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This is my window display after making the changes to the sign. I think that the sign change really has helped it have more of a Lush Cosmetics vibe. It also lets customers and people passing by know that Lush is donating to a charity to celebrate this day and not just keeping the money for themselves. It is great to see that a store is donating some of their sales to a charity. I think that gives off a really positive vibe and would encourage more people to shop in that store over one that isn’t donating any of their money. Another change that I made was I adjusted the size of the charity logo in the top right. I made this change because I thought that the size was just a bit too small and might have gone unnoticed. I don’t think this is a major change but it was just to further show appreciation for the charity who the money is going to. 

From creating this window display and doing all the research that goes into it, it has taught me a lot of new skills and facts that I didn’t know before. I learnt all about the importance of a window display’s appeal and that a VM has to work extremely hard to help attract customers into a store just from the window display. Each company has different techniques and and tactics to use to get more and more customers to want to go and shop in their store. Creating this window display has taught me new Photoshop skills such as the perspective tool. It was a challenging and tedious tool to use but just from changing the angle of something really made the difference and gave the window a more realistic look. I have taken on feedback from teachers and peers and applied it to my work to make small changes to help improve my work. This has helped me look at my work from a new angle and that constructive criticism is sometimes needed to push it that one set more. I have really enjoyed the challenge of creating a window display for a brand. It was a fun way to express my ideas, creativity and skills.

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After some discussion and looking more into Lush as a store, I decided to change my sign and my idea about the free doughnuts. Lush customers are all about giving back to others and to charities. I changed my free doughnut offer as it did have a more fast food vibe to it than a cosmetics store. I decided to replace it with ‘15% of sales go to The Salvation Army.’ I chose to collaborate my store and donate the sales to The Salvation Army because they were the creators of National Doughnut Day. This sign sounds and looks like something that Lush would be advertising; and something that their customers would appreciate and like a lot more than my sign beforehand. 

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This is my idea for my window display for Lush themed around National Doughnut Day. My ideas are pretty much the same as my sketch that I made. One thing that I didn’t include was the tinsel fringe at the top. I kept trying out different colours and shapes but none of them worked out how I wanted, so I skipped out on it. I tried to keep the window display quite simple and not too crowded. The products that I used on the tables were mostly Lush ones. I chose to add pink coloured products as pink and purple were my main colours that I wanted to use. To give my window a more realistic feel, I added three yellow triangles and turned down their opacity. By doing this, it created a small light effect in my window. I also layered a shop window over my own and turned down the opacity. This again creates a more realistic looking window and gives the window more depth and detail. 

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Doughnut Sign

In Lush’s window displays there is usually a sign that relates to the product that is being displayed in the window. I made this sign to go in the middle of my window display. I made it a pun about doughnuts and I added about the free doughnut when you make a purchase. I decided on the free doughnut idea because most doughnut stores on doughnut day give out free doughnuts, it was a nod to the actual day that my stores window is representing.

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Doughnut Wall

This design is what I am going to be using as the background for my window display. I drew and coloured the doughnuts in Photoshop. I then put them onto an off white background that I got off of Google. 

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Window Display Sketch

This window display sketch is what I will mostly be inspired and referencing when creating my final edit on Photoshop. However, I might make alterations and alternative window displays to see what works best. I wanted the window display to see fun feel to it. I added the tinsel fringe at the top to give it a more party vibe as well. For the doughnut wall background, I am going to draw the donuts myself on Photoshop. I wanted them to not look too realistic or like bath bombs, so that it links in with the free donut you get in store. I chose to give out free doughnuts because a lot of doughnut stores do this on National Doughnut day. I am adding in the top corner a Salvation Army logo. This is my chosen charity to collaborate and donate money that is made from the day to. The Salvation Army were the creators of doughnut day so there is no other charity that I would want to use. 

Looking back at my visit to the Preston Lush store, I used their layout as inspiration for mine. I wanted there to be a display in the middle of the window and then at the sides you can still see inside of the store. Another thing I am adding which is present in a lot of Lush store windows is a screen sign. I am going to have a quote in there and also including the offer about the free doughnut. 

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Spring Summer Window Inspo

Before I planned out my design, colour scheme and props, I did some research into spring summer window displays for some inspiration and ideas. 

From what I have found, all of these window displays involve bright colours, floral and botanical elements and lots of fun props. The window displays give off a really fun, carefree vibe and definitely fits in with the spring/summer season. Some of them remind me of the beach, holidays or parties to celebrate the summer. The window displays are really bright and would catch your eye as you pass by, potentially making you go into the store. Some of the examples I found are very basic whereas others have lots of props and decorations going on all at once. This shows that there are lots of different elements that go into a window display to make it not only effective, but make it fitting to current trends and seasons.

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The Lush store in Tokyo’s Shinjuku station has recently added some innovative technology to theit window display. They created a shoppable window which allows consumers and passerbyers 24 hour acces to shop collections and product drops

Lush said this new technology is to help reduce water waste and minimising packaging by using videos and online shopping.

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Interactive Window Displays

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Under Fire

This is a news article talking about Lush’s controversial window display that addresses undercover police officers forming relationships with the women they were employed to spy on. Lush received lots of online backlash and criticism branding it disgusting and “really poorly thought out. “

In my opinion, I think that Lush was trying to get across a message. This display was different than their usual and I like that they displayed a real life issue in one of their stores windows for a change

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A video talking about Lush’s moving window display

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Moving Window Display🌸

In Lush’s Oxford street store in London, Owen Gildersleeve and YCN created a moving window display based around Charlotte Day’s illustrations. 

Each flower piece had moving mechanisms that were designed using CAD, 3D  printed in a 100% biodegradable plastic. The flowers were made to run off one Arduino micro-controller. The designers spent many hours experimenting with different algorithms and coding so that all the flowers could have believable movements and animations. This was to make them look less robotic and more realistic. They ended up creating a program where the flowers randomly generate their own movements. 

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This is a quick video I made showing the inside of the Lush store in Preston. The store offered a huge selection of products to choose from

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Lush Preston

The window display for the Lush store in Preston was advertising their Snow Fairy range. This is one of Lush’s Christmas collections and it includes shower gels, body washes, bath bombs and body sprays. The display is an all pink theme and it shows all of the products that you can buy in the Snow Fairy collection. The display has a few pink clouds on it as well. When I see these clouds they make me feel relaxed and that is exactly how you want to feel when you are in the bath. These clouds are small but relevant detail that works well for this window display and store. The design and colour scheme is very simplistic, yet it all links together and the colours are even spread throughout the store. I think that the Lush window displays are always really eye catching when you are walking by. The bright pink colours really stand out against the rest of the store and the window. The window display also has a big screen sign behind the stand saying “It’s fairy exciting.” This play on words creates a clever and relevant slogan for the store’s newest edition. It makes the product seem worth spending the money on and that it is something to look forward to using. 

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A trip into Preston

To get some inspiration for my window designs and to look at current trends, I took a trip into Preston to see what the window displays looked like in the high street. I took pictures of stores that were advertising men’s clothes, women’s clothes, children’s clothes and shoes. The main colour scheme I saw in the men and women were neutral, cool tones such as beige, black and browns. The main pieces on the mannequins were knitwear, coats and jackets; perfect for the upcoming winter season. The River Island mannequins had more casual, party wear rather than more winter clothes. Their mannequins had short sleeved shirts and skirts on. 

A lot of the window displays focused mainly on the mannequins and their outfits. Not many of them had props or window stickers on them, unless they were advertising a discount or a sale. I think that only three of the ones I took pictures of had some form of prop alongside the mannequins. Most of the stores also had groups of mannequins. This seems to be a popular technique as it gives customers a greater insight to the variety of styles and the store has to offer; luring in more potential buyers. Another good technique is having mannequins displaying different ages and genders in their windows. This shows that the store isn’t just selling clothes for one specific group of people. Having women, men, kids and baby clothes on mannequins can also help get in more customers as they can clearly identify that the store sells and provides for every gender and age just from the window display. This store is then at an advantage over other stores that just sell clothes for either just men or women. 

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Personal VM experience

For the past 2 years I have worked at a Primark store and just a month before I started university, I had the opportunity to help with the visual merchandising for two days. In the short time I did this I learnt so much about the VM process for our store. 

I first dressed all 8 of the mannequins in the window. With these mannequins the VM’s are given a guide that they have to follow. They get told the theme, colours and the products that they have to include. For these models, it was the start of the winter season and the mannequins wore colours such as khaki and grey. Nearly all the mannequins wore some form of chunky boot, which has become a very popular item as we get further into the winter season. All the outfits seen on the models are then put into the trend area, where there are 5 other mannequins wearing pieces from that section. 

I have noticed whilst researching that Primark don’t include any vinyl stickers or wording on their window displays; their main focus is the clothing on the mannequins. Their bigger stores however, do include posters and props aside their window display, for example at Christmas they have presents and Christmas trees. 

For these next three models on the men’s floor, I got given a bit more freedom with what I got to dress them like. The theme for these mannequins was “urban grunge” and it focused on dark colours and camo patterns. The VM told me to choose three outfits from the wall and to dress them in that. I wanted the three outfits to showcase different styles to really reach to all kinds of customers. I really enjoyed being able to have something that I have personally picked out be on display for people to see and hopefully it encouraged them to make purchases.

Being a VM, even just for a few days was such an amazing and fun experience that I will never forget. I learnt how to dress and undress mannequins, got an insight to a VM’s jobs and responsibilities and got given loads of great advice!!