East Street is the latest project by Nick Jeffrey and David Fox, founders of restaurant chain Tampopo, and offers a diverse and unique take on Pan Asian cuisine, inspired by the pair’s own food discoveries during their travels across East Asia. ‘i-am’ Associates were appointed during the evolution stages to help develop and build a completely new brand identity for the launch of East Street in London. This included the creation of a new name and logo, graphic elements and complete interior design for the site. We took bold steps to ensure that East Street had a solid brand proposition that resonated with their customer base. The tone of voice is friendly, warm and open. The core value was to create a Pan Asian food odyssey. The sourcing of staff, creation of menu's and the overall delivery of the brand message had to be unified and relate to the brand values. |
As lead designer on the project, Dan Wilson explains how everything was a direct take on travel, specifically Asia. “We wanted to emulate the raw vibe of a South East Asian market and street cafe. From the very beginning we didn’t want to lose sight of how intimate the restaurant should feel, you should be totally immersed in the street market experience. The long benches and plastic tables recreate the feeling of being sat in a busy café in Hong Kong or Vietnam under a low glow of light surrounded by the sights and sounds of the kitchen.” We hope to see you there soon, and make sure you ‘like’ their facebook page to be the first to find out about events and competitions. Follow them here. |
It has been great to reunite with the team at Domus to create this intriguing new concept showroom in Clerkenwell, London. Following a brand review using the ‘i-am’ brand key process, we agreed that Domus had to focus on being in-tune with the local design and architectural community; not just a supplier, but a thought leading part of the community. The overall design concept (that we’ve called ‘Back to Front’) was inspired by visiting the Domus warehouse in West London and their many suppliers in Northern Italy. The showroom itself would be returned to its foundations, stripped of artificial display walls and counters to reveal the body of this generous space. The raw workings of the warehouse have been brought to the front, allowing them to become the focal point of the experience. We also took typographical cues from the way warehouses function, how tiles are stored and the language of pallet stencilling. |
These cues have been represented through signage, way finding and product information. The look and feel is about compare and contrast, precise against rough, new with raw. Making the expected, unexpected. Precise Ceramic tiles are now presented on stripped bare concrete walls, new technology rests on used pallets and large-scale art is mounted next to exposed brick. The store is innovative, interactive but most importantly, adaptive. By elevating display units on wheels with no fixed zones, the space can be altered to create surprise and intrigue on each visit. Importantly we also want the space to become a venue for great events within the local community. In fact, Domus will be curating a series of inspirational happenings throughout the year all focused on the creative use of surfaces. |
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As we hinted in our last newsletter ‘i-am’ has grown. After the success of both the London and Istanbul office we are excited to announce the official opening of ‘i-am’ Mumbai. Following our work with New India Bank we completely feel in love with Mumbai; the culture, the food, and especially the people who we met. After spending 3 years flying to-and-fro we felt that a permanent home would allow us to continue our work and spread the ‘i-am’ brand. We have a fantastic team there who are already working on some great projects for fashion and retail brands, property developments and further work within the financial services. |
On Thursday the 8th of December we celebrated both the opening of our new office in Mumbai and the expansion of our London studio to the newly acquired ground floor of the Old School House. For one night only 'i-am' beyond transformed the office into a Festival of Colour. It was an indulgent evening inspired by the East; exotic tastes came from our indoor street market with help from our friend Angus Denoon, sounds from our very own sitar player and Bollywood DJ and lots of cocktails thanks to the rebel dining society. Once again many thanks to Addie Chinn for these great shots! If you have a business in India or are interested in finding out more about our office you can email Abhi directly |
It seemed a good idea when the U.S. giant Best Buy landed in the U.K. two years ago and scared the living daylights out of the competition, despite denying it at the time. Best Buy launched in a cloud of press frenzy, hype and performance expectation, in cahoots with those shrewd operators Charles Dunstone’s and Carphone Warehouse. The Best Buy brand has been a category killing success in the US accounting for 19% of the market and gained a reputation for approachable and knowledgeable staff with a twist of ‘nerdiness’ to give it a point of difference. The stores themselves had a few rough edges not afraid to employ the ‘split carton’ display. This added to the no frills approach and won strong customer loyalty from its target audience. When the brand finally arrived here, much was reported about it especially the recruitment and team building methods based on their US model, prior to their Thurrock opening and subsequent rollout. ‘Happy Clappy’ to some sceptics, admittedly the opposite to the British reserved approach or full on ‘alright mate?’ hard sell style, all grist for the mill of service expectation. The store itself promised a relaxed ordered atmosphere and having worked for C.W. in the past, early discussions with them about the new format, indicated an honest determined commitment to make the customer journey a truly positive one. When the store opened much fanfare was made of its wide range of sharply priced goods, electric car and bike offers, customer service and convenience. I used the store on one of our client ‘store tours’ and was impressed by the level of service, especially when having stopped a member of staff to grill them about a product he failed on the final fence of delivery time. However it transpires he was the security guard and whilst everyone in the store must have some product knowledge, he needed to call a member of the sales team. We were impressed! Well interestingly having visited on day one and then returning a year on, the cracks were appearing. Gone were the car and wide range of two wheeled transport. In were the louder tone of voice. Out were the high staff numbers. So what happened?
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It’s a good case study in bad timing, landing as they did in the middle of a battlefield with no high ground and attacks on all fronts. They may have had clout, but the competition was tough and battle hardened with the likes of Comet, Currys and Argos in particular and a well serviced online industry. But the true failure was in spotting just how tough it was going to be in what has turned into a messy commodity sector with such a big space strategy. A week after they declared their withdrawal from the market, Currys announced that the KESA group was selling it for the princely sum of £2. Did any one at Best Buy see how bad trading had been for them? Currys figures for the last two years declared somewhere in the region of a £22m loss. Again and again we witness the retail sector trying to squeeze the ‘low price’ genie back into the bottle. The only saving grace is new technologies to pump up the margin again and most retailers do not control those cards. With the sector reporting sales some 6% down, its clear that the landscape has experienced a seismic shift never to be the same again. Internet sales are absolute proof of the market trend for the ‘browse Sunday, click Monday’ purchasing phenomenon. As an aside, I hear that middle England stalwart John Lewis, is having to pay through their nose to maintain their ‘never knowingly undersold’ cash back promise due to the high street price wars, a cost they say worth carrying to maintain their core brand value and continue to attract their loyal customer base. So we wave goodbye to our American friends, but I for one am grateful for the legacy they left the sector. They helped raise the game of standards both in presentation and service. We have benefited from their challenge to the principles of best practice as consumers and made the remaining players sharper and smarter, albeit no more profitable. There are more challenges ahead and nothing but clever thinking and five star service will do in such a demanding and difficult sector. I am absolutely sure that this industry sector will need to develop a completely new trading proposition within the next five years. I hope as I write someone out there is hatching a plan that will deliver success in adversity, but for now lets take one step at a time and say thanks Best Buy. It was good knowing you. Tim Jeffrey Retail Director |
