Representing the Visual Merchandising profession

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1 Representing the Visual Merchandising profession SPRING 2018 Kerry Meakin, of The Dublin School of Creative Arts, is very proud of three BA Visual Merchandising & Design final year students who were each given an opportunity to install a scheme into Arnotts Department store in Dublin. Students were: Karla McMahon for the fabric window, Justina Maseikaite for the large skirt concept and Shannon Robinson for the circle wheels concept.

2 hrc Hertford Regional College Herts Regional College December 2017 show in association with Ikea, highlighting the plight of refugees. The students involved were, Charlie Bovindon 3-D design, Daniel Clutton 3-D design, Liam O Sullivan Graphic design and Hannah Williams VM

3 Judging at Pure London The British Display Society was asked again by Pure London to judge the Best Exhibition stand at the show in February. The Autumn/Winter collections that were showing at Pure London were for fashion insiders and retail buyers. David Anthony, from our Executive Council, judged the VM excellence across Womenswear, Menswear and Accessories Categories. It featured independent Brands Emily & Fin, Rakish Heels, Chalk, Salvo Lacomo, King Louie and Powder. The overall winner was Rakish Heels with its luxurious vintage creativity and unique eye popping look with bursts of colour and cool electric props and furnishings. Pure London is the United Kingdom s leading fashion trade show which takes place twice a year in Olympia, London. The timings of Pure ties in with the seasonal trends and buying patterns. DAVID ANTHONY ABDS HELEN GOODWIN FBDS

4 Chinese New Year in Singapore To celebrate The Year of The Dog, the Singapore retailers rose to the challenge of installing new window schemes to mark the event. There were many creative installations from the store windows to installations in Orchard Road. Here is a selection of photographs to give you an insight into this great celebration. Photography by Iain Kimmins FBDS

5 All Aboard the Prada Silver Line Pop Up at Dubai Mall! Hop on board the Prada Silver Line, Prada s new fashion pop-up concept that has toured Asia, Europe and United States and is now making a stop in the Dubai Mall. Inspired by the American Streamliners of the 30 s and the glory days of elegant and luxury travel, the Prada Silver Line will stop at the imaginary railway stop at the Fashion Catwalk to host an innovative pop up complete with a selection of Prada luxury bags and accessories. The decor is warm and textured with romantic reds in silks and velvet and floral patterns. Life size Prada robots are on hand to assist passengers with luggage, and a ticket kiosk really houses a concierge to guide visitors around the pop-up store and order deliveries of purchases to customers homes. The retro vibe is complete with the iconic Prada signature black and white checkered floor. Photographs by Clair Stuart-Menteth - FBDS

6 Student Corner - Q&As 1. Although quite high and wide, our shop windows have a floor measuring just 30cms deep, also the window has no back wall giving a view into the shop. How can we use this limited space to create attractive displays? This is a common problem as shop floor selling space is pushed to the maximum. There are a few things that you can do to make the job easier. Getting interesting items up to a decent height in this narrow space will be the key to a striking display, so invest in a good system from which to suspend objects. The simplest solution would be to fix an 18mm MDF or plywood panel over the plaster ceiling so that you can insert screw eyes easily. A neater and more convenient system is to fix a heavy wire grid 5cms away from the existing ceiling which will make tying wires and nylon or hanging lightweight chain an easy task. Once you have this in position produce a selection of panels made from soft fibreboard covered both sides in fabric, onto which lightweight merchandise can be arranged using Velcro, if a suitable loop nylon fabric is used for covering, otherwise dressmaking pins can be pushed in easily for fixing. These panels can then be suspended in a variety of different compositions. For heavier merchandise I would recommend a modular collection of five sided cubes that can be stacked on top of each other. A minor problem with these will be getting a reasonable amount of light into them. So, if budget allows, each would have a discreet LED light source along its top front edge. There are quite a few very small lighting systems around that would achieve this effect, although connecting them all neatly to a power source may be a challenge. A cheaper solution would be 150mm diameter heavy card tubes, similar to carpet rollers, in a variety of heights, topped with a square or rectangle cut from 12mm MDF, painted or fabric covered these would support groups of merchandise. 2. I hate the look of sale windows, why do they always have to be overstocked and tacky? Are there any other ways to advertise reduced prices? I know what you mean, a sea of large red and white tickets, the haphazard piles of tired merchandise. This look conveys a message that the general public recognise but if every other retailer in the surrounding area is doing it then you are not going to attract much attention. Another problem, at present, is that sales are promoted at all times of the year and occasionally, with some retailers, for the whole year. This takes the edge off of what was previously a twice yearly event that had an atmosphere of urgency and survival of the fittest bargain bagger about it. You don t need to conform to the overstocked stereotype, you can rarely show all of the lines on offer anyway, so, providing that you get the message across in an eye-catching way this should be sufficient to tempt the customer inside where they can browse through the whole range of bargains. A company who have a reputation for original Sale ideas is Next. Once they had enormous white T-shirts produced, one was enough to fill a window when mounted on a pole threaded through the arm holes. This was printed with the word Sale in red across the front which attracted attention from a distance. Another scheme was to print Sale in large letters on brown wrapping paper and to obscure the whole window with it, but this did look like they might have closed down or had the shopfitters on site. John Lewis, of course, don t have Sales, just the more subtle Clearance Bargains. This often gets a greater reaction from the public as they know there will be more genuine reductions and less seconds and specially bought-in lines which de-value other retailers Sales. Highlighting one or two unbelievable reductions which will be loss leaders can often generate publicity and might even cause a return to that traditional Sale phenomenon of people camping on the pavement overnight before they fight their way in when the doors are flung open by your commissionaire sporting a red carnation. Practical Course - One Day Course Designed once again for those who may not be in a position to attend college but who would like to understand what goes into creating a shop window or interior display. The course covers the basic guidelines of display styling layout, balance, space, focal points, flow and colour but principally grouping. We mention props, lighting and interiors but not in as much depth as the online course. Part of the day is classroom style with an inspiring presentation of slides which is punctuated with examples and presentations too. With practical exercises during the day students will hone their basic grouping skills the foundations on which most good displays are built. Ideal if you need help deciding whether Visual Merchandising is the career for you, or if you have your own shop or business, or just want a fun day out to learn something different.. Absolutely brilliant course I would highly recommend it to others! Very inspirational and motivational. Every Small business owner should attend one of these workshops. I would recommend this Practical Course to businesses and retailers who are looking at ways to improve their footfall. Next Workshop May 22nd 2018 YORK Details on website: APRIL 2018 Business Design Centre London, UK, N1 0QH World-changing thinkers and innovators all under one roof The VM and Display Show is the longest running exhibition for the industry. Whether you are a retailer, designer, in the leisure and entertainment industry or in fact use visual merchandising to promote your products or services in any way, this Show is a must visit for everyone involved. The Show covers everything within visual merchandising and display from Mannequins, Print, Christmas Decorations, Display Services, Props, Design, Graphics, Bust Forms, TurnKey Service, POP, Lighting, Fabrics and everything in between.

7 Horror Corner Obviously not the work of a professionally trained visual merchandiser/stylist!! Calling all Visual Merchandisers to the British Display Society Check out the update on the Creative Download Visual Merchandising Blog Sign up and follow the weekly updates BRITISH DISPLAY SOCIETY ENQUIRIES@BRITISHDISPLAYSOCIETY.CO.UK