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.
