The design team behind the recent revamp of Footasylum stores have launched a new retail design agency, Caravan.
Based in Yorkshire, the agency will be headed up by designers Jamie O’Donnell, Antony Barkworth-Knight and Ricky Hewitt, all of whom are well versed in working collaboratively with clients to create seamless, experiential retail spaces that captivate customers and elevate brands.
O’Donnell brings over 23 years’ experience working with clients in London, Amsterdam, Manchester and Dubai, while visual artist Antony Barkworth-Knight has been producing rich, dynamic work with designers, artists and more for 15 years. Completing the team, designer and art director Ricky Hewitt brings over 19 years’ experience, primarily working in the retail sector on branding and digital design.
After working together for many years at various agencies, brands and on joint projects, they’re now teaming up at Caravan, an end-to-end spatial design agency founded on the principles of courage, craft and creativity. Its founders set out to build “a new kind of agency, a place where intuition, experience and skill would combine to form the best team they’d ever been part of.”
Launching with the strapline ‘spaces that move brands’ the team will work collaboratively with clients to create seamless, experiential retail spaces that captivate customers and elevate brands. They will work with brands in every industry to scope, strategise, design and deliver spaces with the kind of dynamic, disruptive force needed to make a lasting impact in today’s world.
Together, the Caravan team have designed for numerous retail brands and high profile hospitality venues. They have delivered projects for brands including Tommy Hilfiger, Adidas, BMW, SkyBet, ASDA, Harrods, Greggs, Fred Perry and Virgin.
Immediately before announcing the launch of the new venture, the team delivered a groundbreaking project for fashion streetwear retailer, Footasylum. The result was the brand’s most technically advanced stores yet, with venues transformed in London’s Lakeside Shopping Centre and Birmingham’s Bullring & Grand Central, as well as the flagship Oxford Street store.
Jamie O’Donnell, co-founder and interior designer, said: “With plenty of experience working as part of other people’s brands and collabs over the years, now felt like the right time to do our own thing. We’ve got great chemistry as a team – we know each other’s skill sets and strengths really well, and can’t wait to join forces and make brilliant spaces for brands. We’re all looking forward to getting the Caravan moving and seeing where this journey takes us – but most importantly, where we can take the clients we work with. Watch this space.
