Central St. Martins, Interior Design for Retail

Each year I have the opportunity to work on a collaborative project between Central St. Martins @ the University of the Arts, London, and Domus College in Milan. What is so interesting about the students I work with are the diverse Design and Architectural backgrounds from which they come from (Internationally) and it is always so exciting to work with them. During the first day we discussed Creating Visually stimulating Environments, surveying a space, and the diverse ways in which they could begin to research for their set brief. As it was such a hot day in London on the second day of their course the students worked in Hanover Square in the shade of the trees in the middle one of the world most exciting retail areas - London's West End. Later in the same day students had the opportunity to visit the In-store show at London's Olympia.

House of Wax - Great Yarmouth

I recently ventured along England's East Coast to Great Yarmouth's House of Wax. Having read an enormous amount of mocking viral e-mails and how it was voted as Great Britain's worst Museum, it definitely warranted a visit. I certainly wasn't disappointed. As reported in the national press, it was as bad as the stories led me to believe. After paying my £3.00 entry fee I found myself alone with the likes of Samantha Fox, an angry looking Princess Diana, Eastender characters Den and Angie and Beckham look-a-likes. Signs all throughout the building scream CCTV in operation. I couldn't believe for a moment that these figures were protected by expensive equipment such as CCTV and the urge to record them photographically was too much. Of course its easy to mock these wax figures, and they are hilarious, however my interest was purely Academic and my main focus was in the representation of the human figure. I did however allow myself a wry smile.

All in one

I was recently sent the most wonderful American catalog(ue) from 1963 - All-in-one. The most interesting thing about this, is, that it is a great insight into a company who at the time were already in operation for 45 years when it was printed. The catalogue contains articles on the (then) latest Minute Maid Wigs - comb 'em.....curl 'em....twist 'em...brush 'em...., as the advert says, thrift line plastic hangers, papier mache forms, all plastic reinforced Lady Mannequins and most interestingly, the Studio Trion Hood and Glam-A-Mask. Essentially a plastic bag that is put over the head when trying on clothing to protect a women's 'hairdo' and make-up from being 'mussed' or 'spoiled'. The advertisements instruct that these hoods are produced in Pink marquisette which quickly zips on and off.....washes in a jiffy........drys in a moment. At the time, retailing at just $1.25 each, or $9.00 per dozen.

Sale Windows

Its that time of year again - Sale. It was so refreshing to see these Pringle windows along Bond Street this week. Sale windows traditionally, of course, have been (in general) a mass of Red and White notices, swing tickets, flashes and hanging baffles, so it was such a pleasure so see retailers being creative with such a dull part of the season. These windows with their considered paint 'splashes', props of huge jars filled with different coloured water placed next to the product and a background suggesting water coloured washes I thought worked incredibly well. Diesal (further below) as witty as ever, with the candelabra, sofa and urn wrapped in a Sale printed cloth suggest perhaps that, really, everything must go.

Iluminated Graphics - Bally

I'm not a particular fan of graphics in store windows as the main focus, but these highlighted edge stylised illuminated ones in Bally, London, actually work quite well. What is also interesting is the symmetrical facade of the store with store windows reflecting each other in space although then become anomalies within it through the content, product and images presented. The product itself has been presented in a stepped format within an overall right angled triangle configuration.

Dramatic Lighting - Moby in Concert

As part of student's research, one of the areas that I always suggest looking at for inspiration are live concerts. Theatre, Newspapers, Exhibitions, Animation, Sound, Music and live events (to name just a few) provide enormous amounts of inspiration for ideas whether in Commercial Spaces or product presentation. I try to see as much of these as my time allows and record these ideas as primary research. Having amassed over many years a vast collection of primary visual information, I use this whenever I feel the need to be cleansed and motivated.
I managed to record the lighting here at the concert itself which I may use as inspiration for a future idea - the sound has been deleted with respect to the artist and to avoid any possible copyright infringement. Unfortunately the quality is not perfect although its purpose is to act more of an aid memoir rather than a crystal cut recording.

Deconstructing the Presentation - Penhaligon

As a shopper, we will, perhaps not necessarily think about how the product is presented to us, unless of course it is badly presented. But if product is presented well we probably wont even think about it. Taking, just one store window what I have attempted to do is to reveal the 'Presentation Dynamics' - well some - that could be seen in this store window of Penhaligon. What we have here is an example of the Pyramid structure used by retailers which is used significantly for this type of product (although far from exclusively) We have examples of Repetition of the Pyramidal format with the background a repetition of the same graphic, with vinyl placed on the glass of letter form and cartoon-like accessories. There are of course references to the History of the company in the form of an old photograph hung in a gilt frame. Whether this is an actual original Penhaligon store is not clear - these things can be 'suggested' to give the impression that this is a reliable-old-time and historical store. (this is not of course to say that it isn't)

See it....Buy it.....Like it....Try it....

A few years ago, a colleague and I worked together on a Final show for our students. We found ourselves with the task of designing the invitation for the exhibition and after many hours brainstorming ideas we came up with this solution. Bearing in mind the student work was based around commercial interiors we set about listing all of the experiences one would have on a shopping journey combining this with the student experience of the course (in Pink)

After the event we found ourselves with quite a sizable collection of left over postcards and rather than waste them, we decided that wherever we travelled we would post the cards back to the University, hence increasing the sense of journey. I am not sure where we were going with the idea and quite what we were going to do with the 'posted' cards, however these random ideas do often come to mind and maybe one day I will decide what I am going to do with them all..!

Harvey Nichols Windows, London

These windows are probably the best and certainly the most fun windows currently in London. These are the windows of Harvey Nichols - produced under the direction of the Creative Director Janet Wardley, who incidentally is also probably one of the nicest people in the industry.

I was quite mesmerised at this eclectic mix of flying pigs, out sized glittery lips, wooden dog toys, mannequins riding Bananas, inflatables, just about every angle of perspective view considered and cartoon-like narratives with huge doses of humour. It was also a pleasure to see the likes of Rootsteins Diane Brill make an appearance next to more contemporary collections of Mannequins. The quality of presentation was extremely sharp. I cannot under estimate the amount of work that has gone into these windows and after a tiring day, on seeing this, I felt quite uplifted - I also felt the urge to share more images than I normally would, I hope they do the windows justice.

Putting the Win in Windows

Delving back into my archives, I came across this really interesting magazine that I purchased a few years ago. 'How to put the Win in Windows' published by Dennison in the U.S. in 1939 explains how to 'move merchandise' and how display stimulates the buying impulse at a time when it can be instantly satisfying. Articles in this publication also give hints in handling crepe, how to install a background with pleats and pleated effects, the colour wheel and letting color speak for itself. An awful lot of these techniques have been virtually lost over time as they fell out of favour, therefore these publications have become such gems of information. The reverse of the publication promotes another of its publications that we should have, 'Gay decorations for Parties, Dances and Banquets' - how terminology and meanings have changed.

Light Installation

Just along Southwark Bridge Road there are two incredible light installations situated under the railway bridge. I came across these installations by chance after walking around Borough market, and then additionally by chance just a 100m or so further along seeing the Uber cool Chocolate Factory galleries.

In some way these types of installations can become the 'sticky' plaster on the wound of bad design although it certainly is a beacon in an area which is both deprived while simultaneously and ironically being expensive - perhaps being on a White background rather than Black doesn't really help it. Maybe thats intentional?

I enjoy the serendipitous nature of finding these things while on a journey and tend to look a them with the intention of a commercial application although as ever with these light installations, its night time when they really come alive.

Mulberry, London

Mulberry have installed an interesting concept into their Bond Street store, although I found myself wondering what the idea is here as it wasn't immediately apparent, to me at least.

On further investigation, of course it is based on the new book by Chris Craymer, Romance: A Beautiful Look Book on Love.

What they have done here is to take one of the images within the book (the bit where it says Love You, made up of scrabble pieces) and created these larger than life scrabble pieces as props. After seeing a lot of the images from the book, I felt perhaps that more could have been teased out from the images to create a much fuller window as it doesnt quite capture the sense of romance that the book does so well through its beautiful images?

Life Magazine 1941 - Model and Manikin article on Greneker

Four years prior to this article being printed in 'Life', the magazine had written about the use of heads becoming a feature on mannequins, only just being accepted as the norm in smart store windows. This of course, therefore greatly shortened their life. In this article, model Helen Johnson posed for the sculptor, known only as Peter, in the presence of Lillian Greneker where the process of casting the body in plaster on oiled paper (to protect the skin), from which papier mache molds were then created.

The various parts were pieced together with a 'stock' head size 21.5 inches onto which the cast of the Helen's face was then placed. On the image below the cast reveal a small scar on the model's right cheek and eyelashes left in the cast despite the use of grease to protect them.