Design talk: Guy Smith, head of design, Arcadia

As the head of design at Arcadia, Guy Smith fulfils a global role forging the in-store shape of brands ranging from Topshop to Dorothy Perkins. Arcadia today is an organisation that seems to have a constant stream of new store openings in cities where you might not have expected it. All of which means Smith is a busy man and responsible for the appearance of multiple fascias across many different markets.

And when it is borne in mind that he has to sell the efforts of his 15-strong team to all of the various interests within Arcadia, as well as to chief executive Ian Grabiner, it also has the potential to be stressful. Previously, Smith was associate director at design consultancy Dalziel & Pow before signing on the dotted line with Arcadia in early 2010.

He therefore has a range of experience and understands both sides of the fence. The obvious advantage, from Arcadia’s perspective, is that he knows the score when it comes to assessing what design work is worth and how to commission it cost-effectively. The real question, however, is why did Arcadia feel it necessary to hire a new person to head up an in-house department?

“The situation when I arrived here was that things had been dumbed down a bit and the department was used pretty much as a CAD resource. The guys were asked to produce layouts and bits of equipment and they did it. Part of me coming on board was to restructure the relationships with the [Arcadia] brands,” says Smith.

He explains that, from a practical perspective, things really are different when the modus operandi of a design consultancy and an in-house retail design department are set side by side: “If you look at the way a consultancy is structured, it’s about getting the maximum amount of revenue from each member of the team. So if a retailer asks for a store design, the likelihood is they’ll be offered project management, roll-out, format development and so on, – as well as the original request – in order that they can use more people. If I use more than one person on one job, it may be a waste of time.”

He adds that agencies will offer three to four options on a design as they can charge for more time and the client will have three to four options they can show to the chief executive when the time comes for the capital expenditure purse strings to be loosened. All of which shows, perhaps, how astute Arcadia has been in hiring Smith and why it can be a real cost-saver when the price of creating a new store is taken into consideration.

It also means that for Arcadia getting the store designers in front of you does not mean jumping on a plane or train; it is a simple matter of taking the lift to the third floor of Arcadia’s head office, or running up the stairs if you’re in search of fitness. All of Smiths ‘clients’ are internal.

Talking design

But how do you deal with the heads of the various brands and a chief executive who takes a very keen interest in store design?

Smith has a meeting every Wednesday morning with Grabiner to talk through proposed developments and cost is always an issue. It is not, however, a matter of the lowest price winning. “It’s all about return on investment and if it can be demonstrated that it will be there, then so will the money. Cost is always an issue, but it’s not a barrier,” says Smith.

The other point is that talk to most in-house designers and almost the first thing that you are likely to be informed is that design of this kind is about “evolution, not revolution”. For Smith and his team, things are different. “If you take Topshop, you can do almost anything with it, because it’s about an attitude and if you understand that attitude, then the stores may vary depending on location. We have big steps and we have little steps and when the LA store opens [in early 2013], it will be a big step forward.”

He adds that there are, of course, constraints. Time is one of these and there is usually a handover date as an accompaniment to any project that is undertaken. “We stick pretty closely to the dates and it’s important that we do so,” he says.

With work taking place in locations including Santiago and Chicago in the past year and with the LA store already in an advanced state of development, this is the kind of design work that is never going to be mundane. There is the little matter of getting it right, however, and Arcadia is nothing if not an unrelenting taskmaster. Fortunately, Smith seems to be hitting the group’s design sweet spot and if the drawings in his office are anything to go by, he looks set to continue doing so.