Harvey Nichols have been associated with the famous Mailbox building in Birmingham, UK for many years, and in 2014 they decided to have a major refurbishment of their flagship store, and engaged leading retail architects Virgile and Partners to “inject a renewed vitality and relevance to the brand”. VML Technologies were approached by partner Ewald Damen to assist in creating a futuristic lighting scheme for the main entrance approach to the store, which combines themed imagery with illumination using LED strips on the ceiling and wall, and a large format video display above the entrance.

The entrance approach features high brightness vertical LED strips spaced at varying intervals, and of varying lengths. The strips are accessible to the public so were custom designed to be both safe to touch and robust enough to withstand constant buffeting by passing customers. There are no visible cables or equipment anywhere in the entrance way, and content is controlled remotely by Harvey Nichols preferred media partners. The large format video display shows a range of promotional and special offer videos as customers approach the main entrance way.