Pets at Home puppy challenge inspires Student Design Award entrants
Every year three retail brands set challenges for students from colleges and universities. Pets at Home store format and development manager, Sarah Perry, set the brief, which challenged the students to create a Puppy/Kitten World as a store-in-store format.
The concept needed to establish the space as a community hub for pet owners, where they could celebrate their pets, seek expert advice, and access a range of specialist products.
The retailer set a touch challenge, requiring students to create an entirely new brand identity for the space, and to ensure it provided a comprehensive retail offer, an events space, health centre with the potential for veterinary services in larger branches, and an area for seating and refreshments.
Tackling the brief were second year students from Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU), mentored by independent designer Helen Shelley; and from the University for the Creative Arts Farnham, mentored by Tim Greenhalgh, Mario Brown and James Donnellan, all from Fitch.
Judges were impressed by the sense of community in this design, which focused on giving new pet owners a place to meet and swap notes. They also liked the lightness of touch employed in the design.
Source: essential retail