Three centuries of Piccadilly, staged on a grass court.
Move a food hall to the centre court.
Fortnum & Mason has been on Piccadilly since 1707, and its eau-de-nil and gold are among the most recognisable things in British retail. Everything the brand does is measured against three hundred years of doing it a certain way.
The brief was to take that into the open air in the Gulf: a Wimbledon-style hospitality experience built on a grass court in Abu Dhabi, where the brand had no store, no walls, and nothing to hide behind. Every surface the guest saw had to be made, and every one of them had to be right.
Build the brand a temporary home.
We treated the venue as a shop the brand would occupy for a few days: an entrance arch to walk through, field branding running the length of the court, carpet and walkways to lead the guest, pergolas and hospitality fascias, and printed matter down to the menu card on the table.
The discipline was colour and restraint. Eau-de-nil is unforgiving: it shifts across fabric, board, foil and paper, and it has to hold on all of them, under Gulf daylight, with gold that reads as gold and never as yellow. Nothing shouted. The brand simply arrived, exactly as it looks on Piccadilly.
