Steve Jepson

After completion of the first retail concept for the VW Group with SEAT Lakeside. I was asked to evolve the concept into a flagship experience at Westfield, White City across 4 dedicated areas - Kiosk, Store, Lift Lobby and car park area for test drives and handover.

The aim was to attract attention, bring to life the SEAT brand and heritage whilst delivering a seamless end to end retail experience for customers.

The concept aims to change the car buying process in a environment that celebrates its Barcelona heritage through the use of references to its atmosphere, architecture and culture.

The customer is in the driving seat throughout the process and staff are on hand to guide customers through it should they need help and advice.

The process involved multiple stakeholders in UK and Barcelona and took just over 12 months to complete; from concept through to handover and involved a complex approvals process with both the project stakeholders and Westfield.

Now in its second year, the Mercedes Pop Up programme continues with a brand new concept which will be rolled out in 10 locations Nationwide in addition to 10 Pop Up placements at locations such as the F1 at Silverstone and Tour de Yorkshire to name a few. The challenge in the second year is to continue driving awareness, generate leads and sales whilst maintaining buzz and excitement. This is done through the use of theme's and stories such as: 50 Years of AMG, 4Matic, Electric intelligence, Mercedes me and Approved Used which are brought to life as window campaigns, store takeovers and interactive experiences.

Aurum Holdings were looking to modernise their retail estate to appeal to a younger audience and move away from the 'House of brands' idea.

The brief was to create a store of the future aimed at elevating the Goldsmiths brand giving it a presence, a voice and a personality. We did so starting at the entrance with the introduction of a golden archway which aims to make the entrance distinctive and recreate that feeling of crossing the threshold akin to a wedding or ceremonial entrance. 

On entering the store, clear zones are created to help navigation easy and to help tailor the customer experience and rituals. We have removed the over the counter service and present products in central units for a more informal and personal service.

There are showcases dotted around the store that curate products together in one space giving Goldsmiths a point of view and helping to inspire and encourage cross selling.

Watches and Jewellery are separated front to back with 2 anchor watch brands sitting either side of a hotel style concierge desk to celebrate the Goldsmiths purchase and communicate key service offers.

The Boutique concept is dedicated to the fashion end of the Goldsmiths market. This is very much a house of brands but again aims to give Goldsmiths an over arching identity that will create a distinctive look for them whilst being sympathetic to a wide range of brands such as Michael Kors, Swarovski, Hugo Boss and Emporio Armani which will live within it.

The monochromatic aesthetic aims to be gender neutral and appeal to the young fashion focused audience and digital content populates the space to keep the store feeling on trend and up to date.

As with the Goldsmiths store of the future concept we removed the over the counter experience to encourage customers to come in and browse the products by themselves rather than feel pressured by sales staff.

The 'home of innovation' is a showroom for B/S/H that celebrates the Bosch, Siemens and Neff brands. Customers enter through two oversized fridge doors intended as a conversation starter to help break the ice and lighten the mood.

Customers can then discover the heritage and innovations for each brand in the 3 x brand cubes that bring to life brand and product stores.

Each incorporates its own private consultation space and showcases its latest and greatest products which are all fully operations enabling customers to get hands on.

The first of 20 pop up stores designed and built for Mercedes Benz. An exercise to drive brand awareness and get their products in front of consumers who are not actively in the market and to drive home the 'surprisingly affordable' message.

As one of the leading emerging telecoms companies, Etisalat provides services that let people live a connected life. Its mission is to do this better than anyone else. “New retail” is the only way to make this real for customers.

At Start we created a responsive, streamlined new retail experience that will help Etisalat meet the future needs of its business and better connect with its consumers. The store presents Etisalat’s ‘Life: Connected’ as a series of customer-focused, engaging experiences within a modern, digitally enabled, sociable environment. Flexible and scalable, its helping Etisalat deliver a better brand experience.

Our responsive retail solution meets Etisalat’s future business and customer needs. Flexible and scalable, it unites digital and physical elements, so stores integrate into a wider ecosystem, and reflect their location.

This new branch concept for Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank brings a new brand language to life and streamlines the customer experience catering to a range of different customers, customer journeys and cultural nuances.

The layout is intuitive and bespoke fixtures combine to create a relaxed and inviting atmosphere which also maximises the branch footprint to increase the number of counters, meeting rooms and ATM machines.

A bar and restaurant concept in Singapore in the cool Jiak Chuan area of the city. The idea for this concept was born following an interview between my client and a famous japanese Manga artist called 'Yohihiro Tatsumi'  who during the interview had sketched a portrait of one of his characters Mariko who was a prostitute from post war Japan. The bar and restaurant became a home for Mariko, taking refernces from Post war Japan and the influences of America GI culture at that time.

HTC appointed me when i had my own business in Singapore to help develop and roll out a mixture of stores, shop-in-shops, kiosks and counters across South East Asia including India, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore. In parallel we developed and manufactured POP displays for their new range of products.

A destination for the discerning shopper where the finest time pieces are pre-edited in a series of inspiring collections, flanked by individual
luxury suites housing the world’s finest brands.

Enthusiast, collector, or connoisseur, this new luxury watch store has what you’ve been looking for, and probably more.

It’s a glorious gallery of the world’s finest watch brands, coupled with a vibrant and constantly evolving central arena that showcases pre-edited
watch collections that Inform and inspire. As you step into the store, the first thing you notice are the grand watchmaker suites that house big
names like IWC and Blancpain. They bring the meaning of watch connoisseurship to a whole new level with beautiful displays and private consultation spaces.

As you move deeper into the store the atmosphere changes from a luxurious black to smooth grey and ultimately, bright white, where you are greeted by the luxury and fine watch lounges.

This store is an evolution of the original colour store in mumbai.

The scheme adopts a playful editorial approach; encouraging users to engage and have fun with colour, capturing their experiences, choices and ideas as they go on colour cards with integrated RFID technology.

At the end of their personal journey each consumer gets to print out their very own Magazine to take their colour experience home.

Home decorating in India is handled almost entirely by contractors & there is virtually no DIY industry. Consumers have a low level of
understanding & involvement in home décor and don’t use much colour in their homes.

The objective of the Asian Paints signature store was to enable & inspire consumers to be confident with colour, and thus position the brand as the ‘ultimate’ home décor and colour experts.

The proposition for the store is ‘a walk in home décor magazine’.

The scheme adopts an editorial approach; presenting products within lifestyle contexts with easy-to-understand choices, recommendations, top tips and the latest décor trends.

Although the signature store in mumbai will provide a unique consumer experience and a strong marketing platform for the Asian Paints
brand, one critical success factor will be to filter down this experience across all tiers of the dealer Networks so that the first stores are
ready to open soon after the signature store to ensure countrywide impact.

The tier 1 stores will offer the highest level of experience within the network. This experience will cascade down through the other tiers within the proposed network of 120,000 stores across India.

Johnnie Walker Black Label is the number one brand of deluxe Scotch whiskey. The brand’s presence in Asia is already strong, but there is still
room for substantial growth as it continues to build its positioning as a premium, aspirational and ‘progressive’ brand for men with purpose & vision who desire status & style.

The scope of this project was to build on the existing Toolkit and the Johnnie Walker Black label iconography to create a JWBL experience. The location was set for St James Powerhouse, the largest Nightclub in Singapore and the Opening was to coincide with the Worlds first F1 Night Race.

A JWBL yellow line overhead acts as a navigational aid to guide customers through the JWBL nightclub experience, drawing them to key touch points such as the bar, back-bar, interactive tables, Dance Podiums and an exclusive VIP area.

H&R Johnson came are one of the UK's largest tile manufacturers but they were struggling to grow and attract new customers.

After a lot of research we determined that rather than create another tile showroom a more radical approach was required which targeted designers, architects and specifiers in a way that gave them a reason to visit.

Material lab was born and offers designers and architects an inspirational resource space where they can meet and discuss projects and explore new and innovative materials alongside the latest and greatest in tiles.

This gave architects and designers a much needed excuse to get away from their desk and created a 2 way dialogue between the specifier and the manufacturer.

This project was briefed by a property developer in Hampstead and in collaboration with a friend as an extension to my day job at the time. The house was acquired by the developer as 5 flats over 5 floors with the intention of turning them back into a single dwelling aimed at media types who lived or wanted to live in the area.

We completely gutted the interior, removing all walls, floor and stairs.

The National Trust Approached i-am to create a unique dining space in a new build in the grounds at Ightham Mote which is a 14th Century moated manor house in Kent. I designed the space for them taking references and inspiration from the characterful building. The tiles behind the bar were custom made using carvings from the Manor house. An artist was commissioned to take architectural castings and local craftsmen fabricated custom chandeliers in reference to patterns and artifacts found in the house.

In addition I designed a full range of solid oak wood furniture to complement the space.