In July I joined the Design 44 family. The store is based in Derby City Centre and boasts over 70 designers in its walls. I shared the news on social media by comparing the shop to the warehouse at the end of Raiders of the Lost ark. The cavernous store stocks independent maker upon independent maker in a very impressive space. I find curation of the store is equally impressive. If you spend long enough perusing it’s treasures you could make a serious dent in your bank account.
First Derby stockist
It’s my first stockist in Derby. It follows a successful first visit to the city with Northern Craft at a Bustler Market in May. The shop has got brilliant reviews and does a fabulous job of attracting new and regular customers. I have a 3ftx3ft space in the store. Upon a repurposed green door which now makes a stylish table sits my stock. With a backdrop of glorious exposed brick, is a selection of my prints, patches and badges on the first floor of the shop.
Additional stockist announcement
The shop seems genuinely unique. It seems to embrace the pop up and event based nature of independent selling. Not only does the store seem to take stalls at events, but they are also about to take a big step. From mid August they will have an additional pop up store in Derby’s Intu shopping centre. They have secured a retail unit for an initial 6 weeks which they are working to extend.
I am pleased to say that I will be one of the artists joining them in the pop up shop. They will create an impressive frame wall where up to 10 of my prints will be framed on display. It’s exciting as Intu should be a prime selling location. If the pop up can weather the demand for empty retail units at Christmas time and if I can stay in there at that busy shopping period then it could be a successful first few months in the shop.