Into the new season

February and already the plane trees are turning, an ominous sign as I tootle through to the airport on the Enfield.

We've seen the back of the Sales and the back of frikking Valentines Day so onwards and upwards..

At Cresta this last weekend I saw the first signs of the new season...Firstly, that chain I love to poke holes in ( but only 'cos they try and in trying make such glaring WTFs)..

Truworths



And would you believe it, I like it. Not in yer face, but subtle, seasonal colours and textures, nicely (in my mind) transforming the window from a blank shoebox shape into something with corners and depth. A city scape feel with clever lighting tricks, I'll nip into Eastgate this week to check those windows out (bigger, more room to play.)

Also Truworth's LTD window thus:

What are those???

Lets take a closer look...

Omigod..alien pods!!

Sorry, I meant:

A quick glance at the window shows no sign of facehugger activity from the open pod, though the mannequin at the right looks a bit apprehensive...

No, yes, I realise they are flower pods and I think that they're actually quite good - I have an overactive imagination - and look at that lighting effect (sorry I likes a good lighting effect)..

Moving on... Foschinni's at Cresta

I like it, initially, but I wonder if it's somehow the finished thing I'm looking at. Further delving is required, there's almost too much prop.

Er, is that canvas supposed to be back to front? Can't help liking it though, it hints at things - like a work in progress -stay tuned...

Valentines Day

*Shudder*

Nope,I shall not post any pictures here about this overblown, guts ripped out of it, money grubbing charade this particular promotional activity has descended into.

For a comprehensive review/crit of participants I recommend Ingrid's page.

For a once pagan holiday based around wolves and hunting and stuff, bleugh. The constant "If you 'love' someone spend oodles and oodles on a pile of utter kitsch" really gets my anti-retail muscle twitching...

Phegh! Here I love ya, please accept this rather horrendously designed twist of otherwise useless precious metals and stones that have probably cost a few lives (and shortened many others),not to mention caused untold havoc to the environment .. sorry, I worked on a gold mine once - I've seen what goes down..

Anyway, next blog, something a bit more positive.

Peace and luuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuurve....

Sale Time

Post xmas sale season is upon us and we are, as usual, inundated with broken size-curves, duff merchandise and unwanted lines. Which is the time I do my shopping as I can pick up something at a steal that I like that the masses didn't , my win >:-)

Sale presentations have always been an pain-in-the-posterier in my time in retail. From the pack-the-window-with-as-much-crap-as-possible-so-no-one-misses-it mindset (well to be honest I've found that criteria applied in non-sale presentations as well, sooooo) to the still persistent idea that it should be presented as 'fashionably' and prominently as possible to entice sales - er, its on sale because, well it didn't sell, and folk don't like it and mutton dressed as lamb is still mutton!

Still, the sale has to be distinguishable from other promotional activity. Again, like Xmas, sale-time tends to rather design restrictive, the norm being 'SALE' in big letters and a combination of red, white and black or black, red and white or...you get the picture.

Yes, in my mind sale is sale, you're taking a knock on your prices and the last thing you want to do is throw more money at it. But it is still a representation of who you are and hopefully, an enticement to the customer to buy into new lines and regular non-sale items and I think, in todays retail market image is near everything - a shabby sale makes you look shabby and cheap merchandising is just that.

I like the clean lean and mean option, let folk now what's going on in an as expedient way as possible - like this:

By now your customer should have an idea of the kind of merchandise that you have and what to expect.If your image looks professional and crisp then the expectation that a good bargain is to be had will be maintained.

Nothing wrong with a bit of fun, a quirk, something that stands out from the herd and it doesn't have to cost an arm and a leg.

I liked Truworths take:

Yah, I couldn't resist, (Truworth bashing again?) It was first thing in the morning and the signage had fallen down overnight, revealing a rather bemused looking mannequin to the early morning mallers seeking that pre working/shopping day caffeinated rush. I do like the idea of the model clad in sale-wrap - effective, to the point and with a touch of humour.

Sale Time

Post xmas sale season is upon us and we are, as usual, inundated with broken size-curves, duff merchandise and unwanted lines. Which is the time I do my shopping as I can pick up something at a steal that I like that the masses didn't , my win >:-)

Sale presentations have always been an pain-in-the-posterier in my time in retail. From the pack-the-window-with-as-much-crap-as-possible-so-no-one-misses-it mindset (well to be honest I've found that criteria applied in non-sale presentations as well, sooooo) to the still persistent idea that it should be presented as 'fashionably' and prominently as possible to entice sales - er, its on sale because, well it didn't sell, and folk don't like it and mutton dressed as lamb is still mutton!

Still, the sale has to be distinguishable from other promotional activity. Again, like Xmas, sale-time tends to rather design restrictive, the norm being 'SALE' in big letters and a combination of red, white and black or black, red and white or...you get the picture.

Yes, in my mind sale is sale, you're taking a knock on your prices and the last thing you want to do is throw more money at it. But it is still a representation of who you are and hopefully, an enticement to the customer to buy into new lines and regular non-sale items and I think, in todays retail market image is near everything - a shabby sale makes you look shabby and cheap merchandising is just that.

I like the clean lean and mean option, let folk now what's going on in an as expedient way as possible - like this:

By now your customer should have an idea of the kind of merchandise that you have and what to expect.If your image looks professional and crisp then the expectation that a good bargain is to be had will be maintained.

Nothing wrong with a bit of fun, a quirk, something that stands out from the herd and it doesn't have to cost an arm and a leg.

I liked Truworths take:

Yah, I couldn't resist, (Truworth bashing again?) It was first thing in the morning and the signage had fallen down overnight, revealing a rather bemused looking mannequin to the early morning mallers seeking that pre working/shopping day caffeinated rush. I do like the idea of the model clad in sale-wrap - effective, to the point and with a touch of humour.

Xmas round up - caviar and fishfingers

OK, right, before we get into 2011 let's just round-off, shoot down, etc the remnants of 2010.

Several of us visually merchandisingly sussed folk get together (net-wise) and give a little feed-back on some retail-display related stuff and then give the thumbs up or down on what we've seen/experienced/uncovered.

Now no-one likes criticism but it's an essential part of growing, getting better, yadda-yadda fishcake and we try to be as constructive as possible (or not, and put the, er, boot in >:-) )

Christmas!

As I mentioned in my last post on such, I saw very little to fill me with Christmas cheer, but then, I'm a cynical sod and possessed by the Spirit of the Grinch so I relied on my compatriates to blog and post and comment etc. I did take pics buuuut, meh, couldn't be bothered.

Ingrid has a great blog on the whole subject of visual merchandising so I'll direct you there for the Xmas



Caviar

And the



Fishfingers

Next blog- sale windows!!

Xmas

I should put an xmas blog together...meh. Truth is I'm a tad jaded with retail at the mo', xmas makes it worse - malls full of excessive consumerism.I've also not seen much that makes me go 'Ooh-aaaah', pretty pedestrian in the main, an overt pc-ness of avoiding the term 'Christmas' and using 'Holiday' instead - *shrug*

..And of course, after seeing the windows the likes of Sainsbury's and Harrods etc in London put together (look 'em up...'Google' it) a couple of pics of tin foil birds and 'alternatively' coloured window displays seem a bit, ah, silly.

I'll feel more inspired after a break in the Midlands , perhaps and get back on board next year.In the meantime, check out my other blog :Whoops Dimensional Slippage

Happy holidays and a festive New Year - drive safe and we'll see ya next year.

Poetry and the first signs of Xmas

It aint often I'm impressed, I've gotten too damn cynical for that I think. Too much hard sell, marketing and generally catering to the lowest common denominator has been dragged before my withering eyes (and no small part of that installed by me, myself.)

I was in Eastgate (buying yet more Xmas lights), and , as I get there before the general opening time of 9 a.m. I get to have a wee shufty 'round the centre. The last time I was there I passed a boarded up 'watch-this-space' shop front, this time it was open, I'm thinking I'd caught it on opening day as the fella at the door was stressing that the power had not been switched on yet and-it-was-nearly-opening time.

The store- Poetry. On chatting to the fella at the door Poetry is part of the Cape Union Mart chain, catering 'exclusively' for ladies and very obliging he was when I asked to take pictures. Although very straight forward, sparse even, the windows were fresh and garden themed, featuring fresh, bright potplants even! Not a very big store, but in my mind, not big enough for sectioned off/backed windows, the big, wide and open-backed windows took the eyes into the store looking interestingly full yet not cluttered behind.






The classic looking cupboard in the one window complemented the one's used for merchandising instore which helped with the feeling that the floor merchandising and window presentation were one and the same.




Elsewhere in the mall I snapped this small boutique, Ana Sousa. Not as obvious in the picture as I would've liked was the 'prop' which was an interestingly complex tangle of wire and leaves forming a sort of a chair/stand for a shoe/accessory group - anyway, it caught my eye and made for an eye-catching focal point in an essentially minimalist display.








And on to the first Xmas window for 2010 on this blog - A.D. Spitz shoes. I've seen some really interesting windows from Spitz and some dreadful ones. Shoes on the whole can be difficult to 'display', the easy thing- to fill the window with everything you have or risk the shoes being overpowered by props, especially in a window, the size of the one featured. Here, I think the backing works well. focusing on the small, neat shoe and accessory groups. The three dimensional reindeer heads were repeated in smaller windows and instore.




I promise to get back to being brutal next time....