design:retail - July/August 2020 - 16

DESIGN:RETAIL

architecture, because of the fast pace, strategy and
problem solving. I found it exciting to be working
in that environment.
PERSPECTIVES

Reflections on
a Career
A Q&A WITH INDUSTRY ICON
DENNY GERDEMAN

➞ E A R L I E R T H I S Y E A R , retail design industry veteran
Denny Gerdeman announced his retirement from
Chute Gerdeman, the Columbus, Ohio-based
company he founded in 1989 with his wife, Elle
Chute. The announcement coincided with the
country shutting down due to the coronavirus
outbreak, which did put a damper on Gerdeman's
retirement plans, for now. We reached out to the
Markopoulos Award winner to reflect on his storied career, and to look ahead for himself and the
future of retail design.

d:r: What was the first project you took the
lead on?
Gerdeman: I was recruited to join the Doody Co.
in 1980 and the first projects I worked on were in
South Africa, to where I ultimately made 20 trips.
The first project where I was the lead was Carnation Foods in 1981, and I first met Elle as she was a
designer on the team. Fate!
d:r: What were some challenges you faced when
starting your own firm?
Gerdeman: When we started Chute Gerdeman in
1989, we had past clients reach out to us initially to
work on their projects. We had work coming in the
door and needed to find top-level talent to help us
pretty quickly. We painted our vision to designers

JULY/AUGUST 2020

we respected for their ability, integrity and work
ethic, and we had success in landing a few key hires
early on. Our mission was always to do the best
possible work we could for our clients and push
the edge with creativity. Elle was the champion of
that role.
d:r: What are some of your favorite projects?
Gerdeman: My favorite projects are varied and
sometimes it was because of the brand and the design opportunity, and sometimes because of how
good the client was to Chute Gerdeman. We all
enjoy the clients who respect designers and their
design strategy, and getting good honest feedback
that is a dialogue and not a command to solving problems. My favorite projects were the work
we did for Woolworths in South Africa, Verizon,
M&M'S Times Square, Hamleys in London and
FAO Schwartz at 30 Rockefeller Center.
d:r: What project is the one that you are the most
proud of?
Gerdeman: My all-time favorite was M&M'S Time
Square-fun project, fun client and my first project
on Times Square. I felt then that our company had
made it to the big show in NYC. I was proud. I was
also proud of the work our design team did on the
Verizon project: five major flagship stores around the
country and an entire fleet of workhorse stores in a
three-year period of time. Our 25-member Verizon
team worked nights and weekends for months on
end; I was totally impressed with their stamina, positivity and attention to detail given the compressed
time schedules. They didn't quit for one minute!

design:retail: What inspired you to choose commercial design?
Denny Gerdeman: I got into retail design when I
was recruited to join The Limited design team after working with them on architectural drawings.
I discovered I really enjoyed the retail world of

M&M'S TIMES SQUARE: TOP PHOTO BY MARK STEELE PHOTOGRAPHY; BOTTOM BY ADRION JONES

GERDEMAN PHOTO BY CHRISTOPHER KEELS PHOTOGRPAHY

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