Fred Perry "The British Outdoors"

The Great British Outdoors; a brisk walk in the country, a leafy lane, a wooded glade and a pint at the pub - this was what Fred Perry had in mind when they introduced us to their newest shoe designs. Fred Perry were branding a wall in the Size shoe store, displaying this collection. When their VM team briefed me, I was excited about the theme; being a lover of the British countryside. Our designers came up with the fantastic idea to clad the entire wall in Fred Perry tartan check shirts and then ‘patchwork’ with reclaimed wood panels in various shapes and sizes. Engraved logos and wooden shelving further enhanced the display. The overall impact had a barnyard flavour while maintaining the fashion sensibility of Fred Perry. We loved it!

M35 Marketing Conference: Monterrey Mexico

I was somewhat honoured to be asked to be the opening speaker for an annual conference, which students of the Tecnologico De Monterrey University hold every year. And I’m always up for travelling to far flung cities I’ve never been to. I do have some experience of lecturing but this time, it was to an audience of over a thousand guests (gulp!). “Strong beginning, strong end,” I thought; so I decided to make a couple of films and beg favours from my network of retail experts.

The conference, held on the 20^th October, invites specialists from various marketing sectors and I was grateful that retail display is such a visual medium. Lots of slides! Rushing around London, I filmed rough clips of the best windows and in-store displays, I could find. This I would edit into a fast-paced, collage set to the Petula Clark hit, “Downtown”, to kick off my talk. Then I interviewed around 8 industry ‘stars’ to give the audience many different perspectives and opinions about shopping as an entertaining, leisure activity, to end on.

In between, I was able to use one of our recent projects, for Westfield Stratford, as a perfect case study to demonstrate entertaining windows which, in this case, had no branding and no marketing message, as such. I talked about how shopping has to be experiential and how hard retailers with similar product offers have to compete, to win the loyalty of an evermore savvy consumer.

Truly surprising myself, I relaxed into the situation, and quickly felt at ease on stage. The students asked me intelligent questions towards the end and made me feel extremely appreciated. What more could I want? Gorgeous sunny weather, a hotel with a rooftop pool, a chauffeur to show me the town, exquisite Mexican food and luckily, 3 seats to spread myself out on, on the return flight home.

Museum of Islamic Arts, Qatar

After the successful job of upgrading the gift shop for the Museum of Islamic Art, in Qatar, Elemental were invited back to design and produce the new furniture concept, for a new gift shop in a recently built annex to the Museum. The Al Riwaq building has been built to host international art exhibitions. Having a glass facade, we wanted to make a strong statement as visitors approached the store.

The brief required the gift shop to be contemporary and minimal; furniture had to be free standing and display everything, from books to stationary. They required a prominent till point, low level display cabinets, tall bookcases and customer seating. Elemental’s design team presented 3 different concepts to the client, who chose a design that centered around square columns, staggered in height.  

It was really exciting to see the sketches come to life in our workshops and then, to travel over 4,000 miles to Doha and see the furniture in situ. A team of carpenters worked for a week installing the striking fixtures, creating a signature look to the exclusive gift store.

Benefit at Bestival

If you were to see a rock star, pop star or diva…what would you see? 

Well, a rock star would have a smokey eye and dewy skin. A pop star- pink shimmery cheeks and pink glossy lips. The Diva- gold shimmer to the temples and cheekbones, focusing on lashes and brows with red lip.

Mix all three hipsters together and what do you get? None other then Benefit cosmetics at Bestival in the Isle of Wight, that’s what!

Bestival throw a killer party every year on this little island in England, where 1000’s of festival goers sleep in tents and enjoy mega bands on a huge stage.

Benefit cosmetics joined in the fun this year by building a girls (or guys) dream spot. Whether you felt in the mood to rock out, or glam up… Benefit was there to make you look incredible!

Benefit’s Garden of Gorgeous was fully equipped with a white picket fence, beautiful floral archways greeting all with big open arms and loads of GIANT outdoor games!

While you wait to rock your new look, play a friendly game of giant jenga or giant connect 4 complete with Benefit gabby heads plastered all over the coins; and of course we can’t forget about the bespoke handmade “they’re real” and “bad gal lash” mascara’s hoopla!

Make your way into the Garden of Gorgeous tent and there you will find beautiful displays of Benefit make-up in pale pink bird cages, pearl cake holders and branded wood crates. The make-uppers where you sat to be properly “glamed up” were a stunning cool cream with eye popping make-up stacked on the shelves.

Elemental Design worked directly with Benefit cosmetics to design, create and install their dream party. We successfully brought their gorgeous garden to life and to be honest… we would do it all again in a heart beat!

HOBBYCRAFT - A FRESH START

The story begins in March 2011, when Dana Armstrong, retail consultant to Hobbycraft, invited Elemental to work with her and Twenty Twenty, on their new store concept. Twenty Twenty created a new logo and store concept and Elemental were asked to look at the VM and display design and production. Our design team were very excited to have this opportunity, as big fans of the stores and their products.

The original brief was to give input into how Hobbycraft approach their visual merchandising and instore displays, as well as window displays. We designed several concepts for a multitude of areas around the store, including windows, departmental headers, fixture ends and hot spots. After much research of other stores, the team set to work and came up with lots of exciting ideas.

Hobbycraft’s Marketing Director, Lisa Looker and Dana were very much involved throughout the process. The design team had the opportunity to meet them and talk ideas through, to get a grasp of what the client really liked and wanted for their stores.

After weeks of hard work and hours spent artworking huge walls and headers, the results were unveiled last Thursday, at the opening of the new Hobbycraft store in Orpington, Kent. Our workshop produced display props, plinths and giant pink buttons (an icon for the new concept). Our team then installed the displays and helped lay out the product ranges. The store is fresh and exciting, an inviting place for customers to browse for their arts and crafts needs, as well as beginners to peruse the shelves for potential new projects and activities.

MAISON MARTIN MARGIELA (UNTITLED): 1ST ANNIVERSARY

To mark the first anniversary of the launch of the acclaimed Maison Martin Margiela’s first fragrance “Untitled” for L’Oreal at Selfridges, L’Oreal asked Elemental Design to create another unique and striking in-store display at Selfridges. Inspired by the fragrance bottle, Elemental designed and produced an oversized bottle unit, which displayed the actual fragrance. Also decorating the space were the iconic 

on-brand props, such as vintage luggage, a ladder and an easel, all painted white, the distinctive colour of the fashion house. Giant silver “1” birthday balloons were added, as the finishing touch.

CHOPARD SPONSORS CANNES FILM FESTIVAL, AT HARRODS

As the official sponsor of Le Festival de Cannes this month, Chopard invited Elemental Design to design and install a series of windows and showcases, promoting the brand at Harrods.

A combination of vinyl and lights transformed the windows into large light boxes, highlighting the glamour and sophistication of the festival, not to mention the beautiful breath-taking product photography.

PRADA BAROQUE AT SELFRIDGES

Last week saw Elemental Design work with Luxottica, in an exclusive pre-launch of the Prada Baroque sunglasses collection at Selfridges. 

The window was to follow the look of the campaign, and to bring to life Prada's beautifully unique Baroque frames. Inspired by Italian culture, tradition and style, and using Prada's signature palette and intense colour combinations, a show stopping window was installed, showcasing the spectacular spectacles. 

The Royal Wedding 2011

With the Royal Wedding in the air, many retailers joined in with the excitement. As a warranted retailer to the Royal family, Penhaligons briefed us to design and produce window displays for all their UK stores, along with their stores in Paris, Milan and New York, as a gentle nod towards the Royal Celebration. To emulate the atmosphere and mood of the country at this jubilant time, Elemental Design created a kit of parts that included draping bunting, paper chains and Union Jack flags across the windows of the perfumery, to depict the traditional cheer of a British street party. The muted colour palette gave the display a lovely vintage flavour.

Mulberry Presentation for Autumn/Winter 2011

London Fashion Week has come and gone once again, and this season Elemental Design were commissioned by Mulberry to source, produce and install an English country garden in the ballroom at Claridges, complete with hillocks, trees, oversized mushrooms and moss-a-plenty. Elemental took creative direction from Mulberry's Visual Merchandising department, which allowed the brief to come to life. 

Large scale walls were installed, and a team of handy green fingered assistants applied real foliage and flowers, creating rich and vibrant vertical gardens for press photographs and for the catwalk show. 

A shed was constructed, with the Mulberry logo applied in various media, including scorched wood and rusty nails. Glue guns at the ready, the Mulberry team added hundreds of colourful birds to the trees with excitement, creating a magical woodland.

After a long day of pinning, flower arranging and hanging off tall ladders, Colin and Alan (the furry foxes) were placed lovingly by the Mulberry team amongst the fun, oversized mushrooms and on the roof of the shed. The final touches were then added, and the catwalk was painted for the final time before the big show.