New Work: Robert Welch

To mark the 40th anniversary of the establishment of Robert Welch’s Chipping Campden Studio Shop, Lorenzo Apicella was asked to undertake a major redesign of the space.

Pentagram has a long history of involvement with Robert Welch Designs having developed the graphic identity in the early 1970’s and designing the first mail-order catalogues as well as the book Hand and Machine.

Ten years ago Apicella was involved in the previous upgrade of the shop. That involved connecting together a series of sparsely lit cottage rooms around one central sales area. This time those rooms have been opened up into a circuit of bright display spaces surrounding an open Design Studio. The studio unites the spaces around it and illustrates the Robert Welch design process.

Meanwhile, only two small sales counters now supervise all product walls and island displays.

The perception is of a dramatically larger shop, despite no change in its floor area. This is reinforced by a substantial increase in products on display and the incorporation of a long glass Story Wall featuring the life and work of Robert Welch himself.

The white of the design studio, the black glass of the story wall, and the bright polished stainless steel of the products are a sharp modern foil to the honey coloured Cotswold stone walls around them.

Together, they exemplify the notion of moderate modernism. A warmer more tactile modernism that is at the heart of every Robert Welch product.

Design Team:
Lorenzo Apicella, Matthew Clare, Colleen Wittman, Dragan Sukljevic.