Virgin unveils Camden concepts

The third stage in the evolution of Redjacket’s new design for Virgin Megastores was seen in the company’s Camden store in London, which opened this week.

The Camden design is being used as the model for Virgin’s flagship Oxford Street store in London, due to open in September, and as the basis for future refits and new stores, such as Birmingham and Newcastle.

Redjacket was appointed in 1998 to work alongside graphic designers Field, to design a store to broaden the appeal of the original concept, which had been aimed at 16to 24-year-olds.

The first store it designed opened in Glasgow in 1999, followed by a store in Milton Keynes which opened in September last year.

The designs are aimed at reducing visual clutter and simplifying the store layout to help customers navigate between different departments. The challenge was to incorporate ten departments in a relatively small footprint.

In the Camden store, Redjacket has introduced more graphics and high-tech bar-coded listening points with 3m-high digital wallpaper, which was designed by Field, aimed at giving each department a focal point.