Verity Doyle is the owner of Verity Gray Design and a freelance retail designer specializing in retail interiors and visual merchandising. Verity has a creative approach that's always customer focused, making sure the retail space is optimized for sales so the business can operate smoothly.
Verity lives in Oxfordshire, UK with her husband Paul and two kids, Vinnie and Nola. 2024 will be the 20th year since she graduated from art college and started her career in the creative side of retail. After Verity graduated with her graphic design degree, she cut her teeth working for IKEA where she spent two years as a VM and interior designer.
After leaving IKEA, Verity moved over to the store design side and worked for some retail design agencies and shopfitters for a few years. Missing the shop floor, she then flipped back and forth between visual merchandising and desk-based design work for the last 16 years! Verity says this is what gives her a bit of an edge, as her knowledge of working on the shop floor influences her design work and vice versa.
During Verity’s career, she’s held several positions, including an area VM for JoJo Maman Bebe (children’s wear chain). Up until 2020, she was the Head of VM (for the UK partnership) for Flying
Tiger Copenhagen. Verity joined Tiger when they had only one store, grew with them as it peaked at 45 stores, and spent seven years with them.
Here, Verity shares her career journey and how she landed a full-time career in freelance retail design. She shares what it was like to merchandise for IKEA and how they prepare for a store opening. Michelle and Verity also discuss the strategic ins and outs of merchandising, how the pandemic impacted the UK retail world, and how Verity finds clients as a freelancer.
What’s Inside:
Verity’s experience working in merchandising for IKEA
A behind the scenes look at merchandising strategies
How Verity finds clients as a freelancer
