The One Off secures National Gallery bookshop redesign

The National Gallery Company has appointed The One Off to redesign the bookshop in the Sainsbury Wing of London’s National Gallery. NGC is also working with Fortune Street to redesign its own visual identity and branding. Owned by the National Gallery Trust, NGC manages all commercial activities at the gallery.

The One Off won a four-way creative unpaid pitch in May to secure the £258 000 design project. NGC approached a mixture of shopfitters, architects and interior design consultancies to pitch to remodel the 385m2 store.

Shopfitter Clements Retail invited The One Off to create a joint pitch in response to NGC’s brief to ‘reinforce the bookshop as an authoritative and credible arts specialist’.

The One Off creative director Richard Collier says, ‘We are focusing on three key themes – authoritative, illustrative and imaginative – and shaping the customer journey around these. We are creating focal points and changes of pace and environment that will make the space exciting to explore.’

The design will not be rolled out to the other two permanent stores in the National Gallery, which were designed by the then Din Associates two years ago.

Last Friday, in-house designers and other staff at the National Gallery went on strike to protest against an ‘inadequate’ payrise. The One Off reports that the strike has not affected their project.

NGC’s new branding will launch in September, while the refurbished bookshop opens in spring 2009.