RED’s Third Life

When we started Retail Environment Design 9 years ago we had no idea of where the business was headed – we just got down to the job of building the team and growing the brand.

Our First Life was as a small team of 4 founders and 6 designers and drafters, all squeezed into a number of small rooms in a terrace house in Cardigan Place in Albert Park. We were kept busy from day 1 and really didn’t think about our longer term future very much. Our foundation clients were Myer, Terry White Chemists and the ALH Group.

It soon became evident that we were running out of space but it was only in our third year of existence that we took a leap of faith and moved into our new offices in Victoria Avenue which we designed to suit of our new image and rebranding to RED Design Group. Retail Environment Design was a bit of a mouthful – and most of clients just called us RED for short.  

So began our Second Life. We doubled the size of the team – created our Advisory Board – developed a whole lot of new systems – and picked up a host of great clients in Australia – as well as international clients like Sundan in China and Matahari in Indonesia.

It didn’t take long to discover that we were soon limited by space again – the team needed to grow to more double our original size. We started the long process of looking around for our next office.

Should we buy, build or rent?

Where?

How big?

We finally made the decision to take RED up to another level in the design industry and came up with a plan to double the size of the team – again!

We decided to relocate the heart of retail – the Melbourne CBD. It was a golden opportunity for our Creative Director, Colin Bell, to design the dream office for RED.

Designing for designers is not the easiest task, and the reality of budgets and finance can dampen the creative spirit, but it looks amazing.

Today we moving into our new office at 160 Queen Street – on the corner of Bourke Street – only one block from the Bourke Street Mall – the retail heart of Melbourne.

Our office is filled with packing boxes – the nervous tension is in the air – and before the weekend is out we will be in the new space.

Monday 23rd May is D Day – and it’s going to be great experience for the RED team – and it’s the start of our Third Life.

You are welcome to pay us a visit – we’re on Level 12 at 160 Queen Street and we think you will love the space as much as we do.