The Royal Academy of Arts

T h e R o y a l A c a d e m y o f A r t s adapting to new ways of visual Merchandising recyle

For many years I have been responsible for the VM and design concepts for retail and exhibition shops at The Royal Academy of Arts. Art and design are my passion, so I feel extremely fortunate to have worked on a regular basis for many of the major art galleries and museums on their VM developing new and exhibition shop concepts. The shops here have always been very successful and made huge amounts to contribute to supporting the costs of future blockbuster shows.

When the doors closed suddenly on 23rd March due to lockdown, plans were being made to install a Gaugin exhibition shop which was due to open the following week and the shop in the main building supporting an extremely popular Picasso exhibition was performing above expectations. After 4 months of closure social distancing plans and procedures were put into place to ensure that the shopping experience was as safe as possible to allow the Academy to open again. This proved to be quite a challenge considering product density and customer flow, it now also became necessary for all visitors to book a slot even to visit the shops and restaurants.

As the main shop has fixtures that would not enable safe social distancing, we decided that the best plan of action would be to use tables in the area outside the main shop for a small selection of merchandise and keep the shop closed off but still visible. The shop would now be viewed like a shop window and visitors are able to ask staff to get any items requested in order to cut down on the contamination of merchandise. It was recognised at this time of not knowing how people would feel about shopping that it was important to be flexible and reactive to their needs, layouts did have to be adapted a couple of times in order to establish systems that worked in the best way for safety and to gain optimum sales. Feature display areas were increased through the main shop to create interest and engage visitors from the doorway.

Fun yet informative graphic messaging has paid a huge part in giving returning customers confidence that all guidelines are being respected whilst retaining the RA’s quirky and unique brand identity.

The new exhibition shop in another part of the building was treated in the same way. I had small flexible modular fixtures constructed that could easily be moved around public areas to create various layouts. Simple VM that is easy to shop on a one-way system that customers are invited to join has worked well whilst still being able to present merchandise in a way that feels like a Parisian market with contemporary baskets of dried flowers to the sides of fixtures. I am sure many have experienced the slightly soulless feeling that is present in many shops at the moment, but I have found that including flowers and plants within the spaces has helped hugely to breathe life into areas. Thankfully this theme worked well for the Gaugin offer.

I am confident that although the shift to online shopping has increased when things begin to get back to the new normal the need for visual merchandisers to create theatre and enhance the shopping experience will be required more than ever.

Jane Le Bon FBDS owner of Jane Le Bon Creative VM Installations | Window display | Events | Online styling