Evolving the High Street

darc hears from JPLD Founder and Creative Director James Poore to discover his thoughts on retail lighting and the direction it might be heading.

be for start-ups but equally the model could be applied to larger, more established businesses with “curated” hubs, which have complimentary businesses, possibly with hosts who look after you on arrival.

We have a café culture now and instead of bemoaning this we should embrace the fact that this change in the high street is here to stay and find ways of integrating it. Perhaps you will do your browsing in a relaxed café type environment surrounded by “shop windows” of your favourite brands and have the items delivered, either to your home the next day or to an out-of-town retail collection hub where you park and collect on your way home? Shops would be smaller and could have lower stock with main purchase items being held at the collection hub? The smaller unit would offer more affordability and allow the budget to be put back into the store design and experience. If we are to tempt people through the door then the offer needs to be there, the retailers and the designers that they appoint need to up their game. One of the biggest changes needs to be experiential design, sense of place, identity, experiences you will not get in your armchair, good coffee, and artisan food offering. We already design with a sense of place and local identity by taking leads from local culture, architecture, produce or even the history of a building or space.

We are all aware of the psychological power that considered lighting can have on consumers, but the lighting in a space can also help emphasise these subtle cues and details. Decorative luminaires can also easily directly provide that sense of place. With consumers more aware than ever of the potential impact of their actions on the environment, the challenging of a product or brand’s ethical and environmental credentials has become a go-to demand of the modern-day shopper.

Clothing brands such as Patagonia offer a free repair service on its products, thus standing behind everything it makes. However, it appreciates that sometimes customers may take matters into their own hands, even offering DIY repair and care guides, or the opportunity to trade in old gear for credit that you can put toward something new (or new to you).

The Patagonia model isn’t exclusive to clothing brands though, many lighting companies offer repair and renew services. Architectural luminaire manufacturers such as Phos, Orluna or Stoane Lighting offer a repair and replace service and have adapted circular economy principles.

Maybe instead of having to send off articles, retailers could offer their own in-house repair or recycle service where consumers could bring their favourite items to be repaired for a small fee instead of sending them to landfill. The repair would be carried out by an authorised repairer using the original manufacturer’s materials and in line with their guidelines, even offering a warranty on the repair.

We are already seeing repairer maker cafés and repair shops cropping up, no doubt inspired by the TV programme of the same name, bringing loved items back to life. Maybe we will see the lighting equivalent? www.jpld.co.uk

Companies such as Skinflint, Trainspotters, and Mayfly Vintage already restore old industrial lights and give them a new lease of life. Perhaps they could offer local workshop hubs for people to come along with their old luminaires they love but are not useable?

We have also already seen an interest in “buying local” too and maybe this ethos can be bought in to homewares and lighting retailers to offering local crafts people and artisans space in their stores. In terms of the future, technology and innovation are always at the front of pushing forward experiential retail. We already see augmented reality and interactive projection in stores and we have even looked into the creation of holographic imagery to enhance the customer experience. Imagine walking into a retail space so you could interact with a hologram of your favourite celebrity from TV or film or musical legend, living or dead? Either way consumers need a reason to leave their homes and the sanctuary of their armchair internet-enabled shopping bubble, although maybe the middle ground between armchair to shop floor of browsing in a curated retail café will provide this, or it might not still be enough.

Istoria Group is a collective of creative agencies with Ignition as part of the portfolio. Ignition is an award-winning, women-owned, ethical SME that designs and produces live events, exhibitions and experiences around the world. Founded in 2007 with offices in Bristol and Indianapolis, Ignition works across eight main industry sectors, including aerospace, technology, pharmaceutical, health and education.

The exhibitions industry used to be horrifically wasteful - and it would be untrue to say the ‘build and burn’ mentality has gone away completely. Globally, approximately 32,000 exhibitions take place each year, featuring 4.5 million exhibiting companies and attracting more than 303 million visitors, meaning there’s lot of potential wastage to be addressed. If you’re thinking of designing - or commissioning - a trade exhibition stand right now, the good news is that there are plenty of ways to make the process more sustainable and less wasteful, with lots of new ideas also coming onstream.

One element that has traditionally held back advances is the initial