NEW YORK -- Convenience store and retail designer CBX was named Design Firm of the Year in Display & Design Ideas magazine's Portfolio Awards 2013. The New York-based brand agency and retail design consultancy, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary this month, was also lauded for its contribution to one of the Best Store Designs of the Year--the redesign of Saks Fifth Avenue's men's store in Beverly Hills, Calif.
DDI's annual Portfolio Awards are the result of a reader-driven survey in which high-level retail and contract design professionals offer their picks for the best in design and branding over the past year.
CBX was recognized for work on such diverse projects as Duane Reade's New York City stores; Lord & Taylor, metro Philadelphia; Saks Fifth Avenue's Beverly Hills men's store; Radio Shack locations across the United States; and the Terpel convenience stores and fuel centers in Columbia.
In the "Best Store Designs of the Year" category, the firm was recognized for its contribution to the transformation of Saks' men's store in Beverly Hills into The Fifth Man, a 54,000-square-foot, four-level lifestyle store. The project was led by Saks' in-house design team with the assistance of CBX and Los Angeles-based Marmol Radziner.
CBX is celebrating the brand agency's 10th anniversary this month and reflecting back on a decade of growth in the areas of consumer branding, corporate branding and retail environments. The agency was founded in 2003 by four of the partners who continue in senior leadership roles today--Gregg Lipman, managing partner; Nancy Brown, managing director/partner; Rick Barrack, chief creative officer/partner, and Richard Villante, partner. A fifth partner, Todd Maute, chief retail officer, joined the firm in 2007.
Today, CBX is based in New York's Flatiron District, with another office in Minneapolis, and has more than 130 employees. Nearly a quarter of these professionals have been with the firm for more than seven years, Lipman said.
"By pushing the bounds of creativity to help our clients innovate and expand, we have grown tremendously over the past decade--personally, professionally and as a company," he said. "But to a remarkable extent, our evolution has and continues to be client-driven. During an early-stage planning session years ago, we asked, 'What does CBX want to be when it grows up?' We continue to believe in our answer: 'We will go where our clients allow us and trust us to go.'"
CBX is a brand agency specializing in corporate identity, consumer branding and retail. Its client base includes Del Monte, General Mills, Kimberly-Clark, A&P, Pathmark, Saks Fifth Avenue Off 5th, Lord & Taylor, Wawa, Sunoco and PetroChina.
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