I'm Gabriel Murray - the Creative Director of TGP International with over 30 years of experience working in retail and hospitality specialising in Architecture Branding and Design.

Since I was small I always wanted to be an Architect a Graphic Designer and a Designer.

I just always had it in me – I think I was always inspired by the movies and for a long time I wanted to be a set designer……….either that or a rock star!!

We are an International Hospitality Business and I work with the creative teams developing new concepts and design direction of customer experiences for Food Halls Restaurants and Bars.

Everything – through design I try to make the world better.

Graphics and architecture – they are always the first thing you see and influence a customer to a hospitality experience!

Something that stimulates and is memorable – something that creates a buzz and you feel comfortable with.

I don’t have a style we design for the customer the market and purpose – the ‘style’ flushes itself out to meet the commercial needs.

The first thing we always do is to explore exactly what the design needs to be. We then establish the design criteria and the exact brief. Once this is completed we start to express the creative element to meet the brief.

This initial expression will then evolve over time to hone exactly the design criteria. Once the design is complete we then go to the execution phase where the design is realised in the real world. Once completed we then evaluate – to sense check the performance over time so we can gauge the success.

Totally.

It’s a great honour and we are all so proud to have recognised as part of the success of (Depachicka and Alkebulan) the design was a key element in the business success.

Depachika The Palm is a Japanese style luxury food and gourmet Food Hall in the Nakheel Mall in Dubai – we decided to enter as we are so proud of its success and how it has become a local landmark for the local residents and beyond.

Alkebulan The African Dining Hall is the very first African influenced Food Hall – we selected this as we believe it is a world first and it has become the most successful food experience at EXPO 2020 being the largest footfall generator. The initial concept was underscored by Eat Entertain and Educate which became the mantra of the space. Our customer became totally engaged with the immersive experience.

Depachika The Palm – as the space was originally allocated as a pure retail space we had to design the experience so that fitted within the building infrastructures. Working closely with our MEP team we were able to effectively create a seamless transition and beautiful space.

Alkebulan The African Dining Hall – here we had to work within an incredibly short timeline. We were able to design from scratch and implement a 2-floor Food Hall experience with 11 new concepts in 16 weeks. The team here was exceptional everyone worked so hard and passionately to realise this world first.

It just makes us feel so proud of our work and our creative teams, their passion and commitment to design brands and experiences that really make a difference.

Working in the creative world is about working with great passionate people; working on great projects that are meaningful and have a purpose; seeing the engagement of customers with our design and making a difference.

We are lucky to work in London and believe that it is the creative capital of the world.

The creation of much more socially engaging space and socially aware brands for people to enjoy explore and embrace.

Be passionate in what you do express yourself and make the world better!

Express yourself through drawing – it’s the key basic element that manifests your creative through visually!

I play the trumpet!

My old tutor at college, Drew Plunkett - he now writes books on design – he got me over the line!

Thinking things through being able the wiliness to change and explore new things and to be able to express my unique creative thoughts by drawing – I worked with the on-site architect in Dubai from London totally through live drawing online with an iPad through the Covid19 lockdown!