Whilst working in-house as Senior Store and Retail Designer at WH Smith I was tasked with bring the whole look in-store together (or at least in a bit more order). The chart highlights the concerns that there were lots of offers, messages and no design consistency. The proposal was to use a circular device across the whole range to try and improve the design flow. Add to this an introduction of a bit of ‘personality’/tone of voice by using headlines and copy in a friendly way. The images above are the initial design visuals from my proposal document; the images below are actual window graphics and promotions. The designs are always going to be busy given that Smiths sell space in the window – so more product shown is more profit – but at least there was some order to the chaos now!

Shown are a few examples of the many leaflets and in-store promotions designed for WHSmith and its many franchise operations. Again the circle design was integrated in to these to keep some design consistency and visual continuity.

Smiths Books stores were specifically targeting the likes of Waterstones and (then) Borders. They had a less chaotic feel to the stores and the messages had to be less ‘shouty!’ – the carousel hosts just a few examples of in-store graphic signage with a personality and message.