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DL English won design awards for two innovative Whole Foods Market projects in 2013, in Oxnard and Newport Beach, California. Both were selected as Honoree & Finalist in the Food Retail category of Interior Design Magazine’s Best of Year 2013.
DLE’s work on the Oxnard store was selected as Finalist in Interior Design Magazine’s Food Retail category. We put Whole Foods’ values of sustainability and restoration into practice by creating a space that is aesthetically appealing yet carefully crafted with the environment in mind.
DLE’s design for the Newport Beach store was also a Best-of-Year Honoree. The theme of this decor package was inspired by Whole Foods’ commitment to environmental preservation along with the famous natural setting of the area. The interior architecture is defined by stepped soffits of reclaimed wood and angled eyebrows like the layered bluffs carved out by the ocean over time.
“We wanted to make sure that ‘lazy’ brought to mind, not what we usually think of as lazy,” says Deborah English, “but slow cooking and real food, a simpler time, to slow down the shopping, wanting people to hang out and linger and feel comfortable.”
She adds, “We thought it was really appropriate to take more of an adapted reuse, or repurposed, approach. We want the customer, when they walk into the store, to walk into something they know, have familiarity with. That’s very important in food retailing—that you can walk in and figure it out and understand what you’re doing.” See more images here. Read about the new store in this article from The Shelby Report.
DLE President Deborah English was invited to speak by the Los Angeles Chapter of the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA-LA) in a special lecture series on leadership in design. She shared emerging retail food trends and gave insight on how she and her company design to engage retail consumer experiences. DL English focuses on research-based design and is known for discovering design solutions that are intuitive and authentic. She discussed some ways in which DLE uses its expertise in niche market design to create locally-tailored community stores.