Debenhams 2014 > words
Debenhams had almost completed the rebuild of its department store on Oxford St London when I was appointed Senior Creative Manager. This was a job of considerable scale at a very crucial time in Debenhams long history. I was really looking forward to the challenge of helping this heritage brand evolve into the twenty-first century, following in the footsteps of numerous other heritage brands that had recently made the transition to luxury or premium markets. My first install shattered any beliefs I had in the value Debenhams placed on its own heritage. Budgets were wafer thin and spaces had to be coherently held together with little more than print. Anything vaguely artistic like the Muybridge install below was dropped. The Debenhams leadership wanted to create a Walmart on Oxford St in a battle of ever diminishing margins. The images below show what can be done with wrapping paper and very little else. It’s a huge store and the large spaces need sales coherence and the team did its best. Scale and heritage were the draws to Debenhams but with its leadership pulling in the opposite direction as a discount store Debenhams was a sad disappointment and not for me.
