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Retail Interior Design & Visual Merchandising

Creating spaces that bring joy to your customers and sales to your business.

Hello, I'm Verity.

I'm a freelance retail designer with 20 years experience, specialising in retail interiors and visual merchandising. I have a creative approach that's always customer focused, making sure the retail space is optimised for sales and the business can operate smoothly. 

I work with a whole range of clients, from shopfitters to design agencies, and I've even had the pleasure of working with big names like Flying Tiger Copenhagen, Wilko, and JoJo Maman Bébé. But I've got a soft spot for independent retailers and small business owners. The variety in my work is what keeps things exciting, and each project teaches me something new. The one thing that ties them all together is that I bring in proven retail techniques and a whole lot of creativity.

- If you're looking for some creative support for your business, I'd love to hear from you.

Design Services

One of the benefits of working with a freelance interior designer is that I can tailor my services to exactly what you need, however small or big your budget is. So If you're unsure how exactly I can help or what you need, please get in touch and we can chat it through.

A drawing of a sketch book

INTERIOR DESIGN

  • Concept Design.
    Moodboards, interior look and feel, material samples.

  • Interior Update / Refresh.
    Evaluate and improve your existing space to bring it back up to date.

  • Space planning.
    Proposed CAD layout, to get the most out of the space.

  • Interior visuals.
    Bringing a scheme to life. Really useful for presentations and marketing your space before it’s finished. Also great to see how it will look before you take the plunge.

  • Drawing packs.
    To help you find a suitable builder or shopfitter.

drawing of a set of ladders and a pair of mannequin legs used for dressing a window.

VISUAL MERCHANDISING

  • Visual Merchandising consultancy. I’ll visit your store or ‘walk through’ via video call to evaluate how well your store works. Then offer ‘quick win’ advice on product presentation and display. Discuss ways to improve the customer experience and generally increase sales.

  • Floorplans & Customer Flow. Best practice floor layout and space planning to make sure you are getting the most out of your existing space.

  • Creative concept work. For seasonal campaigns and promotions (from window displays through to online).

  • Artwork. For new signage, or for a new seasonal campaign or promotion.

  • VM guidelines and training manuals. Written and produced specifically for your business. Guidelines help create a strong, consistent look across the business. This helps customers to recognise your brand as well maintain high VM standards.

drawing of Verity's laptop

GRAPHIC DESIGN

Almost all commercial interior design projects need some graphic design and it’s often easier to use the same designer for all. Here are some examples:
 

  • Signage or POS.

  • Window vinyl.

  • Logo design / refresh.

  • Artwork for an in-store campaign or promotion.

About me

It’s nearly 20 years since I graduated from Falmouth College of Arts and moved to Bristol, this is where I started my career with IKEA on the Communication and Interior Design team. Since then, I’ve worked for retail design agencies, shopfitters, big retail brands and small retail brands, and I especially love working with independent retailers and small businesses. For 7 years I worked for Flying Tiger Copenhagen as the Head of Visual Merchandising, where I learnt a lot and had a lot of fun. The biggest challenge was managing the store’s presentation with the constant arrival of new stock.

 

I’ve got two small children who keep me and my husband on our toes. We moved to Chipping Norton in Oxfordshire in 2021 to be closer to family and we love our local community. One of the first things we did when we moved was to convert the coal shed into the coolest home studio. I love working in there and break up the week with travel around the UK for site visits and client meetings.

 

I have a creative approach to my work, usually beginning the process with freehand sketching, but I'm also proficient in AutoCAD, SketchUp and Adobe Creative Suite. I bring ideas to life through a mixture of 3D rendering, hand sketching and Photoshop manipulation.

 

I love to see a project through from start to finish, but I can also be a creative support for your team or work collaboratively. I’m available by the hour, by the day or project based - whatever works for you.

 

Get in touch, I’d love to hear more about your business and chat through how we can work together.

Illustration of Verity working at a drawing board.
Verity Gray Profile pic.jpg
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What my clients say...

"From day one Verity completely got under the skin of our business and understood the products and how our complicated model worked.

 

Verity developed and implemented planograms, colour blocking, themes, product selection, created and ran training sessions both in-store and at HQ / annual conferences.

Her knowledge & passion of the retail industry regarding product is amazing. Although Verity was freelance, she acted like an owner when visiting stores and all the staff really bought into her visualisation of what she was trying to portray.

 

Any retailer that is in need of a product / visual merchandiser expert will not find anyone better. Last but not least, what a pleasure to work with."

Simon Hall,
Director / Partner
Flying Tiger Copenhagen (UK)

Flying Tiger Logo

"Verity is enthusiastic and innovative at all times. Her hand sketching and CAD work is excellent. She would be an asset to any business or individual looking to use her skill set. I would have no hesitation in recommending Verity and her work."

Sharyn Wheeler,
Senior Design manager, Natwest Group

"I worked with Verity on a roll out of 14 pop up shops, she has exceptional presentation and organisational skills. All the artwork and key information was supplied promptly. Her plans were very accurate she was easy and great to work with."

Gary Boad,
Creative Director,
Cubed Creative

"It's always a pleasure to work with Verity. She really captures the essence of the client, the brand and our brief to translate into build-able interiors."

Kate Rowe, 
Director / Owner,
Spaceworks Interiors Ltd.

"Verity was our freelance Visual Merchandiser for the South West stores and was a pleasure to have on the team. She is efficient, creative and professional and was an asset to the Jojo family."

Alice Slocombe,
Head of Visual Merchandising,
JoJo Maman Bébé

JoJo Maman Bebe logo

Interested in working with me?

Great! I'd love to hear about your business and chat through how we can work together.

call: (+44) 7813 657885

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