Jury gives a preview of the award ceremony
by Satarupa Charaborty (in-store asia)
As our partnering tradefair in-store asia is gearing up for the 12th Edition of VM&RD Retail Design Awards and its first ever online edition on Friday, May 29, 2020, 4.00 pm onwards, they have caught up with some judges from the esteemed panel of jury talking about the award entries this year.
Andy Turnbull (Senior Creative Design Professional)
The quality of participating entries was very similar to previous years, a mix of well executed concepts, quite a few adaptations of global concepts (which lack a little uniqueness) and some beautifully localised boutique formats. The Food & Beverage section is still generally the stand-out – from an aesthetic perspective. Boutique retail was interesting as always and some of the bigger format stores have great storylines.
Antony Parham (Creative Director at Imagination London)
In the three years of judging, a lot of the entries are still dominated by design and build, I discovered more of such entries this year as well. The Category covering Beauty Speciality Stores was stronger this year along with the F&B category.
India continues to be a unique market for both international and local brands with huge exciting possibilities for creative customer engagement. Look forward to seeing how brands face the future challenges in engaging and innovative ways.
Angela Kreutz (CEO at blocher partners)
We have seen many good projects this year and it was impressive to see such a variety. The superior design quality of the projects sometime makes it really difficult to judge. More precision in terms of definition of categories is recommended, in this regard.
I would request the participants to highlight specific aspects of the projects rather than overall impressions. For example, if a project has good lighting concept,we would be interested to learn more about the lighting part – how it was planned, the effect, conceptualization and the whole journey. Also, the quality of images is very crucial as we are judging through them.
Overall, most project applications convinced with high creativity and innovation.
Claire England (Head of Visual Merchandising at Jaeger)
It was a pleasure to judge the VM&RD awards again this year. The standard was high as usual and it was good to see an even wider variety of entrants. It’s encouraging that sustainability is now considered the norm. I noticed that customer interaction played a bigger role this year which will be vital for the future of retail.
The challenge now is for retail is to be flexible and adapt to the new future we face. It is now even more interesting to see that change happening. Offering different experiences, superior customer service, focused stock packages and other facilities in store will be key to keep retail relevant.
Keith Ware (Managing Director at Dalziel & Pow)
The overall quality of entries has improved again this year and has been bolstered by an increasing amount of International Brands entering the awards with stores completed within India. Also, the quality of creativity and unique design solutions has improved across all categories, together with the improved quality of construction and implementation.
Nagesh C (VP – Design, Trends at Reliance Retail Limited)
This year, the quality of entries in many categories have been significantly superior. Some amazing works of global standards have left me really impressed. Pleasure to be part of the jury this year too.
I find it interesting to see the creativity, visualization, material use and quality of execution in the category of Restaurants and Cafes. Simply outstanding!
Our country and the world at large is up for a reset post coronavirus pandemic. Let’s hope for a new tomorrow. Stay innovative, stay safe.
Are you interested in the best store designs from India?
Then register now for the online award ceremony at www.instoreasia.org
