John Lewis used to the place that your mum took you where you were forced to hover while she inspected the haberdashery department and assessed the school clothing that you were going to model.
For those of a certain age this would have meant only one thing: trial by tedium.
Fortunately those days are more or less gone and kids being taken to the 31,000 sq ft fourth floor of the Oxford Street store may even find the whole experience mildly diverting.
The reason for this is straight-forward. The floor has just emerged from a makeover to a design created by consultancy Dalziel + Pow, that takes it from being something of a juvenile backwater to a department that is close to being an example of sector best practice.
From the moment that you arrive on the floor, the yellow sign with an outsize ‘4’ stamped into it, telling you what floor you’re on, indicates that you have left the sober, albeit attractive, world that is John Lewis. The next thing that you are likely to see is the display modules set into the escalator atrium or the glass and white MDF fixtures used to show off brightly coloured merchandise from the department.
Beyond this, there are lots of toys and messages that may keep the tone of voice that will be familiar to John Lewis shoppers, but that manage to inject a little fun by dint of coloured backgrounds and font. Outsize letters that double up as further display modules are scattered around the space and the white box walls and fixtures are given impetus by the use of eye-catching 3D graphics.
This is a fine transformation as the refurbishment of one of Oxford Street’s largest stores draws to a close… for the time being.
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