Friday, February 12, 2010

retail therapy

Nik, our creative director, contributed this piece for the 'Inspired' column in the latest issue of Design Week...


The most important thing about inspiration is to never go looking for it. It has a habit of finding you. But if I'm in need of a fix, I go shopping.

One of my earliest memories is from when I was about four years old, riding in the back of my mum's trolley in Asda back up North. I was in awe of this vast warehouse filled with shapes, colours, pictures and typefaces. I'd be dragged around Blackburn town centre on a Saturday to the food hall in BHS, in the days when its logo was a retro bold, grotesque affair (which remains on show outside the Wood Green branch in north London even now).

To this day, I find supermarkets fascinating, inspirational places - though now I'm just as a t home in Liberty as I am in Lidl. They let me indulge my passion for good (and bad) typography, and offer interesting ideas.

And it's not just the shelves that groan with inspiration. The shops themselves are increasingly becoming works of retail art - visit Anthropologie on London's Regent Street and see for yourself.

Best of all, you never know what you'll find in store, but some kind of inspiration is always available to take home - budget permitting - in a rather fetching carrier bag.

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