Display Windows in Visual Merchandising
Display windows are an art form with a goal: to attract the customer and influence her to want to go inside the store. In this video, we will explore the design tricks-of-the-trade that the top brands use in creating their famous windows.
Merchandisers can frame the scene with many types of borders. They can describe the values of the brand just by filling up the space, or by allowing negative space around the product. They can enhance small accessories, making them seem bigger than they are, and portray them as if they were special jewels.
Watch this video to see how merchandisers tell stories, create little worlds, make jokes, and present the merchandise in a captivating way.
| Module | Description | Step |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Goals for Display Windows | 1-7 |
| 2 | A Display Window is a Three-Dimensional Space | 1-9 |
| 3 | Using Oversized Props in Display Windows | 1-6 |
| 4 | Borders in Display Windows | 1-7 |
| 5 | Negative Space in Display Windows | 1-9 |
| 6 | Gradient Sizing in Display Windows | 1-5 |
| 7 | Displaying Accessories in the Window | 1-9 |
| 8 | Displaying Accessories Using Repetition | 1-5 |
| 9 | Closed-Backed Windows | 1-7 |
| 10 | Open-Backed Windows | 1-9 |
MODULE 1 • Goals for Display Windows
| Step | Description |
|---|---|
| 1 | Retail display windows are very special – they’re pieces of creativity… artwork, really… that incorporate many types of objects, pictures, signs, and products. They are special because, unlike most other artwork, they have a very specific job to do: Window displays reach out to customers who are not paying attention. They must attract the passersby, actually stop them while they’re walking by on the sidewalk, and make them want to go inside the store to shop. For Alice and Olivia, an all-pink 1950s kitchen/laundry room is crazy enough to grab attention, and a great background for the colorful outfits. |
| 2 | There are many ways to create a window display, but there are two goals that help guide the merchandiser’s creative process: communicating how the brand’s values differentiate from the competition’s, and conveying a message or a theme for the brand – about a new product, or maybe a sale. We learned in Lessons 5 and 6 about the brand identity and how to illustrate it with graphics and signage. This Coach window is doing just that to tell the story of its collaboration with the artist Jean-Michel Basquiat. |
| 3 | And also, we learned in Lessons 2 and 3 how the colors and textures, lines and shapes, and all the objects in the window can express any message the brand needs to convey. Like this Versace window: you just know how intense this brand is by the hot pink covering the entire window box. |
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