The Conran Shop - Stephen Briars Q&A

- written by Laura 

‘In all of my experiences, I’ve always aimed to distill the essence of every brand and focus on strengths and storytelling,’ says The Conran Shop creative director Stephen Briars when we sit down with him to discuss his mission to open up one of the most important UK design institutions to new audiences. ‘It’s important to remember that these brands have been through many chapters before and after my time. It's important to act as a custodian, and an ambassador, during your tenure.’

Joining The Conran Shop in 2016, Stephen’s tenure comes at a fascinating moment in the national treasure’s 45 year history. On one hand, online shopping and social media have changed the retail model irrevocably, but with millennials hungry for experiences, transforming a store into a ‘destination’ where customers want to hang out as well as make purchases, provides creative directors like Stephen with an exciting new challenge.

Stephen himself started his career at Paul Smith, cutting his teeth in retail before moving to visual merchandising. There he built up the creative visual merchandising department from just one (him) to a global team of ten, translating the brand's unique mix of edge and elegance into physical spaces. After 12 years at the fashion house he became European creative director of Urban Outfitters and then Louis Vuitton’s global head of visual merchandising. Joining The Conran Shop two years ago, now he’s responsible for the look and feel of The Conran Shop’s brand, including the aesthetics of its stores (in the UK, France and Japan), its visual merchandising, campaigns and visual buzz online. We couldn’t wait to find out more…

From the outside Paul Smith, Urban Outfitters and Louis Vuitton feel like very different entities, how have those experiences fed into your current role?

They are very diverse in concept, storytelling and methodology, but they derive from an origin of strong concept, strong product or strong founder. Their diversity is obvious but there’s a common thread between. What made them original and compelling to their audience at the time is their ‘Big Bang’ moment. Early success, and indeed their current status, still emanates from the mind of the founder or leader. Both Paul Smith and Urban Outfitters have their founders involved in the business some forty years later. In all of my experiences, I’ve always aimed to distill the essence of every brand and focus on strengths and storytelling. It’s important to remember that these brands have been through many chapters before and after my time. It's important to act as a custodian, and an ambassador, during your tenure. Coming from different parts of the spectrum the learning is very much that there’s no single way of approaching a business but you’re always mining the same gold. I can take change, evolution and proud legacy from all of these career moments.

What initially attracted you to a role at The Conran Shop?

If you’re a certain age, and if your career has followed a creative arc, then it is impossible to ignore the contribution Terence Conran made to Britain from the post-war 1950s to the millennium. We owe much of our modern outlook on 'design as a way of life', even our appreciation of modern approach to food experiences, to Terence. I recall his impact on my psyche while growing up and in my formative years. The Conran Shop was one of those emporiums of great design, including both affordable utility and exceptional pinnacle pieces from the great designers. It became a real destination. Paul Smith had the same impact while I was growing up and I’m lucky enough to have worked for both.

What’s your vision for The Conran Shop? How are you keeping such a well-established brand relevant to the next generation?

Relevance, successful relevance. Any brand that existed 45 years ago and remains in our thought today has had to reinvent itself many times. We can quote many retailers who have succeeded through amazing, original ideas and personality, but have lost their mojo to poor management, complacency, an over-reliance on operational departments to run the brand, or simply stupidity or greed. Something newer, bigger and more exciting will always come along, and as soon as the crowd heads there, you’d better be built for dynamic haul back to relevance.

The next generations are fuelled by different standards and values. Their experiences are full on and desirous of memories. Travel, food and entertainment means something much more significant to our future customers than it did to our customers in the late 20th century. We are more appreciative and demanding of sustainability, wellbeing and technology which isn't necessarily something that occupied our brand thoughts 20 years ago. Ultimately we are defined by our products, so we must constantly change and be more adventurous in our choices. We must make the experience of our stores and website truly relevant in what is typically a slow-moving sector. We must engage in clever marketing, using a fine balance of informed and personally engaging stories geared to a digital world.

What part of your role excites you most?

Getting shit done, challenging convention, keeping the team motivated and engaged, building new things and proving there’s a better way to do things.

Where does your team scout out new designers for The Conran Shop and can you put your finger on what you’re looking for?

To answer the second question first, there’s a long standing mantra in the brand: ‘plain, simple, useful’. I can decipher that in many ways; our stores are hardly puritan or filled with shaker furniture. It means to me that we’re not flashy or gaudy. We avoid over-design or items that look great but conceal a hollow centre. We’ve always been about curation. Way back in the beginning, we were a cosmopolitan global collection of items originally collected through Terence’s mind and vision. In real terms that curation can mean a French drinking glass by Duralex. I guarantee you we’ve all used one, we’ve all drank from one, or we’ve bought a copy lovingly ripped off from the original design. Duralex still produce them in their millions and we still sell them for around £1.50 a glass, they are plain simple and useful. We also sell many Knoll pedestal tables by the great Eero Saarinen, a beautiful oval piece of Italian marble almost 2.5m-long that sits on just one elegantly curved base. You will also pass one of these tables somewhere everyday. By contrast this design classic will cost you £12,000, but it is also plain, simple and useful. 

We carry over 8,000 products so our offer is very diverse. It’s a choice of core and seasonal items. Our buyers still look to the world for their ideas. For newness we have a network of suppliers who can develop private label products for us. Externally we utilise the many trade fairs and look to degree shows and showcase exhibits such as London Design Festival, London Craft Week and New Designers. Occasionally we are asked to judge an award which highlights new and upcoming designers. At the same time designers approach us directly and we can view the opportunities.

What advice would you give emerging designers who are keen to get their work on shelves in shops like yours?

We’re a commercial entity so think about how you make it and how you pitch it. How would you deal with repeat orders and how do you cost it? Know that any retailer has to add margins to pay for its online and offline resources, and then also make a profit to grow. Think about consistent quality and how you would deliver the goods. Almost every product has to be safely transported between businesses and customers, so it’s more than just the physical piece alone. Approach businesses and investors. Most retailers have a network of suppliers who work with factories to make ideas a reality. Think sustainability: what does your design bring to the world and does it use limited resources wisely?

Why are bricks and mortar retailers so essential to the design industry (and to design history)?

Successful retail environments are adapting to modern trends. Now all retail business is a mix of physical and digital experience. The physical spaces have always defined a brand's personality. The concept, content and experience leave a lasting impression, and in an age of distraction, store environments have to play with our minds in ever-evolving ways.

The Conran Shop evokes a personality through its windows. They are the face of the store and work as an invitation to the world. In 2019, does a window full of furniture excite in the same way it did twenty or thirty years ago? I see windows as installations rather than displays, and they are the first memory locked into your mind. I’ve never heard anyone say, ‘Do you remember that great kitchen and dining window?’ You are more likely to hear, ‘Do you remember the one they did with the plywood house?’ No one ever remembers the content, just the idea, and that’s the memory. Beyond the entrance lobby the sense of theatre has to be dynamic. In most retail environments, if you have to signpost where things are you're failing to communicate the concept. Departments have to be clearly defined and for us the challenge is always the balance between furniture and lifestyle. The scale of products and the speed of sale requires different retail methods, so we’re working more like a department store. I believe as time goes by the stores will become increasingly used as showrooms, somewhere where we can physically see and experience those items, to touch the wood and feel the fabric, and understand why a particular design, and a particular construction warrants the higher ticket price. Our stockrooms will become smaller and technology will allow wider options and additional choices. 

What are the business challenges of running a brand/institution with as much heritage as The Conran Shop?

Letting go of the past, being brave about new ways of doing things and not letting previous success be confused with false nostalgia. The world is ever-changing and everything we do has to resonate with the current world view. There are ideas we used just two years ago that no longer seem valid, so there’s a lot of history to analyse. Then to look at it through a reverse lens, businesses such as Conran grew and succeeded in a pre-internet, pre-computer, pre-digital marketing age. The emphasis was on doing not analysing, building and achieving. Today we are at the mercy of bad marketing and data science. Everything’s a metric to be mined to a convenient conclusion. To be successful there’s a real balancing act…

How do you open up institutions like The Conran Shop to new audiences?

The old model was very much ‘build it and they will come’. Stick an ad in a newspaper, print a catalogue and open the doors. It was hugely successful at a moment in time. The Conran Shop was built off the back of a very successful business called Habitat, which really doesn't exist in our mindset like it did in the 1980s and 1990s. In 2019 we have to exist for our own reasons so we have to appeal to the right audience. We’ve seen a significant increase in a younger audience over the last three years particularly through event sponsorship, a change in tone of voice and a more focused approach on who we believe our core audience to be. Social media is a given. I don’t believe you can survive without embracing it, but like all marketing tools you have to use it with the right level of sophistication. We are gradually shifting our storytelling to social sites such as Instagram, and particularly Pinterest, and away from email newsletters.