samples of interior choices, to design a car that reflects their personality.

‘The store, together with the digital click-to-buy websites, creates an omnichannel offer in response to changes in consumer buying behavior as customers continue to look for more accessible ways to shop, and we look to find ways to empower our customer and create a more enjoyable car buying experience,’ says Simon Dixon, founder of Rockar. ‘The concept opens up new audiences for the brand and ultimately supports dealerships with a new

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car showrooms

medium that can drive brand awareness and sales in a modern consumer society.’

Technology also plays a key role in SEAT’s first ‘store’ retail concept, in association with franchise partner, Group 1 Automotive at intu Lakeside. Designed by Green Room, the store boasts several innovations to enhance the customer experience, along with seven-day car delivery from point of order (subject to finance).

These relaxed, no pressure retail and ‘experience centre’ environments also offer no-haggle pricing and are staffed by SEAT experts. The 150 sq m store has three display cars, with a further 16 models at its outdoor Experience Centre.

The theme of these stores is ‘spirited spaces and warm welcomes’, using natural materials to give the feeling of a relaxed space, combined with Mediterranean-inspired colours. Topping off the Barcelona vibe, there’s even an olive tree in the centre of the store with in-built Gaudi-style seating.

SEAT customers can choose to do as much, or as little, of the buying process as they wish. They can research models through digital info ‘hubs’ where they can explore financing options, arrange test drives immediately, and get their trade-in car valued.

‘Digitalisation is enabling retailers of bulky goods to display more of their products in a smaller footprint so traditional retail units within shopping centres are now more accessible to these brands,’ says Rebecca Ryman, regional director at intu. ‘Traditional car showrooms might be found in industrial parks and areas you wouldn’t ordinarily visit for any other reason than to buy a car or another big purchase, whereas these stores are right at the heart of a more leisurely kind of retail experience where the brands reach a different audience who will have a lot of control over their family’s major purchasing decisions.’

Aston Martin’s Dover Street Market store doesn’t even sell cars; it purely sells a lifestyle collection. Designed by chief creative officer, Marek Reichman and his team, the luxury space includes

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Top left: Bentley’s luxury personalisation studio at Westfield London offers a glimpse behind the walls of the British brand’s iconic factory in Crewe.

Above: In-store technology at Rockar’s Jaguar Land Rover digital store at Westfield Stratford makes the car buying process seamless, fast and enjoyable.

Below: ‘Aston Martin at No. 8 Dover Street’ is purely a brand experience for fans to discover new trends in art and design and be inspired by the products on display.

tailor-made oak cabinets, an oak floor and brass plaque displaying the Aston Martin wings. ‘Aston Martin at No. 8 Dover Street’ is purely a brand experience for fans to discover new trends in art and design, and be inspired. The space will also host design master classes, art exhibitions and a dinner series.

‘Dover Street mixes art, culture, shopping, luxury and elegance.

It’s the perfect place for Aston Martin. We are surrounded by art, design and beauty, and want to feature the ideas that inspire us and share them with a wider audience. No. 8 Dover Street is a place where existing customers, admirers of the brand and people new to the marque can understand our design philosophies and experience the spirit of Aston Martin,’ says Reichman.

Staff in these new store formats are paid a salary rather than on commission, so the pushy sales person is eliminated. That, and giving the customer control of buying a car and customising it, help to create a much more relaxed, trusting and enjoyable experience.

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10/02/2015 15:48:41

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WHAT’S INCLUDED? Bespoke meeting itinerary Educational seminars Live demonstrations from suppliers Networking breaks Hospitality throughout Informal gala dinner with entertainment Overnight accommodation

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opinion

The Power Trip Kevin Gill, co-founder and UK CEO of customer experience design consultancy .start, discusses new people empowerment tools for experience-led retailers.

John Lewis. Arguably the UK’s favourite business. And not just for its mushy Christmas ads. The department store chain, while an icon of best-practice customer experience, is also the recipe holder for brilliant employee empowerment. Why? Because its employees are its investors.

In their new book, ‘A Better Way of Doing Business? Lessons from the John Lewis Partnership’, Graeme Salaman and John Storey examine all the reasons why this brand has become the most talked about each year. What’s clear is that you don’t have to give your company away to your workforce in order to engage them. Neither do you have to find the #ManOnTheMoon some friends.

‘But it should all be about people?!’ is what you’ll argue. Yes, it should be.

Rather, it is, and always will be. Today, however, employee engagement is the new customer engagement. And this synchronicity can only come from the experience design of your business.

As companies, as brands, the corollary of ‘we are what we do’ is that ‘we are our people’. After all, our people are responsible for a major part of our actions.

NatWest adopted the ‘we are what we do’ line as its brand platform. The message, which says that companies are responsible for their actions, is difficult to dispute, and rather obvious. It’s a message that’s well adopted by every good brand, but which lies silently, confidently, in the background of its wider sales strategy, because really what it wants to say is: ‘Empower your front-line people to tell your story and sell your brand’.

A brand is far from what you say about yourself. When your people interact in your own physical space, this is the most honest, intense and emotive experience they’re likely to get of your brand in action. Getting it right gives people a reason to work for

you and revisit you. But fail to meet today’s high expectations and you miss a huge opportunity to make friends — sometimes quite literally — and cement loyalty.

Two recent reports by KPMG and CIM back this up. KPMG’s report points out that, for best practice brands, the employee experience actually precedes the customer experience. Meaning, employee engagement is where your customer experience strategy should start.

Two names really hitting the nail on the head are IKEA and Lush — both making it into KPMG’s A New Era of Experience Branding.

Fresh, handmade branding I’ve talked recently about how IKEA is resetting retail. Lush too is a thoroughly modern brand, established just over 20 years ago by former suppliers to The Body Shop. It’s a great example of a brand with real purpose — all about involvement and authenticity. Transparency in action and a strong thread of genuine activism run through all its in-store promotions and social channels.

Lush’s people are its lynchpin. It’s found a winning formula for wooing a predominantly young and energetic staff with a treehugging ethos, good rates of pay and a generous 50 per cent discount, meaning staff get plenty of opportunity to take home lots of products so they can honestly talk about them on the shopfloor.

They also go through an intensive training programme and are expected to achieve a very high level of product knowledge. This is crucial so they can deliver genuinely personalised advice, rather than simply sell indiscriminately.

In keeping with the fresh and homemade theme, products are piled high ‘deli-style’, marked with the maker’s

own name and best before dates.

‘Naked Packaging’ (all its products come unwrapped) is a core part of the brand’s appeal. Stores play host to cosmeticmaking parties and regular product demonstrations, giving customers frequent excuses to visit and linger.

The Lush website experience is also totally in keeping with who they are and what they stand for. Product pages are laden with sensuous imagery — a slick of cream, a dollop of lotion — continuing the unpackaged, indulgent experience of the store. Lush Kitchen allows users to trace or watch products being made and check out the changing cosmetics menu. Rich editorial tells the brand’s story, features hero ingredients or champions causes close to the company’s heart.

Good brand habits Lush knows that delighting people every now and then just won’t work.

Consistency is crucial to win their customers’ continued loyalty.

CEOs, take note. You aren’t your strapline until your strapline is an experience. You are what you and your people actually deliver, repeatedly, holistically, across every inch of the brand. And the more you empower your employees to do what they do well, with support and conviction, the more your customers will love you for it.

For Lush, this takes the form of a devout fan base of self-proclaimed Lush addicts — or ‘Lushies’ — spreading their enthusiasm far and wide via Tumblr, Reddit, Twitter and Instagram.

Want some Lushie love for your business? Then stop talking and start designing.

www.startjg.com 49

Europe’s leading annual event for innovation and inspiration in RETAIL DESIGN, MARKETING, VISUAL MERCHANDISING, ARCHITECTURE & SHOPFITTING Your unique opportunity to: • • • • • •

Be seen as a leader in the industry Engage with the retail design industry Meet with senior decision makers Generate qualified targeted leads Promote awareness for your company Launch new products and services

“I think we’ve met our objectives 100%. We’ve been meeting the right people, the decision makers. We’ve been meeting with retail marketing directors, sales directors, people that have been heading up innovative retail stores and store design. We’ve met international clients from places like India and China and Hong Kong.

It’s been a huge success for us.”

Ben Taylor, Retail Experience Director, TRO

Don’t wait, secure the stand you want.

Call Rachel or Michelle on +44 (0) 208 874 2728 or email rachel@retaildesignexpo.com www.retaildesignexpo.com Co-located with

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Supported by

12/10/2016 19:27

museum stores Text: Lyndsey Dennis

CULTURE CLUB What makes museum shops destinations in their own right? Retail Focus finds out.

Museums are using their retail spaces as a more accessible art and culture experience for visitors. It is a vibrant and profitable industry that has consistently appealed to a wide audience who love museums and want to take a memory of their visit with them.

Pop-ups are a favoured avenue for museums. The V&A has collaborated with Carnaby on its Christmas lights, inspired by its ‘You Say You Want A Revolution? Records and Rebels 1966 - 70’ exhibition, and opened a pop-up in Carnaby, where it is selling tickets for the exhibition.

‘We find that visitors are looking for unique or harder-to-find products either for self purchase or gifts. When you purchase from a museum or gallery you have access to additional provenance of where the product has derived from; you have the opportunity to find out more about the archive or the exhibition that you have recently visited. Also, it is an opportunity to feel that you are supporting the museum or gallery that you have chosen to visit,’ says Sarah Sevier, head of retail at V&A. The shop at the V&A in Kensington is undergoing a redesign by

architectural firm Friend and Co. as part of its ongoing restoration and redesign known as ‘FuturePlan’. The practice will be working with RA Projects and Millimetre on the project, which will transform the museum’s main shop into a new flexible and dynamic space with better connections to surrounding exhibition spaces.

London Transport Museum trialled a pop-up in South Kensington last year, and the Natural History Museum is currently running a pop-up in Leeds for the festive season.

Elsewhere, British artists the Chapmans Brothers and Galerie Gabriel Rolt have worked with UXUS to design their first ever store, a pop-up in Amsterdam’s Red Light district.

‘Functioning as both an exhibition and retail space, it was important for the UXUS design team to maintain the creative duo’s hardcore artistic expression. Both the location, a former massage parlour with old massage tables, and worn out interior and the name of the store, ‘Jake and Dinos F**king Hell Das Shop’, inspired UXUS in creating the design,’ says George Anthony Gottl, CEO of UXUS. The agency applied its ‘Art X Design’ philosophy by using leftover objects at the site and repurposing them to stage Chapmans’ provocative art pieces, complemented with limited edition merchandise. All original hardware was left untouched Above: UXUS repurposed left over objects for the Jake and Dinos F**king Hell Das Shop in Amsterdam.

Left: Lumsden Design created a refreshed look for MoMA Design Store in New York, enhancing its role in celebrating the museum’s mission of making great design accessible to everyone.

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museum stores

except for being spray painted bright white. The Brothers’ signature smiley faces brand the space chaotically and also accent the facade, inviting curious passers-by inside. The main retail area is accented with rough materiality, metal chains support fixtures and contrast the stark white furniture, while metal wire hangers hold t-shirts displayed on racks and walls.

‘In a world of ever-changing trends and social media savvy millennials always looking for the next great thing, museums are keeping up with the current zeitgeist by using their retail spaces as a more accessible art and culture experience vs. their main galleries. Retail allows them to appeal to a wider public, adapt to latest cultural trends and generate non-funded revenue,’ believes Gottl. ‘Artists translate their values into temporary pop-up shops while keeping the exclusive factor because of the limited amount of goods that are being sold and limited time frame during which the pop-ups are active. Following this strategy, many museums and artists are successfully reaching the masses, while still appealing to the cutting-edge consumer and devoted collectors.’

In terms of visual merchandising, PLANarama has seen standards improve massively in the museum sector. ‘I think it is because museums need to entice their customers to spend that bit of money in the shops as museums are generally free to enter — they have to give a great visual impact so people are excited to take away memories with them and spend money in supporting the museum,’ says Ben Alder, managing director of PLANarama, which has worked with The British Museum, The Tate and currently on projects with the V&A.

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Top: The V&A has collaborated with Carnaby on its Christmas lights and opened a pop-up in Carnaby to promote its ‘You Say You Want A Revolution? Records and Rebels 1966 - 70’ exhibition. Middle: London Transport Museum’s pop-up in the South Kensington tube arcade last year juxtaposed historic artwork from the museum’s in-house poster collection with modern design and playful colour schemes. Bottom: The Natural History Museum is currently trialling a pop-up store in Leeds for the festive season.

‘It’s important for gift shops to invest in VM to excite their customers and visitors to buy souvenirs which remind them of their experience. It’s important because the customers are the supporters of the museum and without them there wouldn’t be museums — it’s like any retail store really, if a store didn’t invest in their VM then they wouldn’t get customers, retention customers or the footfall they strive to get. They wouldn’t create a buzz and wouldn’t be a viable business,’ says Alder.

The MoMA Design Store has reopened in New York following a three-month renovation. Located across the street from The Museum of Modern Art, the store has a light and airy new look, showcasing the best of contemporary and modern design.

Lumsden Design created a refreshed look that reflected the design-led inspiration of the products, which MoMa is so well known for. The renovation increases the natural light highlighting several custom-design elements. The store features a new sound system by Teenage Engineering and an iPad-based sales system. It had to appeal to a wide demographic and focus on the stories and presentation of the merchandise which consistently surprises and delights visitors.

‘The material palette is simple, refined and contemporary.

Maple timber, white Durat surfaces, bead blasted steel and etched glass have all been used to give a sophisticated backdrop for the products. The specification was selected to ensure product standout on the merchandise system, which we designed specifically to cope with the multitude of product categories, shapes, sizes and colours – typical of most museum stores and particularly prevalent at MoMA,’ says Callum Lumsden, director of Lumsden Design.

‘Museum retail is not cookie cutter retail, it is individual, compelling and the very best examples are delighting their customers with products which cannot be found in mainstream retail outlets,’ continues Lumsden. The very best museums are able to develop great products that reflect their individual brands and cultural stories, and which makes them a ‘go to’ retail destination in their own right.

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Losan Real Wood Veneers James Latham’s new and exciting range of real wood veneers allow designers to create environments with stunning effects and finishes, bringing together a particular depth, texture and individuality impossible to achieve with artificial materials.

The authentic, warm and natural beauty shines through in this new range of veneers, highlighting the unique characteristics, grain and tone of the wood. The portfolio of veneers - which are all from FSC certified stock – include such on trend species as Smoked Figured, Crown and Rough-Cut Eucalyptus as well as Cracked Oak, Smoked Larch and Satin Walnut.

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Shinnoki 2.0 Shinnoki 2.0 is a range of ready to use, high quality veneered panels that are supplied already stained and lacquered, requiring no further finishing.

One key aspect of Shinnoki 2.0 is its stability. The veneers are mismatched, but stained and textured to create a consistent finish that shows the natural aspects and beauty of the species.

XyloCleaf Available through James Latham and unlike anything else on the UK market, XyloCleaf is an exclusive and highly textured range of decors which includes a variety of wood grains, linens and other unique materials.

With over 60 colours and patterns in MFC and more than 20 in HPL laminate, all of which come with ABS edging as standard, the sensational XyloCleaf collection is suited to high-end premium design schemes within either the commercial or residential sectors and is perfect for furniture, fixtures and wall panelling.

The extensive Shinnoki 2.0 portfolio is supplied in designs which are completely in tune with current design trends and includes matching realwood and ABS edge banding. The 17 designs are also supplied in separate 3-ply veneer sheets, perfect for curved surfaces, doors or other interior requirements.

With one of the biggest and most varied collections of decorative surface solutions in the UK, three of James Latham’s most popular materials continue to grow in popularity with interior designers and shopfitters, inspiring the freedom to create distinctive designs that define spaces.

For more information on Latham’s full range of surface materials phone 0116 257 3415, e-mail marketing@lathams.co.uk or visit www.lathamtimber.co.uk

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surfaces + finishes James Latham James Latham has opened a new showroom in the heart of London’s architectural and design community. Showcasing an enormous range of exclusive and semi-exclusive materials, the facility — which is located at Suite 301 of the Business Design Centre in Islington — has been created to inspire architects and designers, provide expert advice and enable them to keep abreast of the latest trends and developments in surface solutions.

T. +44 (0)207 7288 6417 E. bdc@lathams.co.uk www.lathamtimber.co.uk Twitter: lathamsltd

DuPont Corian DuPont Corian aded to the warm welcome around the London Design Festival in September, giving reusable shape to various public installations. The Louvre LDF information desk by Giles Miller Studio at the V&A Museum is made from sections of ultra-versatile Corian that has been machined into a specifically designed finish created by Giles Miller Studio, renowned for a fascination with the manipulation of light and reflection in surfaces.

T. +44 (0)800 962 116 E. sales@corian.co.uk www.corian.co.uk Twitter: CorianDesign

Armourcoat Armourcoat has introduced a new decorative wall finish based on natural granite stone, destined to be an instant classic effect. The Granite polished plaster finish recreates the timeless beauty and long lasting qualities of granite, a classic choice offering a natural stone option. This rugged handapplied finish, created from a natrual material composed of hydrated lime and crushed marble, presents a rough-hewn surface full of texture and interest.

T. +44 (0)1732 460 668 E. sales@armourcoat.co.uk www.armourcoat.com Twitter: Armourcoat

Photographer: Julia Schambeck

Surface Styling At 100% Design, Surface Styling illustrated the creativity and unique innovations of Avonite solid surface with the introduction of 50 new colours into the range, increasing the colour palette to 74. The new Studio Collection of polyester décors can be backlit, adding to the vibrancy of the surface and offering a wealth of design options. Meeting current and upcoming trends, Surface Styling also took the opportunity to showcase other prestigious brands from its 40-strong surface materials portfolio including Hanex, Fenix NTM, Swiss Krono One World, Showerwall Infinity, Milano High Gloss, Malmo and Tuscan Flooring. Surface Styling is the go-to specification platform for designers, giving them access to an extensive portfolio of laminates, solid surface, decorative panel, wall panelling, flooring and worktops at the touch of a button.

T. +44 (0)845 603 7811 E. info@surfacestyling.co.uk www.surfacestyling.co.uk Twitter: SurfaceStyling

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flooring nora flooring systems The new noraplan Iona rubber covering is opening up completely new design options. With the new noraplan lona rubber covering, so many different graphic designs can now be integrated into the rubber flooring. This is possible due to a special manufacturing method: the requested design is incorporated into the covering during vulcanisation at a high temperature and under a large pressure, for a permanently attractive look that will last for decades. noraplan lona is available in 24 basic colours in the standard range. The 12 neutral grey, brown and beige shades are complemented by 12 attractive accent colours, which have an effect that is saturated yet subdued at the same time.

T. +44 (0)1788 513 160 E. info-uk@nora.com www.nora.com/uk Twitter: noraflooring

Polyflor High design luxury vinyl tile flooring from Polyflor’s Expona Commercial collection was chosen as part of a sophisticated and stylish interior design scheme for Handbag Clinic in Islington, designed by Aubury Design. Expona Commercial luxury vinyl tiles in the Crème Swirl design were selected for the shop floor area. The subtle Crème Swirl design from the Abstract effects collection within Expona Commercial has high end design appeal, complementing the store interior and the luxury handbags on display.

The same design was also installed in the Newcastle branch of Handbag Clinic.

T. +44 (0)161 767 1111 E: info@polyflor.com www.polyflor.com Twitter: Polyflorltd

Junckers Junckers has reformulated its UltraMatt Lanquer finishing product to give even more matt appearance on floors.

Recognising the trend for natural looking wood and the growing demand for floors that look ‘unfinished’, the new formula is the most natural looking lacquer on the market.

Even though it looks just like an oiled finish with no surface sheen, as a lacquer it gives the floor superior protection against spills and scuffs and is more hardwearing. All Junckers pre-finished floorboards are now available with UltraMatt Lacquer.

T. +44 (0)1376 534 700 E. enquiries@junckers.co.uk www.junckers.co.uk Twitter: junckersfloors

Forbo Flooring Systems Forbo’s floor coverings have helped to create an attractive, welcoming interior environment at The Kelpies Visitor Centre in Falkirk from which visitors can admire the world’s largest equine sculptures. Architects at Nicoll Russell Studios specified Allura Stone Luxury Vinyl Tile in Grigio Concrete, Charcoal Concrete and Natural Concrete for the cafe, exhibition space and retail area. The natural aesthetics, 50cm x 50cm format and installation layout blend effectively with the granite paving of the plaza outside and echo the patterns of the stainless steel cladding panels on the Kelpies themselves. Other Forbo products installed include Nuway Grid entrance matting and Surestep safety flooring in back of house areas.

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products

FLOORING Karndean Designflooring Karndean Designflooring is adding a new specification to its loose lay vinyl range with its new 1.5m plank design, as part of its LooseLay Longboard collection. LooseLay Longboard features 12 contemporary wood designs, each inspired by authentic European, American and Australian woods including pine, walnut and spotted gum to name but a few. Enhancing its established Karndean LooseLay range, LooseLay Longboard introduces a 1,500mm x 250mm format with a 0.55mm wear layer and 4.5mm thickness. The unique collection offers quick and easy installation to meet challenging time scales, meaning less downtime for end users, and impact in large commercial spaces including open plan offices, retail spaces and hospitality areas.

T. +44 (0)1386 820 104 E. commercial@karndean.co.uk www.karndean.com Twitter: KarndeanComm

Interfloor Interfloor’s British manufactured specialist underlays for wood and laminate flooring offer some of the best noise reducing performance in the industry. The Duralay Timbermate range includes the best-selling sponge rubber brands Timbermate Excel and Silentfloor Gold, plus the more hardwearing Duratex. Timbermate Excel is a 3.60mm gauge high density resilient rubber underlay; while the premium product in the Timbermate range, Silentfloor Gold is a 4.20mm gauge high density resilient rubber underlay, making it luxurious and comfortable to walk on.

T. +44 (0)1706 213 131 E. sales@interfloor.com www.interfloor.com Twitter: Interfloor1

Moduleo International restaurant chain, Pizza Express has selected the brand new Moduleo Moods flooring collection for the latest refurbishment of its Bullring Birmingham eatery. Bespoke black and white shades of the manufacturer’s Azuriet products were produced and fitted in a unique chevron design throughout the restaurant, in addition to large Classic Oak planks. The Moduleo Moods collection offers a creative studio through which 10 new flooring formats can be used. Up to 110 unique wood and stone-effect designs can be created using the wide range of tile shapes available, including hexagons, chevrons, triangles and diamonds. Moduleo’s flooring is renowned for its outstanding features. All products are excellent insulators of heat and sound, easy-to-clean, scuff and stain-resistant, and made of up to 50 per cent recycled material, making them the ideal choice for the ecoconscious.

T. +44 (0)1332 851 500 E. salesuk@moduleo.com www.moduleo.co.uk Twitter: ModuleoUK

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Axminster Carpets Axminster Carpets has weaved a bespoke carpet for Twickenham Stadium. The 4,000 sq m carpet has been commissioned as part of ongoing development of the conferencing and events facilities.

Approached by local specialist flooring contractors Completely Floored of Twickenham, Axminster Carpets was commissioned to weave the 8-pitch Axminster, the wool rich carpet to the highest specification — not only displaying beautiful design but also excellent acoustic properties and supreme durability from using wool. It is also naturally flame retardant, which is important for areas with high footfall.

T. +44 (0)1297 32244 E. sales@axminster-carpets.co.uk www.axminster-carpets.co.uk Twitter: AxminsterUK

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products

LIGHTING Progress Lighting For the second year running, the Selfridges creative team turned to Progress Lighting to illuminate its Christmas windows. This year’s window scheme allowed the Progress Lighting design team to come up with some amazing lighting concepts. Every window at Selfridges is fitted with Masterspot 2 wireless controlled colour tunable LED light fixtures, which allows Progress to individually control each fixture and create dynamic light senses to highlight and enhance the window showcases. Each window is individual and so is the lighting.

T. +44 (0)1423 704 124 E. led@progresslighting.co.uk www.progresslighting.co.uk Twitter: progressled

Aura Light The Aura PerseaLED and Aura Duro are just two luminaires from Swedish-based lighting manufacturer, Aura Light, designed to significantly improve lighting and reduce energy costs of industrial applications. The two fittings are both compatible with a range of light sources, including Aura Light’s highly efficient UltiLED Pro Long Life tubes as well as standard T5 Eco Saver and T8 Ultimate Long Life fluorescent tubes to enhance the longevity of the lighting scheme and energy savings generated.

T. +44 (0)1952 250 800 E: info@aura-light.co.uk www.aura-light.co.uk Twitter: aura_light

MEGAMAN Hacel Lighting The commanding Azuma range from Hacel Lighting combines a contemporary design and powerful performance with formidable form and functionality. Delivering impressive outputs up to 6010 lumens, the Azuma features state of the art Zhaga single point modules and outstanding colour rendering properties — optimal in retail and spotlighting applications.

T. +44 (0)191 280 9911 E: info@hacel.co.uk www.hacel.co.uk Twitter: Hacel1

LED lighting solution provider MEGAMAN is proud to offer its new U-DIM technology, which takes the headache out of switching to dimmable LED. MEGAMAN U-DIM dimmable LEDs are compatible with the widest range of existing dimmers, whether they are leading-edge or trailing edge dimmers.

With the main voltage halogen reflector lamps being phased out in the EUR from 1st September 2016, users will need new lamps to operate perfectly with their existing dimmers and this universal dimming solution by MEGAMAN is a giant step in that direction. U-DIM LEDs are easy to use and it is possible to ‘plug-and-play’ to upgrade a lighting scheme. MEGAMAN U-DIM technology is offered as a standard feature on MEGAMAN Hybrid Reflector LEDs. MEGAMAN U-DIM LEDs also offer superior performance and flicker-free dimming from 100 per cent right down to just five per cent; when combined with the company’s latest Dim to Warm technology it is possible to have the same warmth as halogen when dimmed, ensuring a cosy ambience.

T. +44 (0)1707 386 000 E. marketing@megamanuk.com www.megamanuk.com Twitter: MegamanUKLtd

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Flexible strip LEDs: made to measure

Our bespoke , tailor-made flexible strip LED kits make lighting your retail display roll out easy, saving your workshop time and money.

Our LED experts will design your kit so it arrives ready to plug in and play: • We’ll help you choose the right LED strip product • Products will be cut, soldered and connected to the desired • Power supplies can be added so it is ready to plug in and play All

LEDs are manufactured in Europe to the highest quality.

Find out more about our LED solutions, contact your nearest Perspex Distribution office BLACKBURN Email: sales.blackburn@perspex.co.uk Tel: 01254 272 800

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CHELMSFORD Email: sales.chelmsford@perspex.co.uk Tel: 01245 232 800

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products

LIGHTING Concord Concord, by Feilo Sylvania, has increased the capabilities of its successful Beacon range of products by developing the Beacon XXL. Producing a higher output than previous spotlights, the Beacon XXL is the ideal replacement for traditional 70W CMI spotlights. By incorporating LED technology, the spotlight benefits from a 50,000 hour lifespan. The Beacon XXL spotlight boasts an efficacy of up to 120lm/W and provides more than 5,700 fixture lumens with a total system power of only 48W. T. (0)800 440 2478 E. info.uk@feilosylvania.com www.concord-lighting.com Twitter: Concord_FS

Display Lighting VSPLED luminaires have a high output linear corner profile with fixed height directional spotlights and glass shelf supports.

They have been designed for use in a number of different applications in the retail and display sectors. The VSPLEDs are a bespoke, made-to-measure product that are simple to install and can be fixed into both new displays and retro-fitted into existing displays. This system can be manufactured to form an integral part of your display and can support and illuminate shelving at the same time, giving high output illumination directly to your products.

T. +44 (0)161 207 3355 E. sales@display-lighting.com www.display-lighting.com Twitter: DisplayLighting

Nulty+ Working closely with Selfridges and design agency Campaign, Nulty+ has designed a minimal and low energy LED lighting scheme for phase one of Selfridges’ Designer Studio. Nulty+ used a soft colour palette with slight variations in shades of white, creating a sense of serenity. Integrated track and spotlights are used around the perimeter of the concessions, and recessed downlights along the central core. Changing rooms feature softer lighting, designed to make shoppers feel comfortable and confident, whilst avoiding unnecessary shadows, and include halo lighting around the mirrors.

T. +44 (0)20 7401 3635 E. office@nultylighting.co.uk www.nultylighting.co.uk Twitter: NultyLighting

Reggiani Reggiani UK has supplied a variety of fittings to the new Aelia Duty Free Store at London Luton Airport. The lighting scheme was specifically designed to create a stress-free, relaxed and pleasurable shopping experience for travellers. Reggiani worked closely with local architects Wanda Creative as well as liaising with independent lighting designer, Franck Franjou.

‘The lighting scheme needed to provide a strong identity for each of the brands on display and gently guide the customer through the retail area,’ says Franjou. ‘We used a single colour light temperature of 3000K (warm white) throughout to generate a uniform light level and create a link with natural daylight — this is reduced at night to avoid any visual fatigue.’

The fittings had to be easy to use and flexible enough to accommodate any seasonal layout schemes. You can visit Reggiani at LuxLive on 23-24 November.

T. +44 (0)20 8236 3000 E. sales@reggiani.co.uk www.reggiani.co.uk Twitter: reggianilight

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products

VM & DISPLAY Brandaroma Reiss worked with Brandaroma on a trial of six stores diffusing the company’s Black Oudh fragrance in store. Reiss was really pleased with the result, offering another dimension to the in-store experience for its customers. As a bonus, sales in the fragrance also increased. Following the successful trial, Reiss has committed to rolling out the Brandaroma diffusing machines in 25 of its key stores within the UK and internationally.

T. +44 (0)1604 652 011 E. sales@brandaroma.com www.brandaroma.com Twitter: BrandaromaLtd

Harlequin Design Harlequin Design is a creative retail design agency based in London, Italy and Shanghai. Creating environments that bring brand stories to life, working in partnership with its clients every step of the way from initial sketches to final install.

Services include research, mood boards, design concepts, 3D visualisations, prototyping, store plans, project management, UK/European/Asian production, logistics, installation, and review and learnings.

T. +44 (0)20 7253 6238 E. andrew@harlequin-design.com www.harlequin-design.com Twitter: HarlequinLondon

Andy Thornton

Projection Artworks

The eagerly anticipated Andy Thornton Vintage Style catalogue is out now. Browse the extensive new collections of retail display solutions, contract furniture and lighting. The 160-page catalogue is essential for anyone in the business of creating exciting retail interiors. Explore the innovative Urban Concrete Collection, a range of concrete-inspired display products that are attractive and versatile, whilst benefiting from being extremely portable. The unique finish is almost indistinguishable from real concrete. For retail display, industrial-style shelving, cabinets, trolleys, carts and garment rails are constantly being developed, so they now offer solutions for most display requirements. For your copy of the new Andy Thornton Vintage Style brochure, T: 01422 376 000 or visit www.andythornton.com and request a copy.

Footwear brand UGG has partnered with leading 3D projection and interactive experience studio Projection Artworks to create unique in-store video mapped installations that promote new product features like Treadlite, plus the brand’s monogramming service. Running as permanent displays across 10 selected European UGG concept stores (UK, Germany, France and Netherlands), the installations are designed to stand out in the crowded retail space by showcasing the brand’s new boot — the Classic II — in a highly original and dynamic way.

T. +44 (0)1422 376 000 E. sales@andythornton.com www.andythornton.com Twitter: andythorntonltd

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T. +44 (0)203 130 0740 E. info@projectionartworks.com www.projectionartworks.com Twitter: ProjectionArt

harlequin-design.com | twitter.com/HarlequinLondon | facebook.com/harlequindesignlondon | +44(0)20 7253 6238 | London EC1V 0DS

digital displays

focus on digital displays

Face value Christie’s laser phosphor projectors have transformed Citibank’s flagship branch in São Paulo into a landmark in digital signage, as the only billboard allowed by the city following a ban of such advertising some years ago. Citibank’s flagship branch Nova Faria Lima has installed 19 Christie GS Series laser phosphor projectors to create a 250 sq m permanent projection in its glass façade, which is the biggest rear projection mapping in Latin America. The installation has been carried out by Founders, a Brazilian company that is part of the JChebly Group.

www.christiedigital.com

Digital technology has opened up the world of marketing, from content channels to immersive consumer experiences. It allows retailers to generate greater viewer engagement, dynamic content, eliminates paper waste and is cost efficient. The interactive option is also a game changer, and mobile technology and interactivity are set to transform the digital signage market, according to speakers at the Digital Signage Summit this year. Here we bring you a variety of brands championing the digital display sector.

Open approach Through collaboration with Raspberry Pi, NEC’s open platform approach brings smart embedded display intelligence to widen the application of digital signage at an affordable price point. Being an incremental part of NEC’s Open Modular Intelligence (OMI) platform, the Raspberry Pi 3 compute module seamlessly embeds with NEC’s new range of professional P and V Series large format displays. The new displays allow easy access to embedded intelligence smartly connected to the Internet of Things (IoT) for digital signage as well as presentation and streaming use. The elegant design of the displays is suitable for smooth installations in any environment.

There’s also the opportunity to customise the screens to individual needs. NEC’s new series of state-of-theart intelligent large format displays with Raspberry Pi connectivity will be available from January 2017 onwards.

www.nec-display-solutions.co.uk

Tailor made As a Google for Work partner, Fastsigns has begun offering eye-catching digital signage solutions powered by Google Chrome technology, via Google’s Chromebit device, to its customers. The Chromebit media player device works particularly well for retailers since it enables unique content to be remotely uploaded to a store’s digital display, meaning they can promote exactly the right messages and products to whichever customers are in store at the time. Fastsigns can provide stores with this technology that simply plugs into a HDMI port in a digital display system and can be left running, uninterrupted for long periods of time without overheating, even if the device is streaming video content.

www.fastsigns.co.uk

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digital displays

Parental guidance Baby product manufacturer Cosatto has worked with Pioneer Digital to develop a bespoke digital kiosk in Mothercare. Using large interactive displays, Pioneer’s kiosks allow curious shoppers to browse the complete catalogue of colours and creations from Cosatto and find the ideal product to suit their personality. While only a limited number of physical products could be on show at any one time, the digital system ensures that customers still experience the full range in store. ‘The digital system will not only provide a fun experience for customers, but will also help Cosatto improve sales within a smaller store footprint,’ says Mark Childerhouse, senior account manager at Pioneer Digital.

www.pioneergroup.co.uk

Small but perfectly formed Crystal Displays’ 10in POS Android advertising displays are available in standalone, networked and touch versions. These versatile all-in-one screens make a lasting impression with customers and with Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) you can use a single cable for both power supply and your network connection. These screens may be small but are perfectly sized to generate maximum impact as shelf edge, POP and POS displays. These robust POS displays are built to operate 24/7, have a three-year warranty and come with lifetime technical support.

www.crystal-display.com

Perfect chemistry The Chemist Warehouse Retail Group, which has more than 400 stores across Australia, initially selected digital signage from ONELAN in 2012. Chemist Warehouse has since continued to expand its footprint of players and their applications considerably.

Since July 2016, the network has extended to more than 2,400 players throughout the company’s national stores. Using digital signage has enabled Chemist Warehouse to distribute video and advertising content in store, provide proof of play to brands and manage the content by its internal marketing team. Its latest innovation is to add transparent LCD fridges for a range of products, offering an additional promotional channel for the supplier and an enhanced shopping experience for customers.

Also, with almost 80 additional front signage, street-facing 70in high bright displays are now installed across 66 Australian stores, with additional installs pending.

www.onelan.com

Turkish delight The Hyundai dealership in Turkey features 43in diagonal touch tables created by Nerotouch, using custom designed 40-point multi touch MPCT Projected Capacitive Technology touch sensors supplied by Zytronic. A further 10-20 tables are expected to be installed in shopping malls, exhibition areas and other venues in the country within the coming months. Using the tables, the sales team can configure a car for the customer and present them with the finished result.

www.zytronic.co.uk

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Directory directory

DIREcTORIES

www.retail-focus.co.uk/directory Visit the Retail Focus online directory at www.retail-focus.co.uk to discover a comprehensive list of the UK’s leading retail suppliers. Each listing contains indepth company information together with inspirational images, video footage and informative press material. You can also link through to company websites and connect with suppliers through Twitter and Facebook.

The Retail Supplier Directory is divided into a number of categories, such as design agencies, point-of-purchase, lighting, props and surfaces, to make the site easy to navigate.

To feature in the online directory, contact Terry Clark on 0845 6807405 or email terry@retailfocus.co

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directory

Aluminium Fittings

Specialist Stockist of Aluminium Extrusions and Mild Steel Fittings for the shopfitting industry.

Extensive stock held of: *Slotted uprights *Aluminium slatwall *Perimeter Sections *Corner sections *Design and bespoke service.

T: 01273 582241 E: sales@diasystems.co.uk W: www.diagroup.co.uk S. www.twitter.com/DesignsinAlumin

Aluminium Fittings

Bespoke Display

Bespoke Display

Design Consultancies

Axis design, develop, manufacture and install bespoke retail display solutions.

We’ve worked with the biggest names on the high street, but approach every project in the same way, with the maximum thought for your brand, products and sales environment.

Spur Creative Workshop deliver unique visual merchandising solutions for retail brands. Boasting a wealth of experience in high quality prop making we create display concepts for window staging, POS and brand awareness campaigns.

We are a global retail agency. Visual Thinking develops strategy, skills, hearts and minds to deliver retail excellence and transform brand performance.

T, 020 3260 3888 E. info@axiseurope.com W.www.axiseurope.com/retail S. www.twitter.com/AxisEuropePlc

Bespoke Display

T 01892 890608 E: phil@spurcreative.co.uk W www.spurcreative.co.uk S: www.twitter.com/ spur_creative

Bespoke Display

T, +44 (0) 1788 543 331 E. mail@visualthinking.co.uk W. www.visualthinking.co.uk S. www.twitter.com/shoptactics

Design Consultancies

MicroSlat is a strong versatile 25mm fine pitched aluminium slatwall system.

With a bespoke range of components it can be used to build unique and interesting displays or add value to existing designs.

Original suppliers of display fabrics, textiles, PVC and polycarbonates for retail displays and exhibition stands since 1934 Backgrounds have been our background since backgrounds began and B Brown have more than 400 in stock.

Walker Bros (Elland) Ltd is an Engineering Manufacturing company specialising in sheet metalwork and plastic fabrication.

We supply precision metal and plastic products, components and light fabrications to a broad range of industries and markets throughout the UK and Europe.

IGNITION is an independent creative company Our multi-disciplined team work together to deliver exceptional retail and commercial environments, global exhibitions and brands.

T. 01325 351 276 E. sales@microslat.com W. www.microslat.com S. www.twitter.com/MicroSlat

T, 08705 340 340 E. customerservices@bbrown.co.uk W. www.bbrown.co.uk S. www.twitter.com/luvbbrown

T: 0 01422 310767 E: sales@wbelland.com W: www.wbelland.com

T, +44 (0) 1179 725168 E. victoria@ignitiondg.com W. www.ignitiondg.com

Audio Visual Integration

Anna Valley looks to help guide clients with their audio visual decision making by offering high end impartial advice and help manoeuvre them through the current “minefield” of different technology and services available to them. This process then enables them to have a clear vision of what they are actually striving to achieve within the budget available to them and then provides a full range of services in the delivery of that vision.

Bespoke Display

Hello Flamingo is a creative company for the retail and event sector, specialising in window displays, in store solution, POP ups, project management, design, manufacture and installation for bespoke projects at our fully equipped manufacturing workshop.

Brochure Holders

Design Consultancies

Brochure Holders International Limited is part of the global Taymar group recognised as a leading manufacturer of premium quality injection moulded leaflet holders and display solutions.

Committed to on-going product development the Taymar group offers one of the world’s largest collections of ‘clear view’ wall, floor and counter standing brochure displays.

We are TWO Visual, the retail agency specialising in visual merchandising.

Led by brand directors Jeanette Cheetham and Brendan Gordon we provide everything retailers need to make their brands visually dynamic, whilst improving team and commercial performance.

T: +44 (0)1473 229250 E: sales@brochureholders.co.uk W: www.brochureholders.com

T, +44 (0) 1858 414275 E. hello@twovisual.co.uk W. www. twovisual.co.uk S. www.twitter.com/TWO_Visual

T: +44 (0)208 941 1000 E: nick.shaw@annavalley.co.uk W: www.annavalley.co.uk/avintegration

T: 01273 585768 E: info@helloflamingo.co.uk W: www.helloflamingo.co.uk S. www.twitter.com/helloflamingo1

Balloons & Bunting

Bespoke Display

Climate Control

Display

No.1 Advertising Balloon Service: • Printed Latex and Foil Balloons • Helium Gas delivery and collection • Flags, Bunting and Banners • Promotional Sashes and T-shirts • Multi-store distribution nationwide

KSF provides retail merchandising display solutions to retailers, brands and trade customers from CONCEPT to COMPLETION via our global supply chain (China/UK/East EU) to deliver LOWER total cost of ownership. YOU’VE TRIED THE REST; NOW PUT US TO THE TEST.

Air Control & Development Ltd are Daikin, Mitsubishi and Toshiba accredited contractors, specialising in providing quality air conditioning, ventilation and overdoor heater installations, service & maintenance within the retail sector.

arken are a UK design and manufacturing facility creating bespoke poster display solutions. As well as our bespoke offer, we provide off the shelf products such as poster frames, light boxes, poster hanging systems, pavement signs, forecourt signs, all available in a range of colours and sizes.

T, 01494 774376 E. sales@b-loony.com W. www.b-loony.com

T: +44 (0)8450 944 699 E: ben.wang@ksf-global.com W: www.ksf-global.com S: www.twitter.com/KSFGlobal

T 01922 455523 E: info@aircontrol.co.uk W: www.aircontrol.co.uk S: www.twitter.com/AirControl123

T: +44 (0)1638 565656 E: info@arken-pop.com W: www.arken-pop.com

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directory

Display

Display

Display - DIGITAL

FURNITURE

Are you looking to increase your product sales, re-brand or launch a new product? If you’re not already talking to us, you should.

Our group offer an unprecedented level of experience coupled with a comprehensive range of products and services. Our aim is to make your products sell and your service the best on the market.

Internationally acclaimed, award winning unique magnetic wall system offers instant flexibility & creative choice to architects, interiors & store designers.

Since launching the magnIQ system in 2006 the response has been quite phenomenal. To date the system has won 13 prestigious awards and is now internationally recognised justifying the many years Rare Basic spent on research and development.

Crystal Display Systems is already a leading UK designer, distributor and value added reseller of flat panel display solutions. We have a vast array of media players, interactive displays, videowalls and shelf edge displays.

Our knowledge and expertise has also led to us being one of the European leaders in transparent LCD.

Spur Creative Workshop deliver unique visual merchandising solutions for retail brands. Boasting a wealth of experience in high quality prop making we create display concepts for window staging, POS and brand awareness campaigns.

T: +44(0)113 265 0093 E: sales@concept-data.com W: www.concept-data.com S. www.twitter.com/GDProjects

T +44 (0)20 8348 9888 E: mail@rarebasic.com W: www.rarebasic.com S: www.twitter.com/rarebasic

T: +44 (0) 1634 292 025 E: info@crystal-display.com W: www.crystal-display.com S. www.twitter.com/CrystalDisplays

T 01892 890608 E: phil@spurcreative.co.uk W www.spurcreative.co.uk S: www.twitter.com/ spur_creative

Display

Display

Display - DIGITAL

FURNITURE

GDP display, manufactures, delivers and installs world-class retail environments, store fixtures, displays and visual merchandising equipment.

GDP is truly Global, through its activities in many parts of the world.

We have supplied high-end displays and furniture to successful retail brands throughout Europe, North America, South Africa and South East Asia.

Spur Creative Workshop deliver unique visual merchandising solutions for retail brands. Boasting a wealth of experience in high quality prop making we create display concepts for window staging, POS and brand awareness campaigns.

We provide total end to end solutions encompassing all aspects of designing, implementing, managing and supporting multi-faceted marketing technology concepts and Digital Screen Media networks.

We create bespoke tailored solutions for retail, interiors, exhibitions, museums and 3D and we know one size does not fit all. Our teams are always ready for the challenges, big or small.

T: +44 (0)1582 433 771 E: info@gdprojects.eu W: www.gdprojects.eu S. www.twitter.com/GDProjects

T 01892 890608 E: phil@spurcreative.co.uk W www.spurcreative.co.uk S: www.twitter.com/ spur_creative

T, +44 (0)845 481 8020 E. info@screenmediatechnology.com W.screenmediatechnology.com S. www.twitter.com/ScreenMediaTech

T: 01923 800666 E: info@stylographics.co.uk W: www.stylographics.com S. www.twitter.com/hellostylo

Display

We are ICON. We create and deliver engaging brand and live experiences, particularly in the retail sector.

T: +44 (0) 20 7593 5200 E: enquiries@icon-world.com W: www.icon-world.com S: www.twitter.com/ICON_HQ

Display

EPOS

GRAPHICS

Providing Scotland’s signage, exhibition displays, digitally printed wallpapers, LED flex faces, light boxes and window graphics. Located in the centre of Scotland we are ideally situated to cover your requirements throughout Scotland. We can offer huge savings with an excellent, professional and prompt service

Offering an extensive range of EPOS hardware from world class suppliers such as Star Micronics, Honeywell and Posiflex, DED offer the complete EPOS hardware solution alongside a unique rewritable loyalty system.

Graphica Display print, produce and install retail graphics including till point graphics, window graphics, LED lightboxes, cut & printed vinyl and much more. Nationwide & Euorpean delivery and installation.

T: 0131 337 1237 E: info@specializedsigns.co.uk W: www.specializedsigns.co.uk FB: Specialized-Signs

T: 01797 320636 E: sales@ded.co.uk W: www.ded.co.uk S: www.twitter.com/dedltd

Display

Display

Impulse POP specialises in Point of Purchase display systems for the Retail sector.

We offer many years of experience in all aspects of retail design, with in house manufacture - including quick turnaround prototypes, or overseas manufacture, delivery, installation and retail merchandising.

Woodwood Group –Tx Frame UK are a specialist in tension fabric display systems and LED light boxes. We are able to deliver the highest quality service with a friendly but professional approach to ensure you receive the spectacular results you deserve.

Armourcoat is the world’s foremost supplier of polished plasters, sculptural effects and innovative surface finishes.

T, 01767 682756 E. sales@impulsepop.co.uk W.www.impulsepop.co.uk S. www.twitter.com/impulsepop

T, 01376 295 016 E. sales@txframe.co.uk W. www.txframe.co.uk

T. +44 (0)1732 460 668 E. sales@armourcoat.co.uk W. www.armourcoat.com S. www.twitter.com/Armourcoat

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Finishes

T: 0845 3730073 E: info@graphicadisplay.co.uk W:www.graphicadisplay.co.uk S. www.twitter.com/graphicatweet

GRAPHICS

We create bespoke tailored solutions for retail, interiors, exhibitions, museums and 3D and we know one size does not fit all. Our teams are always ready for the challenges, big or small.

T: 01923 800666 E: info@stylographics.co.uk W: www.stylographics.com S. www.twitter.com/hellostylo

directory

interactive displays

pop

Crystal Display Systems is already a leading UK designer, distributor and value added reseller of flat panel display solutions. We have a vast array of media players, interactive displays, videowalls and shelf edge displays.

Our knowledge and expertise has also led to us being one of the European leaders in transparent LCD.

> In house design and manufacture of permanent displays > Powder coated steel, stainless steel, plastics and print used in any combination > Rapid prototyping and batch manufacture > Confidentiality assured > Let us help you improve your product sales` Find out why our customers keep returning for more………

T: +44 (0) 1634 292 025 E: info@crystal-display.com W: www.crystal-display.com S. www.twitter.com/CrystalDisplays

T: 01482 345067 E: sales@jcrpos.co.uk W: www.jcrpos.co.uk S. @JCR_POS

pop/pos

We are IPOS. A creative design agency whose extensive and impressive client list speaks volumes for the professional services we offer.

We design, produce and install all aspects of our client’s POS. From instore graphics, window vinyls and 3D bespoke window displays to full multi location campaign roll outs.

T: 0161 477 8501 E: info@ipos-design.co.uk W: www.ipos-design.co.uk S. www.twitter.com/iposdesign

slatwall

MicroSlat is a strong versatile 25mm fine pitched aluminium slatwall system.

With a bespoke range of components it can be used to build unique and interesting displays or add value to existing designs.

T. 01325 351 276 E. sales@microslat.com W. www.microslat.com S. www.twitter.com/MicroSlat

LIGHTING

pop/pos

pop up

vm

LED Solutions are a specialist LED lighting supplier who can offer you a wide variety of bespoke lighting solutions for the sign, shop fitting and display industries.

Custom made, 20mm deep LED Edge lit ‘Diamond’ light boxes, and 8mm deep ‘Garnet’ light panels for retail display, signage and advertising.

Hello Flamingo is a creative company for the retail and event sector, specialising in window displays, in store solution, POP ups, project management, design, manufacture and installation for bespoke projects at our fully equipped manufacturing workshop.

GENESIS MANNEQUINS design and produce high-class and trend-lead shop window mannequins, busts and displays for the international fashion industry. Additionally we offer style, trend and product consultation as well as a comprehensive after-sales service.

T: 0116 262 5933 E: sales@ledsolutions.co.uk W: www.ledsolutions.co.uk S. www.twitter.com/ LEDSolutionsUK

T: 0333 123 0345 E: Sales@ways2display.com W www.artillus.com Web: www.ways2display.com

T: 01273 585768 E: info@helloflamingo.co.uk W: www.helloflamingo.co.uk S. www.twitter.com/helloflamingo1

T: +49 (0) 5752 1803 0 E: info@genesis-display.com W: www.genesis-display.com S: www.twitter.com/GenesisDisplay

Literature Display

pop/pos

Retail Consultancy

vm

Brochure Holders International Limited is part of the global Taymar group recognised as a leading manufacturer of premium quality injection moulded leaflet holders and display solutions.

Committed to on-going product development the Taymar group offers one of the world’s largest collections of ‘clear view’ wall, floor and counter standing brochure displays.

Providing Scotland’s signage, exhibition displays, digitally printed wallpapers, LED flex faces, light boxes and window graphics. Located in the centre of Scotland we are ideally situated to cover your requirements throughout Scotland. We can offer huge savings with an excellent, professional and prompt service

We are a global retail agency. Visual Thinking develops strategy, skills, hearts and minds to deliver retail excellence and transform brand performance.

Since the ‘glam’ days of the 1970s, Panache Display has been a lead player in the global fashion business producing ever-changing looks to set its own trends in mannequin design and visual display - while establishing an enviable reputation for quality, as well as, creativity.

T, +44 (0) 1788 543 331 E. mail@visualthinking.co.uk W. www.visualthinking.co.uk S. www.twitter.com/shoptactics

T: +44 (0) 20 8752 2520 E: info@panachedispay.co.uk W: www.panachedisplay.co.uk S: www.twitter.com/PANACHEDISPLAY

T: +44 (0)1473 229250 E: sales@brochureholders.co.uk W: www.brochureholders.com

Maintenance

Air Control & Development Ltd are Daikin, Mitsubishi and Toshiba accredited contractors, specialising in providing quality air conditioning, ventilation and overdoor heater installations, service & maintenance within the retail sector.

T 01922 455523 E: info@aircontrol.co.uk W: www.aircontrol.co.uk S: www.twitter.com/AirControl123

T: 0131 337 1237 E: info@specializedsigns.co.uk W: www.specializedsigns.co.uk FB: Specialized-Signs

pop/pos

We are ICON. We create and deliver engaging brand and live experiences, particularly in the retail sector.

T: +44 (0) 20 7593 5200 E: enquiries@icon-world.com W: www.icon-world.com S: www.twitter.com/ICON_HQ

slatwall

VM TOOLS AND TRAINING

Specialist Stockist of Aluminium Extrusions and Mild Steel Fittings for the shopfitting industry.

We are a global retail agency. Visual Thinking develops strategy, skills, hearts and minds to deliver retail excellence and transform brand performance.

Extensive stock held of: *Slotted uprights *Aluminium slatwall *Perimeter Sections *Corner sections *Design and bespoke service.

T: 01273 582241 E: sales@diasystems.co.uk W: www.diagroup.co.uk S. www.twitter.com/DesignsinAlumin

T, +44 (0) 1788 543 331 E. mail@visualthinking.co.uk W. www.visualthinking.co.uk S. www.twitter.com/shoptactics

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Q&A

Ning Li Ning Li describes himself as an internet entrepreneur. He is the founder and chief executive of MADE.COM, the London-based company which launched six years ago with the aim of making great design accessible to everyone. Here, he talks exclusively to Retail Focus about setting up the company, collaborating with designers and why it’s important to have a physical presence.

RF. What inspired you to set up MADE.COM? NL. I was setting up my own flat in Paris and realised there was a gap in the market for inexpensive, good quality furniture. I knew that it was possible to create good quality design for less than some of the existing designer brands, and so started to think of ways to streamline the manufacturing process to keep costs down further to bridge the gap I had spotted in

the market.

RF. What motivated you to move offline with showrooms in the UK, Amsterdam, Milan and Paris? Why is it important for you to have a physical presence?

NL. We are still a purely online retailer but realised it was important for people to touch, feel, sit or lie on the products. Since opening a showroom in Berlin [in September], we now have showrooms in five of our six European markets, which shows how important we see these physical spaces to be. We do think of MADE Unboxed as an ‘online showroom’ — it’s a way that our customers who can’t get to a showroom or who are looking for inspiration can see how others have styled their MADE products.

Do the showrooms share a similar aesthetic?

RF. NL. That’s certainly something we strive for. We like our showrooms to inspire with small room sets and plenty of space, so it doesn’t feel like a generic showroom but a good place to hang out. The showrooms aren’t a place for us to push sales but more of an introduction to the MADE brand and a place where people can touch and feel the quality of our products, and then go home, think some more, go online to purchase if they wish.

You teamed up with architect firm Bureau de Change on the RF. Soho showroom, and retail design consultancy gpstudio on the new Paris space. Why is it important for you to collaborate with outside design agencies?

NL. We are very collaborative with all aspects of design. We collaborate with up-and-coming and big name designers for furniture, and with architects to design our spaces. It’s important to work with the best names in the field.

RF. How do you go about selecting the products that you sell online?

NL. It’s a real combination. Our design team go to all the design shows, look at upcoming trends, and we try to think about our customer base — largely urbanites, so anything with added

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functionality or to brighten up a small space goes down very well. As we don’t hold a lot of stock, items are made based on customer demand — it gives us much more flexibility to trial new products and see what the response is. We release more than two new collections every week, so a lot is about being agile, and trial and error.

Did you visit this year’s London Design Festival? What was RF. your highlight?

NL. Sadly, I was actually in New York for this year’s festival but I got a lot of updates from the team about the activities in the London showroom — it was certainly a busy year for MADE.COM. We had the brand’s first ‘live’ window display, where we set up the window to be the size of a typical London living space and had customers living in there, to highlight our space-saving, multifunctional furniture perfect for urbanites with less and less space. We also announced the winner of our annual Emerging Talent Award, a competition for designers across Europe to have their product made and sold on MADE.COM. I was on the panel that decided the six shortlisted and am so excited about this year’s winning product — a dim sum-inspired stackable storage system by KIMXGENSAPA, a design duo from Milan.

Designjunction is always a highlight and we showed the new collection inspired by the Transport for London archives.

RF. What are your priorities over the next few years?

NL. The priority is to become a one-stop-shop for everything for the home across Europe. We have recently launched new smaller home accessories — everything from clocks and vases, to diningware and artwork. This collection will continue to grow.

What’s your favourite piece of furniture on MADE.COM? RF. NL. The Steuart Padwick Stroller desk will always have a special place with me. It was one of the first items we sold on

MADE.COM. Originally the desk was for sale for a high cost

and people loved it but no one could afford it. We took the

desk, deconstructed it and created a version for under £400

and it continues to be a best seller to this day.

“Sometimes you need to take the bull by the horns... ....and get on with it.”

- Said every successful product designer ever

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