VMSD - July 2011 - (Page 4)

FE FROM THE EDITOR More Than Just a Prop Competition winners show mastery of visual tools to create the unexpected. 11262 Cornell Park Drive Cincinnati, OH 45242 P: 513.421.2050 | F: 513.421.5144 vmsd@stmediagroup.com | VMSD.com How do you make flowers, bungee cords or neon signs into something more than just a flower, a cord, a sign? The answers can be found in the winners of VMSD’s 2011 International Visual Competition. Our judges gathered in April to delve into this year’s entries from around the globe, from department stores and sporting goods retailers to luxury car showrooms. The projects that took home awards were lauded for making the product hero and creating powerful brand messages. Niketown’s storewide promotion for the World Basketball Festival in New York, encompassing window displays, in-store shops, graphics and gigantic figurines of current basketball stars soaring inside a fivestory atrium, was the hands-down Best in Show winner in the eyes of our judging panel. “I don’t even play basketball, but it makes me want to go dribble,” remarked one judge. Damon Johnstun, creative director at LIT Workshop (Portland, Ore.), a retail marketing and manufacturing firm that collaborated with Nike on the project, says the goal was to create a space that was playful and fun. “Lots of places are so beige,” says Johnstun. “Let’s push it.” This year’s winners make that task look easy – and even fun – in spite of the challenge of grabbing shoppers’ ever-distracted attention while relying on smaller staffs, fewer resources and minimal budgets. But when put to the test, that’s when they seem to shine. Judges couldn’t help but assume that the visual crew at Holt Renfrew had a blast installing hundreds of bungee cords for its “Extreme” window campaign. And what about Mercedes-Benz’s luxury cars dressed up as Santa’s reindeer to attract the attention of passersby on one of London’s busiest motorways? (For more on this year’s winning entries and trends in visual merchandising, see page 12 and visit vmsd.com.) Paul Olszewski, director of windows at Macy’s Herald Square, says his favorite window campaigns are the ones where he has no budget. For a fall window theme, he found bundles of branches and sticks and painted them in unusual colors to keep the theme natural without being too obvious. “It enhances the merchandise and still speaks to fall,” he says. “It’s not just a prop.” Ana Fernandes, creative design manager at The Bay, says it’s about making it memorable, “so shoppers look to see what’s new.” That’s when that tree limb, that bungee cord, that neon sign become something more. They become powerful tools to push the mark forward. EDITORIAL Editor Anne DiNardo anne.dinardo@stmediagroup.com Senior Art Director Kimberly Pegram kim.pegram@stmediagroup.com Assistant Editor Whitney Harrod whitney.harrod@stmediagroup.com Editor at Large Steve Kaufman steve.kaufman@stmediagroup.com New York Editor Eric Feigenbaum European Editor John Ryan, London SALES Publisher Eastern U.S. / Eastern Canada Murray Kasmenn murray.kasmenn@stmediagroup.com P: 770.578.2577 Business Development Manager International Patricia Iannelli patricia.iannelli@stmediagroup.com Via G. Rossini 16, 21100 Varese, Italy P: +39.0332.240285 C O R P O R AT E President Tedd Swormstedt Design Group Director Kristin D. Zeit Audience Development Director Christine Baloga Production Coordinator Keri Harper Senior Event Manager Kristy Lohre Director of Book Division Mark Kissling Reprint Information 800-925-1110, ext. 399 SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES P.O. Box 1060 / Skokie, IL 60076 P: (847) 763-4938 / F: (847) 763-9030 VMSD@halldata.com 4 JULY 2011 | vmsd.com http://www.VMSD.com http://www.vmsd.com http://www.vmsd.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of VMSD - July 2011

Vmsd - July 2011
Contents
From the Editor
VMSD Editorial Advisory Board
The Goods
Slam Dunk
Rise and Shine
Seismic Shift
Japanese Lantern
Showroom
Ad Index
Checking Out

VMSD - July 2011