Every year our design and insight team take a trip to Salone Del Mobile, Milan Design Week, exploring installations and branded activations from some of the the world’s leading creatives and brands. Showcasing the best of what we saw, we’ve pulled together our highlights and findings into the insight report below.

Katie featured in TheIndustry.fashion sharing her insights on Topshop’s return to physical retail.

Katie said that while the buzz shows Topshop’s relevance, the brand is missing a trick. She believes it should harness this momentum to make a real statement about its comeback.

Instead of relying solely on wholesale, Katie suggests Topshop should embrace: bold experimentation, curating pop-ups, tapping into culturally relevant spaces, and creating experiences that forge genuine connections with younger consumers.

Now is a golden opportunity to embed itself back into the cultural zeitgeist, or risk fading quietly into obscurity!

Our MD, Katie, has been featured in the Future State Studio Now/Next series, a platform showcasing individuals shaping the cultural landscape.
In the interview, Katie discusses her leadership journey, blending creativity with commercial strategy, and the evolution of brand environments.

Our MD, Katie, has written an article for the MAD//FEST Female Leaders' Club. Rather than questioning, ‘How can parents manage the juggle?’, Katie offers an insightful perspective on the challenges and rewards of balancing motherhood while navigating a career. Reflecting on her own journey, she discusses the pressures working parents face and the importance of strong support systems. Calling on businesses to adopt family-friendly policies, Katie shares how her experience has shaped a more inclusive, flexible workplace at Seen Studios, one designed to support parents.

Our MD, Katie, has written an article for the MAD//FEST Female Leaders' Club, discussing the rapidly evolving retail landscape. With shifting consumer preferences, technological advancements, and growing demands for sustainability, Katie explores how brands can stay ahead. By leveraging data, embracing omnichannel strategies, and maintaining agility, she highlights how brands can not only keep pace but lead in this dynamic environment.

Trailblazers of today, Generation Z are the leaders of digital living, putting physical retail environments on a back foot in their realm of priorities. Understanding the challenges of fine-tuning a retail strategy fit for the cohort, join us as we crank the dials back and look towards something unexpectedly classic for strategic inspiration, Radio.

Every year our design and insight team take a trip to Salone Del Mobile, Milan Design Week, exploring installations and branded activations from some of the the world’s leading creatives and brands. Showcasing the best of what we saw, we’ve pulled together our highlights and findings into the insight report below.

Exploring the shops, streets, and sights of Milan we took our brand partners at PUIG on a retail safari around the iconic cosmopolitan city. Beginning the weekend with a retail innovation workshop, guests were introduced to the safari’s official in-app map, kitted out with guidance and digital tools for note taking. Discovering best-in-practise retail spots, the safari saw 50 guests guided across the city by members of our team, exploring the design innovation behind the city’s greatest shops.

With a desire to shed light on functional, circular, and future-thinking practises that elevate brand experiences in conscious ways, this issue covers the likes of material innovation, interviews with pioneers of sustainable practise, and an investigation on today’s eco-focused consumer. Featuring some of our favourite projects such as our work for Converse Renew and Nike Move to Zero, this is a transparent exploration into the past and the future of sustainable design.

We saw a vibrant and varied Salone Del Mobile this year. Many installations and exhibitions challenged topics affecting the design community today - sustainability and technology being prevalent across the city. The report brings you the best of what we saw and hopefully provides some inspiration and insight.

Our online event, Content with Purpose, unpicks content creation’s colossal impact on retail design, championing the pioneers in retail who are incorporating content into their brand messaging in authentic and innovative ways. Investigating how brands must evolve to match the evolving everyday 'phygital' demands of consumers, join us as we cover the likes of user-generated technology and dynamic digital art.

As branded environments continue to evolve and merge our social and digital landscapes with offline experiences, we created a series of experimental studies exploring the future of brand presence in our everyday lives. In partnership with multidisciplinary artists and our studio of strategists, retail designers, 3D artists and art directors, we set out to challenge the status quo in today’s retail design practises.

‘Something for Nothing’, AKA ‘S4N’, sees our Creative Director, Moe, exploring the latest retail experiences with a different guest each episode. Offering 90 seconds of insight and a bit of fun in a new retail hot-spot, Moe covers how and why innovations in physical retail are so important and what it means for the future of all things shop.

Two years of strict regulations across retail has kicked store design creativity up a gear, giving experiential design a new meaning. This article looks at post-pandemic changes in creative retail, and why it’s such an exciting time to be in an industry which is always pushing boundaries.

Join us in our virtual space, Seen Beyond, for a deep dive into our latest webinar: Omni-Retail Realities that investigates how both digital and physical realities have influenced and been embraced within spatial design, overturning retail as we know it.

Join our MD, Katie, as she talks through the emergence of the Metaverse within the retail, e-commerce and design worlds. Discussing fashion, design, gamification and the pioneers of the virtual realms, listen here for a short insight-filled session on how the consumer loyalty game is changing dramatically within virtual spaces.

Evolving Youth Culture looks at the changing face of the retail environment as we knew it in a pre-pandemic world. Considering how the innovative experiences that merge both digital and physical retail are now key in forging an attachment with key consumers.

Sustainable and circular design has always been a focus for us at Seen Studios and we try to adopt a sustainable approach whether it is explicitly part of a brief or not.

The emergence of digital engagement within the retail world was prevalent even before Covid. Now we can see, as brands leverage the growth of their digital following and seamlessly guide them into their physical spaces, both the convenience of online shopping and the experiential benefits of brick & mortar stores are equally as important

Although the emergence of digital engagement within the retail world was prevalent before Covid, the pandemic has been a catalyst for all brands to create a frictionless experience between online and offline journeys.

The evolution of retail over the past decade has meant that consumers crave an experience from the brands they interact with. This bite size report shares an introduction to how brands responded to this ever-growing need for the realignment of our experiential strategies.

‘Speaking Of’ was a series of conversations with some of our brand partners on retail topics important to us both as companies. The first series focuses on The Importance of Sustainability in retail.

As the conversation around sustainability grows, there is still an increasing number of consumers choosing brands based on their eco-credentials. We know live experiences provide a unique opportunity to engage an audience, however, many brands do not consider the environmental implications of the experiences they create.

In response to the ever-evolving attitudes of consumers, particularly those from the influential Generation Z, brands faced pressure to support and champion their values. This report will introduce you to three of the drivers we developed for 2019/20 that shaped and influenced this technologically native, globally-connected, and creative generation.

Whilst environmental issues heavily influence consumers’ purchasing behaviours, the decreasing trust levels on government bodies mean people are increasingly looking to brands to make a difference alongside their communities. This report explores how brands successfully engaged with consumers by supporting them in making the right choices.

When considering influence within the physical retail landscape, the consumer must be placed at the heart of the brand, building online to offline strategies that connect with the audience in more meaningful and personalised ways.

To truly understand Generation Z, we took the chance to get to know them better, not just as consumers but as people whose drivers and opinions will change the course of not just the retail landscape but the world as we view it today.

As a progressive retail display agency we want to provide the industry with insights that were founded in robust human science, reflective of changes in retail.

As consumers have become more savvy and immune to repetitive, loud tactics, they’ve responded by turning to alternative purchasing avenues to avoid those noisy environments. This report provides a ‘how to’ guide to cut through the noise of your consumers’ overloaded worlds and develop long-term loyalty.

Proud to see our MD, Katie Mitchell, featured in Creative Brief's IWD article discussing how to better support women navigating the 'messy middle' of their careers.

In the article, Katie shares her perspective as a woman, mother, and leader in the creative industry - highlighting the real challenges women face balancing career and family, from rising childcare costs to the emotional toll of being stretched too thin.

Katie advocates for more flexible working arrangements, mindful leadership, and building supportive communities like Creative Marketing Mums, a group she founded to offer advice and connection for women in creative marketing.

Our Lead Strategist, Gursharan, recently shared her thoughts with Retail Sector on the potential impact of Topshop’s return to the high street.

Gursharan sees Topshop as a "relic of the British high street and a pillar of British culture." Its absence left a gap in fashion, and its return has sparked nostalgia, especially among Gen Z. The resurgence of trends from Topshop’s golden years highlights its enduring cultural significance and relevance.

She also notes that Topshop’s Oxford Street flagship was once a leader in experiential retail, offering unique experiences and a shopping atmosphere that felt more like an event.

“People love a comeback story,” she says. “With a hyper-local strategy and a renewed focus on the retail experience, there’s still strong demand for physical stores.”

Joining the conversation in Retail Sector, our Director of Creative & Strategy, Moe Krimat, shared his insights on the potential role of physical spaces in Boohoo’s rebrand.

Moe highlighted how, if Boohoo explores physical retail under the Debenhams identity, there is an opportunity to go beyond traditional department stores and create immersive, experience-led spaces. Drawing inspiration from brands like Astrid & Miyu, whose store was designed by us here at Seen Studios, he suggested that physical stores could become cultural hubs for fashion, music, art and community, offering more than just transactions.