Designer Colour paint the town with illuminated shop signage

London based home decor company Designer Colours were looking to rebrand and update the signage at their large premises in Mill Hill to attract more business and boost visibility in the area.

The project involved removing dated signage which was in need of a freshen up. The old signs were replaced with 3 x Flex Face signs, a large canopy sign which spanned 21m and a smaller stencil cut sign tray at 5.4m in length.

The 3 x flex face signs cover an entire wall on the left hand side of the main building and have been painted to match the slate grey exterior. The largest of the 3 is installed directly above the shop window and features a very colourful graphic depicting the services and products available in store. The 2 smaller signs which are installed on either side of the large sign include brands available in store and opening hours.

The impressive main canopy sign tray which is a total of 21m in length covers 3 sides of a canopy which overhangs the customer car park in the centre of the premises. The main section of the sign which is over 17m long is wrapped in printed vinyl and has panel mounted built up halo illuminated letters reading “design colours”. Situated above these letters are 9 x brightly coloured 3D cubes formed from different coloured acrylic and illuminated on all sides. This design has also been mirrored on the right hand side of the sign tray which is 3.5m long so that passersby can see the business name from all angles.

On the right hand side of the premises is another entrance to the shop which needed a replacement sign. Designer Colours chose to have another vinyl wrapped sign tray to match the main canopy sign but instead of built up letters they selected stencil cut detail backed in illuminated acrylic for a simpler, elegant finish.

Designer Colours also commissioned the installation of two freestanding poster case boards that were lockable and could be easily updated. These boards were installed close to the road side and strategically angled so that traffic coming from both directions could easily see the advertisements.

To minimise disruption to business the main part of the installation took place during the last working week before Christmas which was a quieter time for Designer Colours.

W&Co celebrates 10 successful years supplying John Lewis

Following the recent opening of Essex’s first John Lewis department store in Chelmsford, W&Co Displays and Signs celebrates the homecoming of their light boxes to Essex and 10 successful years supplying to one of the UK’s favourite and best retailers.

The relationship between the two companies began in 2006 when Vickie Tuley, the then Concept Designer of John Lewis, enquired for a new slimmer type of lightbox for a trial in their Glasgow store stating “We are looking for a quality lightbox that diffuses the light evenly... the frame has to be front loading and easy for our staff to load and reload images. We use a standard light colour throughout our department and we would want the colour of the lightbox to be warm enough to fit in to the overall department ambience.”

W&Co's sleek ultra slim T5 tube illuminated light boxes were originally selected for the trial due to their superior build quality, high brightness and even illumination and following the fitting in the summer Vickie remarked, “Lightboxes look excellent at Glasgow. Everyone is really pleased with the look - especially of the larger ones.”

Subsequent to the success of the light boxes in Glasgow the nationwide roll-out commenced, seeing the first of the products installed into the Perfumery and Beauty departments at John Lewis’ flagship and largest store in London’s Oxford Street. Thereafter other prestigious stores were fitted out including, Bluewater, Edinburgh, Milton Keynes, Leicester and Newcastle.

Five years and several stores later an LED version of the ultra slim light box was approved and the first of these were installed in Westfield Stratford City in time for the London 2012 Olympics. The LED light boxes offered higher brightness in a slimmer and thinner frame and, more importantly, lower energy consumption than the traditional T5 tube versions which were winning features for John Lewis as they contributed towards their commitment to sustainability and energy savings.

One of John Lewis' foremost retail designers, Mag Secretario, commented, "The new LED light boxes are excellent," he continued, "W&Co's exceptional service has helped our success creatively, financially and sustainably by supporting our business case towards a sustainable design approach to branding."

In 2014 the light boxes evolved from snap frame to magnetic lift off front covers. This was so that staff could change the graphics more easily and quickly. This also enabled these even thinner light boxes (only 24mm deep) to be fully-recessed into the new stylish trellis-like framework in the Premium Beauty department which allowed shoppers to see through to other departments whilst still being able to easily distinguish individual brands.

The new ultra thin Tanto LED light box has the same bright and even illumination as the snap frame LED light box used in the Perfumery department, so a continuity of graphic lighting was maintained throughout both departments. The first of this new style was introduced to York soon followed by their flagship in London's Oxford Street, Exeter and High Wycombe.

Most recently over the last year Tanto LED light boxes have been used in Birmingham Bull ring, Liverpool and Basingstoke and now at Chelmsford, the first John Lewis store in Essex, which has the largest beauty hall out of all of John Lewis's small full-line department stores, with 14 premium beauty counters including M.A.C, Charlotte Tilbury and Nars. The branch manager of John Lewis Chelmsford, Laura Rawstron, said, “The business has had ambition to open a shop in Essex for some time now, and the Bond Street development couldn't be a better proposition for us.”

W&Co look forward to continuing their fantastic working relationship with John Lewis with new store openings in Leeds at the end of October 2016, then Oxford and Westfield White City opening their doors in 2017.

Tension fabric LED light boxes steer customers in the right direction

Various large format tension fabric LED light boxes were manufactured and installed at Inchcape West London Volkswagen in Brentford; Volkswagen’s largest UK car showroom and new flagship dealership.

W&Co was approached by branding experts, Integrity, to help design and manufacture a series of LED light boxes to create a fully illuminated feature wall in the main reception and illuminated way finding signage.

The impressive illuminated feature wall constructed from numerous large format fabric face LED light boxes which are fitted around a central doorway and a nine screen video wall as well as wrapping around a corner at one end.

W&Co worked closely with Integrity, both the site contractors and AV suppliers to ensure a well coordinated effort to complete this striking and high quality light box installation.

The majority of the light boxes that make up the wall have been covered with plain white backlit tension fabric whilst some of the larger areas have been digitally printed with images and information on historical VW models from 1945 to present day.

To accompany the main feature light box W&Co has supplied a 7m long, double sided tension fabric light box to act as way finding signage for customers across the 4 floor showroom, which was fixed to the ceiling for maximum visibility as soon as you enter the dealership.

W&Co was also asked to design and develop ceiling hanging tension fabric LED light boxes to go above the cars in other VW showrooms. This square shaped, multi-faced, feature lighting unit is essentially four double sided light boxes neatly connected together with mitre joins to create rectangular highlighters above new key VW models on display. 

Previously W&Co has supplied ground fixed outdoor advertising LED light boxes for Volkswagen to illuminate promotional posters close to the roadside.

For more images follow this link: http://bit.ly/2b6CqvF

W&Co's LED light sheets gives Irish Whiskey Museum a warm glow.

In the heart of Dublin’s beautiful city a brand new historical and interactive museum has opened its doors. Based on the traditional and vivid history of Dublin’s industrial past, specifically of alcoholic beverages and a long association with the drinks industry, Ireland’s first whiskey museum opened in autumn 2014.

The museum features a series of exhibitions detailing the history of whiskey distilling in Ireland through the use of interactive technology and actors. Visitors also have the opportunity to sample the Irish whiskies in a special tasting room.

In the summer of 2014 W&Co was approached by two Irish companies, MJ Architecture & The Irish Pub Company, to supply an LED feature lighting display for the museum’s tasting room. Our knowledge and expertise were utilised to produce a 14 metre wide LED feature wall.

The designer’s brief was to supply LED light panels that would be easy to install, could be recessed behind shelving and produced in a warm amber colour that would complement the backlit whiskey bottles on the shelves. The wall where the LED light panels were to be mounted had a convex curve, therefore, the panels were manufactured in twelve 1.2 metre wide sections to fit the shape. Television screens and whiskey bottles were placed on the shelves and backlit by the diffused LED light panels.

After two months of manufacturing trials and preparing translucent vinyl swatches, the client decided to use a warm orange filter film to be applied to the LED panels to increase the warmth of the lighting. The light panels were supplied with LEDs mounted to both long edges, along with a dimmable transformer to power all the LED light panels simultaneously. 

The store officially opened around autumn 2014 and has been a huge success and is expected to generate around 80,000 visitors in its first year. The project was an overall success the comments were very positive from the client.  Sean Ryan, interior design at MJ Architecture wrote, “I am very happy with the finished result of the whiskey wall, it conveys exactly what I intended with the design concept. Many people have commented on how great the effect is so thanks for your assistance on the project.”