Exhibitions and Merchandising

As a group project, we designed and executed three display windows focused around a fictitious sustainability company that we designed based off our target market, ReUseMe.

In investigating our target audience, we built a solid profile of a typical customer. We included basic demographics and other psychographics such as ways they prefer to shop, communicate, and other lifestyle factors.

We created two theme boards for this project, one focused on the brand we were designing and the other on how we wanted the window displays to appear. We chose to focus on a company that would use quilted scraps as their sustainable practice and chose a color palette that offered versatility.

Once we had down the direction we wanted to go with our display layouts, which was scenes simulating the daily lives of college students, we produced sketches of how the windows should be laid out, making sure to follow relevant visual design strategies.

Keeping sustainability in mind, our group tried to gather as many materials as possible from secondhand retailers or our own houses, remaking them if necessary to follow our quilted theme.

We estimated a budget for our displays and comparing it to the final cost, we managed to be over $100 below budget.

We were given a limited amount of time to execute the displays and deal with any unforeseen issues that cropped up - such as the available mannequin not laying properly in the hammock. You can see the final window displays pictured in the scrolling gallery above this section.

Following the idea of reproducing a modern Eden, our window displays take a surrealist slant. We've given our models flower heads and made many of the playground props out of oversized Stella McCartney products, such as the purse swing and shoe slide. The main goal of the display is to bring the store's products into a fantastical garden setting.

Based on psychographic data, it's been found that upon entrance there are three points of the wall that are first looked at by a consumer.  We based our consumer journey around this, with the most current items on the front right wall and seasonal items on the front left wall, with the accessory tree fixture front and center.

The right, merchandised section of the wall is dedicated to Stella McCartney's current line. The mannequins help customers visualize how the outfits might look on a person, and the standing rack holds a single size of each runway outfit (modified for taste gap) in the order they appeared on the catwalk. Any other sizes can be brought out from the backroom to reduce any impression of clutter on the racks.

Known for their store's adoption of inclusive exclusivity, Stella McCartney's try-on rooms are termed VIP rooms, where any customer can relax on plush furniture, listen to soothing music or podcasts, see one-of-a-kind products, and eat Stella's favorite brand of chocolate, Tony's.

This is a note of fun that is present in the brand's flagship store in London that our store has adopted. Our customers are generally middle-aged women who often have kids. The Children's Corner in the back of the store is positioned across from the VIP room and behind a children's capsule collection to provide privacy from the street while letting the older children explore their developing sense of style.

The hot wall to the left of the door upon entrance, next to the cashier, features seasonal accessories and wardrobe-building garments - the hot items paired with the solid sellers. The mannequins on the left mirror those on the right, wearing vintage pieces that leave customers with a sense of legacy and impact that they are contributing toward with their purchases.