FITCH’s Andrea Buccasso Shines as PAVE’S 2013 ‘Rising Star’
(PRWEB) December 13, 2013 -- On December 4th, in front of a sold-out crowd of nearly 800 retail luminaries, FITCH’s own Andrea Buccasso accepted the 2013 Planning and Visual Education Partnership’s (PAVE’s) Rising Star Award at the 17th Annual PAVE Gala in New York City. PAVE, whose charter is to encourage students to study in the field of retail design and visual merchandising, bestows this award each year to a talented, ‘under-35’ retail design professional. Recent Rising Star winners include designers from Starbucks, Target, Lippincott, and J.Crew.
“The Rising Star was created to acknowledge and recognize those in the industry who have done outstanding work and demonstrated leadership,” said Nancy Jackson, president of Architectural Systems, who served as one of a panel of industry leaders who judged the nominees. “Andrea exemplifies the visionary talent of an up-and-coming retail designer whose portfolio of completed projects reflects extraordinary branded environments.”
Christian Davies, FITCH’s Executive Creative Director, Americas, seconded her assessment of Andrea’s ability and pointed out, “Andrea demonstrated a remarkable level of dedication and commitment through a couple of extremely demanding years while designing the award-winning PIRCH stores. I am thrilled that she’s received this well-deserved honor.”
Andrea joined FITCH in 2010 after earning an Interiors degree from The Columbus College of Art and Design. Since then, she has been immersed in developing a compelling brand experience for retailer, PIRCH, which just opened its latest store at the trendy Glendale Galleria in Los Angeles. This groundbreaking work has earned Andrea more than a dozen design awards, including top retail design awards in the US and in the UK.
About her experience working at FITCH, Andrea says, “I’m building my career every day and learning from each project. It’s challenging. We have a ton of fun but work hard. Not just in our careers, but also personally. We encourage each other, even fostering the talents we enjoy outside of work.”
FITCH has always been a place that offers young designers the opportunity to gain incomparable experience, whether designing for start-ups or the national and global brands that we all know and love. Davies himself, who is now a Fellow in the London Chartered Society of Designers, joined FITCH’s London studio right out of university, where he says he “got my branding chops, learned a lot from some brilliant people, and got to work on some really fun stuff.” Working for a global firm also allowed him to transfer to the United States, where he’s been ever since.
FITCH has been riding high, being named a ‘Design Firm of the Year’ the last three years by leading retail design trade magazine DDI, ‘Design Team of the Year’ by Retail Week for the last two years, and raking in more than 50 design awards across its 14 global studios. In addition to the award-winning PIRCH store, FITCH’s work for Asian Paints, has just been shortlisted for the prestigious Design Effectiveness Awards, which recognizes the return on investment from a professionally executed design strategy.
ABOUT FITCH
FITCH is a global retail and brand consultancy. For 40 years, FITCH has designed transformative consumer experiences for retail and brands, experiences that accelerate business success. We create seamless solutions by combining physical, human and digital elements of a brand for a unique experience signature. An integrated offer of Strategy, Design and Implementation enables us to deliver a seamless expression of the brand at all touchpoints. Clients include adidas, Brown-Forman, Dell, Electrolux, Microsoft, Nestle, PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble and Target. FITCH is a member of the WPP Group of companies (NYSE).
About PAVE
Founded in 1992, the Planning and Visual Education Partnership's (PAVE) objective is to encourage students to study in the field of retail design and planning and visual merchandising. Additionally, PAVE seeks to encourage retail management, store planners, visual merchandisers, architects, and manufacturers to interact with and support design students. These objectives are accomplished through competitions, projects, seminars, workshops, and grants and scholarships funded by the annual Gala and other fundraising activities. PAVE is a 501(c)(3) educational foundation administered by A.R.E.
Ann Rogers, [email protected], http://www.FITCH.com, +1 (614) 841-2052, [email protected]
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