All my friends...

Verified by Spotify as top of my playlists for ’24, is ‘All my friends’, a repetitive but mesmerising song by LCD Soundsystem that consumes you. Give it a listen: https://open.spotify.com/track/2Ud3deeqLAG988pfW0Kwcl

Maybe a portrayal of the year?- a pacy loop with highs, lows, and optimism.

Our work has reached East Asia, Middle East, Europe, America, and throughout the UK, our design studio base. The latter (possibly surprisingly) the lion’s share with brands- very varying brands- but all with a common thread of drive. I believe down to their clear DNA’s, clear strategies, and unwavering focus. Brands that nurture their consumers as valued communities. It pays dividends.?

An interesting trend has also been the spectrum. ‘Retail design’ in its strictest sense increasingly a limiting narration. That might be part of the outcome, but deep-diving emersion, and defining engaging consumer experiences and touch-points, has brought diversification, applied to an array of: platforms; places; and products. It motivates us to engage with brands which require time (often at pace) to understand their worlds, to effectively ‘get it’, work on propulsion initiatives, and take on the persona of their audiences (to view it through their lens). I paused recently in a London boutique, and thought what’s surrounding me has all been designed by gpstudio ; the architectural environment; interior furniture; and even some of the product on the shelves.

Scale has also been noticeable, as in the sheer variety. From enormous and ambitious footprints (multiple football pitch is size) down to a product label (no bigger in scale than a matchbox). But with?shared ambitions: to command their market; and physically exude their brand personalities.

Next year I foresee even greater diversity, fascinating challenges, and successes- with brand's driving for portfolio rhyme or reason, originality, effectiveness and results. And a need for pronounced agility to navigate global uncertainties and changes in consumer habits and engagement.

Trash Glam Baby (The Boomtown Rats) and Adagio for Strings (Samuel Barber) also appear in my top x5 this year, read into it what you may!?What’s on your list?...

Meantime, a very merry Christmas and peaceful New Year.