Magma

Magma is on the same street and is one of four stores in London which sells artistic books, magazines, its own tee shirt designs and a few fun gift sets.

-  Started in 2000, this was their first shop- they now have four in London and a couple dotted further up north.

-  One of their stores, which focuses on products rather than books, is literally five stores down.

-  Magma started off as a book shop only.

-  They now commission illustrators and designers to produce items such as their graphic tees. These are suspended from the ceiling- almost like a product installation. They give their concepts to artists who then develop the designs, adding their own signature to the initial briefing.

-  Book sales are down thanks to competition from companies such as Amazon.

-  They have a really good line of fun, small gifts, which sell well and can’t be searched for on the web. 

-  They adjust their products seasonally and to follow current trends – featuring cycling and food at the moment! 

-  An architect has now designed all their stores. They wanted nothing pretentious in the design, preferring something that would encourage customer interaction. So their bookshelf is a metal ladder structure with wooden shelves attached and suspended- giving the feel that you can just throw the books on rather than preciously placing them! The interior of their shop five doors down is made entirely from cardboard! All their shop interiors are modular and can be dismantled in a few hours - practical and visually interesting!

-  They have had regular customers since they first opened, many from creative industries who ‘enjoy time to get away from the drawing boards and computer suites and to actually interact and browse with the books’. 

//Photography by Lillie Cooper

Super Superficial

Super Superficial sells printed tees, jumpers and sunglasses.  It was their interior which caught my interest – although it’s a small shop, they have used wood in their interior to create a clean and fresh backdrop to their artistic clothing.  It turns out the founder of the brand and shop is an architect and Super Superficial is inspired by Swedish architecture and the beautiful Scandinavian-style café Nordic Bakery in Golden Square, W1.  I was made welcome by a very pleasant shop assistant/illustrator who is one of the three people who run the business.  She filled me in with some background information –

80% of their printed artwork is from uk artists, who can all be found on their website http://supersuperficial.com.  Super Superficial use their website as a creative platform for these artists.

Their artwork is interesting and different - they try not to create anything too ‘branded’ so you won’t find their name simply splashed across the tee-shirt, instead each piece is like wearing an individual piece of art, particularly as they don’t mass produce any designs.

Their customer base ranges in age between 18-45 and is mainly male, although I’m sure I’m not the only female to buy into it - but then again I love oversized graphic tees!

The tone of the shop is set with cool non-offensive hip hop playing in the background.

They have started doing a small amount of sales to other countries, in particular Italy and Asia.

They are not too heavy on pr but do update a facebook and twitter page- something for us fans to follow!

Their sunglasses are great!  These iconic designs are made by Grafik Plastic and this is the only store in Europe to stock them.  They are made by hand and the company recently won a ‘red dot design award’ – so possibly one to watch out for! 

//Photography by Lillie Cooper

Biba and Beyond

An outing to Brighton turned up more than pebbles on the beach when I visited the Biba and Beyond exhibition at the Brighton Museum and Art Gallery.  This could be the best £4 I’ve spent in a week yet!  It was a brilliant opportunity to get up close and personal with memorabilia from Barbara Hulanicki, founder of iconic store Biba.  You get a real feel of the way she changed the world of high street shopping in the 60’s and 70’s and how her career developed.  Great inspiration!
 The layout is easy and accessible so you can get really involved with the clothing, make-up, illustrations videos and, my favourite, a wall of quotations.  A seating area has loads of books and images to browse and a drawing wall for your own contribution. I was very impressed by the intimacy of this exhibition and loved the ‘dolly’ aesthetic of the Biba brand.  The clothing was beautifully displayed and looked timeless – I would happily wear most of the items right now, especially a stripy shorts and top combo which I would happily have nabbed off the model.

//Photography by Lillie Cooper