The Natural History Museum, London

In order to explain to my students the process and principles of three dimensional design, I find that places such as the Natural History Museum are a fantastic resource to begin to identify quite literally the bare bones of the process. Students had the opportunity to study these skeletons with words such as Repetition, Radiation, Curvilinear and so on at the forefront of their minds and with the knowledge that they were going to use these observational drawings to begin moving from the two dimensional drawings to three dimensional models. One may question how this relates to Visual Merchandising or Commercial Interior Design? However, what I want to do here is encourage the group, not to literally take some of these objects and place them in store - as we all too often see - but to begin to use these objects as the staring point of their inspiration and begin to test and experiment, include and exclude ideas and begin to really understand how to become Designers or at least understand the difference between 'good' design - establishing a need and unravelling a concept and 'bad' design - simply lifting the motif.

Jihad the Musical, London

As part of my teaching practice I always encourage my students to see as many Shows, Exhibitions, Films, go to the Theatre, view animations, experience Concerts and so on as part of their research. I find it is far easier to work as a Designer if one is able to establish what already exists and therefore avoid a time consuming journey reinventing the wheel and use these experiences to draw upon within ones own work. I happened to have been bought a ticket to see Jihad the musical which of course I jumped at the chance if only because of the name itself. I do adore the Theatre and I highly recommend visiting as many shows as possible in order to find Inspiration and ideas from the whole spectacle, which can of course include the sets, the lighting used, the costumes, the music etc. as well as being an enjoyable experience. The reviews for this musical were rather scathing and rather than a musical were described more as Pantomime. Well it still is Panto. season, so who cares. If you fancy a bit of camp frippery, do go an see this 'musical'. It is a little trashy but the venue holds possibly 30 people so it does feel like a private show, there are some great one liners and it does have a feel good factor about it.

The London College of Fashion

As the weather in London has been so awful lately here in London, my colleague and I decided to take our second group of Fashion Retail Branding and Visual Merchandising students to explore the rich resources of the Natural History Museum here in London. The students were tasked to create a series of observational drawings from some of the exhibits which included the most incredible natural forms such as corals and fossilised plants, crystals and prehistoric skeletons. The aim of the process was to enable students to further develop their observational drawing skills and then begin to move from the two dimensional drawings into three dimensional models in a series of materials. This helps to enable students to understand the concept of space, shape and form and how this can be utilised with a commercial environment as well as beginning to understand the constraints of a variety of materials.

The London College of Fashion

This year has seen the beginning of something new and exciting for me with a new group of students from the Foundation degree in Fashion Retail Branding and Visual Merchandising at the London College of Fashion. The students have been briefed on a new project for the term which involves them developing their creative skills to produce a creative installation. I like to spend time with my students out of the class room and experiencing the treasures around London and using these places and spaces in order to explain a Design process. Here students visited the incredible Kew gardens in South West London. It was freezing cold and it had snowed but the Palm Houses were deliciously warm, enabling the students to study some of the plants in order to develop their drawing ability as a means of fundamental visual communication skills. These two dimensional drawings will be used to create three dimensional models in a variety of materials. I will post some of their development here on the blog in the next few weeks for you to view.

Sale: Vivienne Westwood, London

I am hoping that this will be the final Sale window that I will need to include this season. This is a quite an uninspiring time of year, its cold and miserable and although I am excited about seeing the new seasons schemes soon, I wont be sorry to see the back of Sale time. If you happen to be along the Conduit st. here in London do drop by the Vivienne Westwood store. Westwood's stores are usually beautifully produced and ooze depth of quality (even if the product itself doesn't always). Anyway, here the team have used black vinyl on the fenestration with swathes of fabric forming the backdrop. The bust forms, I believe are by my lovely friends at Proportion-London which always look amazing. What is interesting here are the use of lenticulars - 3D moving images. Of course, one has to move around the image for it to change and a camera can only capture one at a time. Anyway, lets look forward to Spring.

Sale: Calvin Klein, London

Unfortunately, my images of the latest Calvin Klein concept here in London are a little blurred but the video that I made which can be seen on my YouTube Channel: Jhvefun probably does this scheme a little more justice as it captures the movement happening here rather than just a still and a moment in time. Anyway, after viewing the superb store in NYC recently this store sadly pales quite significantly by comparison. Although the NYC store is fairly large and there are more windows to enable the creative teams to install much larger schemes, this store has the advantage of being able to house much smaller and detailed concepts. A the end of the day, I guess this is Sale and I am thankful that they have at least not adopted the obligatory Red signifying Sale time, although I am interested in what the first Spring scheme will be - watch this space.

Sale: Reiss, London

If you happen to be on Regent st. here in London this week, do go and have a look at the Reiss Windows. This scheme, although possibly lost during the daylight hours does come alive when night falls. Strings of 'beads' suspended to form these loops are the main concept for this Sale scheme. Reiss, of course do some great quality schemes, although simple and always work well. My only criticism, I suppose, is perhaps that they never really do enough to make a huge impact or statement, at least for me. Anyway, the the product is OK, if a little pricey for what seems an almost identikit Zara but twice the price. Still, I guess there is a market for this type of global retailer and they certainly seem to be doing very well. I am now itching to see the end of the Sale period and the launch of Spring schemes so in the mean time will be scouring the streets on my journey as a flaneur to find them for you.

Sale: Mandarina Duck

I have often seen this store and looked at it with admiration although only once ventured inside. I suppose my need for quality luggage and bags is lacking and therefore never felt that I should return as I tend to find whenever I travel that my suitcases always rotate around the carousel at airports absolutely bashed, handles missing, and zips and wheels broken so I am reluctant to spend a huge amount of money on these things. Anyway, this store is well documented on the Internet although I have always had difficulty photographing it as either there is too much reflection on the glass or the lights are switched off at night time. Anyway, luckily this evening I managed to finally capture some images for you all. Here, the brand use these bright Yellow sprayed figures with a futuristic feel to them on which the product is placed. At the centre of the store is this giant figure punctuating through the second floor. It is a remarkable piece of sculpture and I must say it is great fun. If you happen to be on Conduit St. here in London, do go an have a look. The product of course is superb quality and the store, a real spectacle.

Sale: Pringle, London

Is it still Sale time? Well, sadly yes. London seems to be getting colder by the hour and the dreaded Sale period is still not over yet. Miles and miles or Red banners pollute the shopping journey this time of year which really is so uninspiring. However, I was very pleasantly surprised to happen upon Pringle, Bond St. here in London. Pringle are one of the few brands that do Sale incredibly well. (If you have a look back to their Summer Sale scheme on this blog you will see what I mean) What a wonderful pleasure to see this brand make so much effort during this period of the retail calender. Strings of beads and Black vinyl with product placed against a monochromatic background. This gives the illusion here of much greater space - the windows are actually very narrow, however the team here do handle product incredibly well and the scheme works brilliantly. Thank you Pringle for giving us this gem and spectacle during such an uneventful time of year.

Sale: Mulberry, London

I must confess that I wasn't too enthusiastic with the Christmas scheme at Mulberry recently here in London with its out sized Red Apples and which I also recorded in NYC - but thats globalisation for you. However, we have seen these tree stumps change from Black to Red (Pink and Orange) for their Sale scheme and these I feel do work rather well. Previously we saw them painted Black and used with large beetles crawling all over them in conjunction with figures with quite 'mad' hair. However, I am pleased to see that Mulberry hasn't wasted its precious scheme budgets on the blandest period of the year and have utilised an existing scheme which is perfectly fine as we wade our way through this global recession. Anyway, watch this space and see what happens next.

Sale: Jaegar, London

It is so cold here at the moment in London and the snow and ice doesn't help matters. However, I was crossing over Regent st. from Conduit st. here in London while meandering through the West End in order to keep on top of all of the wonderful concepts and ideas that are being explored in the city and came across Jaegar. Of course we can see multiple schemes around the globe that use vinyl on the glass, and Jaegar seem to be using this a lot in the past few schemes, although, to me, this gives this concept an almost 1950's television set feel to their Sale concept.
OK, well it does look a little messy, if I am honest, but it is Sale time and the 'market stall' look seems to be de riguer here in town. Anyway, again we can see the land-of-the-giants sized lettering, as used in Fenwicks too along Bond St., only these are glittery too. Jaegar, usually produce very high quality schemes, although not necessarily particularly creative, but what they do, they do well. Anyway, role on post-sale.

Sale: Diesal, London

Diesal is one of my favourite visual brands right now and the stuff they do is always so exciting. I love their Design philosophy and how much they seem to experiment at a localised level. I would normally be disappointed that they used the same Sale concept as last Summer which you can find in this blog, however, the rest of the time their work is so good, that this is completely forgivable. Well, we are in a global recession and I guess it is a case of 'needs must' and it still is a good Sale scheme. In the meantime, I am looking forward to their new concept launch for 2010 in a few weeks' time.

Sale: Fenwick, London

If there is one store I would love to get my hands on, it would definitely be this one. I cant quite work this brand out. We have the incredible Harvey Nichols. Selfridges, Harrods and Liberty here in London and I can almost guarantee that if you asked anyone to name the department stores in London those four would be the ones (maybe House of Fraser and John Lewis too). Yet Fenwick is a department store in the centre of the Universe along Bond St. and yet seems to be a very sleepy giant and surviving. Bizarre. I have only been inside here a handful of times, I suppose, like so many places it just doesn't occur to me to shop here. That's a shame as I do feel in its superbly prime position it could be the main draw in town, although maybe it just doesn't want to be? But I feel this is one of London's biggest missed opportunities, and the wonderful things that could be done here are limitless. Anyway, one thing I always enjoy are land-of-the-giants sized props wherever they are used. Here Fenwick have used out sized lettering spelling out Sale with their random collection of Rootstein figures.