‘A Context For Retailing’ with Rodney Fitch CBE, March 2010
Wednesday, March 10th, 2010Rodney Fitch CBE founded Fitch in 1972. During a distinguished career, spanning nearly forty years, Fitch has also been active in the evolution of design education and the arts. Indeed when social historians analyse the past 20 years they will be unable to ignore Rodney Fitch; with Sir Terence Conran, he will be acknowledged as a chief architect of the retailing revolution.
Founder and chairman of Fitch-RS, the design group, he introduced the high street to stripped wood, chrome, glass and colour co-ordinates. Leading retailers to have benefited from being “Fitched” include Asda, Woolworths, Ryman, Top Shop, Debenhams and Boots. Such is his record for boosting sales through design that non-shopkeepers have also come knocking at his door; including Lloyd’s of London, Midland Bank, Heathrow Terminal 4, BT cordless phones and the Imperial War Museum.
Rodney came to Start’s London office and spoke about his career in design, and his views on design as an agent of change, its value to society and how design fosters innovation and helps shape a civil society.