Evening Standard review Rhythm Kitchen

 

Five lucky Londoners are enjoying five fantastic experiences at the new Westfield Stratford City in East London. Our creative couple Ruth and Liam, blog about their amazing day out...

Here is the section about Rhythm Kitchen....

'Moving upstairs to the Café Court we choose Rhythm Kitchen for dinner as there's a great vibe and something smells real good. There's a music area where we press a button and hear a Caribbean tune - and then press again and it's someone laughing. Weird but fun. The Jerk chicken is amazing - Delroy, a local guy who owns the place tells us he's spent seven months perfecting the sauce. It's definitely paid off.
There are a lot of family recipes in the dishes and it's nice to find personal touches that reflect his Caribbean and east London background. It's quite inspirational to hear Delroy's story. You always find you go back to restaurants that serve good food, but perhaps it's just as important for the restaurant to be a fun, welcoming and a happy space, which this is. Rhythm Kitchen has both the good vibes and great food.'

To read more click here

A Tap East toast!

Celebrating the opening of Westfield Stratford City 

We made the journey up to Westfield from Clapham Junction with great anticipation of seeing all our clients stores open for the first time. Upon entering the shopping centre we were greeted by hoards of people - much more than expected, it was so packed we could not move at one point! After weaving our way through the crowds we entered Tap East which is at the far end of the Great Eastern Market for a celebratory toast. 

This was the last of 6 projects we started for Westfield and was turned around in record time (aprox 3 weeks) for the opening. Although not completely finished, as the pumps, vessels and pipes are being fitted for the Microbrewery it was fantastic to sit and enjoy a pint of ale with the team. It was especially exciting to see the logo we’d just designed on the pint glasses! The Microbrewery will be complete in a few weeks time with an official launch and we’ll make sure we are there to test the brew... so we can blog about it of course! 

Carolyne Hill

Graphic Design Director

Our first ever magazine

 

Our new magazine Design Style has been circulating this September and we hope you have enjoyed it! With features on TYC projects and activity, comments on new and exciting design, it's a quick snap shot of what's going on. Look out for the next issue in December! If you would like to be added to the mailing list then just let us know my emailing info@theyardcreative.com

Is this the future of shops?!

A truly amazing approach by Tesco Homeplus in South Korea! Watch the video and be prepared to be amazed and ready to question what your store might look like in the future!

Wimbledon viewing at Selfridges

Nike Sportswear “Live for the Game” in the Ultralounge Selfridges

A few of us from the office were invited to join John McEnroe and George Lamb in conversation at the Ultralounge in Selfridges this week. Nike Sportswear (NSW) have created an alternative viewing space to watch Wimbledon. With a range of viewing screens which you can view from pretty much any angle and chill out within a very cool auditorium surrounded by NSW Summer 2011 performance inspired and casual clothing. 

What surprised me was that it was not the usual tennis inspired theme with its dark interior comprised of different wooden textures, silvery tennis balls and retro accessories - including taxidermy! John McEnroe has been with Nike since 1978 when he signed one of the first professional endorsement deals in Tennis. The space and its design seemed to link this long history with tennis and sports with attention to detail, modern graphic touches and quality and bespoke clothing design. You are able to purchase individually numbered polo shirts which you can personalise with embroidery and a choice of tennis inspired icons. 

With the rain in London at the moment it is a great alternative to queuing with umbrellas! The John McEnroe discussion was interesting, along with the canapes and wine it was a great night in London’s luxe department store!

Youtube + Shopping = Youtique

A quick snap shot from the retail trends presentation, have you seen the new retail channel that may well be coming your way quicker than you realise?

French Connection have set up their first ever Youtique which allows their customer an entirely new way to shop online. Louise Roe, Stylist, will talk you through how to use it but essentially you are on Youtube whereby you can see a store of sorts as though through a camera lens. You shop by occasion, explore what it looks like, even how to wear it and then essentially buy it through Youtube!

Give it a try and see what you think. Our thoughts.....a very interactive shopping experience that the likes of ASOS have skimmed the surface with their highly successful catwalk. Theatrically then, this should go to new depths and be a huge success!

Proxi Marketing

 The next trend in the 'Future of Retailing' presentation is something you'd expect to see in a Sci-fi movie - Proxi Marketing

We first saw it in the Minority Report. You know, that part in the movie where Tom Cruise walks through the shopping mall and the shops are calling out to him letting him know that that jacket he tried on last week is now in the sale. OK, so that worked in the sci-fi world based on retina scanning but in todays world this type of proximity communication is becoming a reality through the use of GPS enabled phones.

Many of you I'm sure have already dabbled with permission marketing whereby a customer gives you their permission to contact them every now and then to let you know what's going on instore through the power of text. The problem with this type of marketing is 9 times out of 10 the customer is no where near a store and forgets all about it the moment they close that message.

If only you knew when they were close by and you could then send them something that was specific to that store on that day?

This is where Proxi Marketing comes in. Once your customer has given their permission, your systems will have a very clever algorithm that identifies when your customer is close by through the use of their GPS phone. Once identified you can then send them a message such as "Hi Steve, we see you're round the corner from your local Clapham store. Why not pop in and use this unique discount code and get 10% off any purchase today!". I might be in a rush, I might not need any more music, but just maybe I'm looking for that new Take That album and just maybe I'll pop in and buy it there and then just because I have that discount code.

Of course proxi marketing is not just about giving discount codes. In a world where we are now informed customers, this provides a great stream to communicate endless information that engages todays customer, right here, right now, just outside your store.

O2 is currently trialing this on a London based scheme with brands such as Starbucks, Superdrug and L'Oreal. During the trial in the US, 65% of customers made a purchase as a result of the proxi message*.

Is your brand involved? If not, this could be a great opportunity for you to get onboard and drive sales through this new technology!



* Figures from GDR Global report 2011