RSA - Design Out Shoplifting - Hierarchy

This was a combined effort by myself and my friend Samyul Halfpenny to design out shoplifting for the RSA competition 2009. Our research led us to delve into retail store design and how poorly many high-street stores are designed making the job for a shoplifter easier.

The Problem:

The Problem : In 2008/09 320,846 incidents of shoplifting occurred in the United Kingdom resulting in £5 billion worth of stolen goods. We want to address this problem by tackling blind spots and line of sight in retail stores.

Having poor store layout allows an opportunist shoplifter the chance to conceal unpaid goods in blind spots not observed by store staff or CCTV. This problem often occurs because of three main factors;

1. Too much stock on the shop floor.

2. Unusual store layout create blind spots.

3. High obstacles like tall shelving or pillars obstructing line of sight.


The Solution

The concept to solve this problem is to create a tiered store funnel layout, based on one side of the pyramid structure. The idea being that there would be two till points within the store, one being at the top at the highest point and the second at the bottom by the entrance. This gives the store a hierarchy structure and allows the staff to have total visibility and line of sight from top to bottom. The funnel structure adds to this system and reinforces the control the store workers have over the visibility of everyone’s actions. This concept is designed to remove blind spots and in turn deter the shoplifter from committing a crime within that specific retail store.


The Feedback
Feedback from showing our concept to store workers and a security guard.


Research Book




RSA is a heavy research competition, in 6 weeks me and Samyul had to not only design out shoplifting but produce all our hard work that led us to our concept, we decided to bind this book ourselves with our own crudely designed clamp, the overall outcome looked amazing and made us feel like all these weeks of work was worthwhile.

Public Square - Southbank - Perfomence Artist

The square of London that I had to observe and spot a opportunity was the southbank. Surrounded by new and high cultured galleries and shops there is a area of wasted public space called the ‘Undercroft’ that the skateboarders have made home over the past years. Some people view them as vandals, others, performance artists. Why aren’t the nimble tricks of the skateboarders of London’s southbank valued as much as the dancers who perform in the theaters over their heads? So I have created a exhibition poster to address the issue that skateboarding is a performance type art and not vandalism as so many of the public perceive it to be.
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Self Initiated 2 - Steps

In March 2009 i documented my steps for a whole month using a pedometer and a brand new pair of shoes. In 31 days i walked on average 219.65 miles in 353,639 steps which left my shoes ridiculously worn in such a short amount of time.

Science Museum - Atomic Particles

Using the 88 elements of the Periodic Table, we assigned a note to each one of the 88 keys on a grand piano. Elements can come together to create hundreds of compounds such as water (H2O). Using the corresponding key on the piano we then played out the reactions and composed a musical piece to communicate the periodic table and atomic particles in a new innovative way.

New Religion - Endorsements - Jamie Oliver

Our observation of British society at present is that the TV food industry has heavy influences on the public and what utensils they buy for there kitchen. The majority of the public believe that if they buy a product endorsed by a celebrity then they will become a master in the kitchen like the celebrity who has endorsed it. So taking advantage of this belief we created a line of products taking the endorsements to the extreme.

Research and Development

Just some images of how iv decided to present my research and development for my second year assessment.

Core Concept - Tipping Point - Pushed Too Far

The brief was "The Tipping Point" based on a book by Malcom Gladwell. Working with the very talented Sam Ford we decided to create a video blog of how he has been pushed too far by life and everyone in our graphics class (including our tutor Zelda Malan) over trivial things. A good watch.

Typography Inappropriate - The Office

This Typographic piece is highlighting an inappropriate comment made by a member of staff from the comedy TV show "the office" created by the BBC. Using the idea of shredding in a office environment to destroy documents i aim to communicate how Inappropriate the comment is to read.

Moving Image - Anticlimax - Stalker

A short film showing an Anticlimax by building up the tension then changing the outcome to something completely different to the original expected ending.

Actors: Rachel Harrison and Mark Robbins.

Impossible - Water

The brief was to make the impossible possible so I chose to push the boundaries and show how man can walk on water with clever unedited photography.