KGK Genix has launched a ‘Student Retail Design and Careers Competition’ which it hopes will drive interest in careers in the retail design, visual merchandising, and print industry. So what’s it getting for its efforts, and should more PSPs be creating youth programmes of this ilk?
If you want to attract youngsters into the sector, and more specifically into your business, telling them they can work with brands like Nike, Superdry, Tommy Hilfiger, French Connection and Calvin Klein might just do it. That’s what KGK Genix is counting on anyway - that and a few other attractive perks that are part of a new competition it has launched with the aim of getting more students into the retail design, visual marketing and print industries.
At KGK Genix - a multidisciplinary agency employing over 60 across sites in central London, Hertfordshire, and Essex - the average age is 32, which is 11 years younger than the latest figure released by the Office of National Statistics. Even so, the company decided something needed to be done to entice the younger generation into this arena. Forward to discussions between group managing director Graham Pitts and Matt Walsh, operations director for KGK Genix’s Essex production centre, about the difficulties of recruiting new people, and the need to raise awareness of employment opportunities among students.
A survey of existing staff as to their pathways into the industry revealed a common answer - with the exception of the design team, no-one grew up knowing that they wanted to follow a career in print. The alarming fact was that many were not even aware during their education of the job they are now fulfilling. Hence, the launch of the ‘Student Retail Design and Careers Competition’, details of which are further on in this article.
“As an employer looking for young, impressionable people, you’d be forgiven in thinking that our remit is to cast our employment net to target a candidate that is looking for a job after further education, but who doesn’t know exactly what they want to do. Whilst this has proved successful in the past, being able to link with local colleges and schools has meant that we have been able to get a ‘foot in the door’ much earlier,” says Walsh.
He adds: “Many students are unaware of the diverse range of tasks involved in designing, producing and installing display graphics and they have found us coming to talk to them about the opportunities we have really helpful - it has opened their eyes to a career path that before this, was not even on their radar. This is much more than an ESG/CSR strategy, this is about an investment into the future of the business.”
Pitts says: “SME’s are becoming more and more inventive with their recruitment strategies. Our business has over 60 colleagues but we are certainly not considered a big business. In the past we were under the impression that colleges, schools and universities were really only interested in talking to the large, multi-national corporates about student intakes and careers. This is definitely not the case. In fact, making contact with local education centres has been eye opening - they want companies to visit and talk about careers, invite students to have a look around a working environment and to offer work experience. More of the industry leaders should be doing this - they are an untapped resource!
“Take note though that, when speaking to schools, one of the first questions we were asked was ‘what’s the business doing to become more sustainable?’. You’d never get that question when talking to a group of 30 somethings. The younger generation are massively conscious about the environment which really helps to integrate our own sustainability goals into our culture, and maybe even educate some of our existing colleagues about the importance.”
Pitts continues: “Production people can’t work from home so we need local people. We are fortunate to have a large number of schools near our production facilities so, working with them is a natural choice and this in turn, saves money on recruitment fees and reduces carbon footprint.
“Many businesses offer apprenticeships and understand that in order for the apprentice to succeed there needs to be a large amount of time invested to ensure that get what is needed from the experience. Of course, there is an incentive from a business perspective that the inexperience is balanced by cost effective labour, but for KGK Genix it is very much about bringing in younger people as a firm investment into the future.
“It’s early days but the indicators are there to show that there is mutual benefit for running our new initiative. Who knows, there may be a future leader in the print industry coming through the ranks.”
By teaming up with the art and design department at Hertford Regional College for the new competition, KGK Genix is offering students the opportunity to experience working on a live campaign brief, creating window display concepts and display activations for some of the world’s biggest brands. This year, students will be working on a creative window display brief for sports brand, Nike and its ‘Women in Sport’ campaign.
The competition takes students on a journey, from developing initial creative window display concepts through to setting up and manufacturing physical graphics and displays from their designs. The competition has seven key stages, which all independently form an important educational roadmap into how retail design concepts are created and realised in a store environment.
The six-month program kicked off in December 2022, with an introduction to the company and campaign brief presentation and is continuing with inset design and production insight days to be hosted by KGK Genix in the coming months.
The insight days are an integral part of the competition, providing students with the opportunity to work alongside the design, studio and production teams and ask for advice and guidance to enhance their entry. Students will also learn about the different materials used in retail design activations and how they can be incorporated to enhance their own designs, including printed vinyls and films, front-lit and back-lit fabrics and display boards.
With sustainability in retail a growing concern, students will also learn about the materials come from sustainable sources, which ones can be recycled and learn about the waste channels that are used to recycle or repurpose display materials.
The final stage of the competition happens in May 2023, when the students activate their retail designs using the physical graphics they have produced into a retail window mock shop at the KGK Genix production site in Harlow.
They will then be asked to present their concepts and activations to a panel of judges, explaining where they sought their inspiration, how they developed their designs, whether they are aligned to any current retail trends and explain how sustainable their activations are.
The judging panel will be formed of six industry and business professionals, including members of Nike’s own marketing team, experienced retail designers at KGK Genix and the CEO of the Herts Chamber of Commerce. Entries will be judged on the overall concept and activation, whilst taking into consideration contributing factors such as project management of the campaign and sustainability of their design.
Three competition winners will win a six-week work placement at KGK Genix, where they will work as part of the design and production team, taking on live retail campaigns for well-known brands and retailers.
Sara Saunders, curriculum area manager, art and design at Hertford Regional College, says of the initiative: “The KGK Genix student industry programme brief that Matt [Walsh] presented to our graphic design and visual merchandising students, has given them the most amazing insight into a multi-disciplinary design environment. The time generously given by Graham [Pitt] and the team at KGK Genix production base in Harlow was informative and inspirational. The students came away with lots of ideas, a better understanding of production processes and a creative approach to sustainability.
“Presenting work to an industry panel at the end of the project is an incentive and real world experience. This is an invaluable industry experience opportunity for our students which will prepare them for their future careers and build those key employability skills; time management, communication and creative problem solving. We are looking forward to seeing their outcomes.”
Benedict Slater, technical resources manager, art and design at Hertford Regional College, adds: “KGK Genix reached out to us to generously offer materials that were surplus to their requirements in an effort to improve sustainability. It has been much appreciated and greatly beneficial to our students, department, and college as a whole. The students have been able to use materials that we wouldn’t normally have sourced, allowing practical experience working with different construction boards and vinyl, as used in the industry. It has benefitted the art and design department in financial terms, meaning we can redirect limited budget that would usually be spent on similar resources. It has also helped the wider college, helping us to meet environmental targets set within our sustainability committee.”
Pitts rounds off: “This competition not only provides students with the opportunity to take a huge step forward in starting a career in creative print and retail design, but also actively encourages new, creative talent into our industry. By teaming up with Herts Regional College we’re able to provide an exciting window into our industry and the opportunity for a step on the career ladder too. We hope we can develop this competition to include more students from other schools, colleges, and universities in the future.”