Trend Report 1
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Oversized Architecture New York City is the home of excess and luxury lifestyles. This can be seen everywhere in the form of advertisments, visual merchandising and in-store displays. Over-sized is in, everything is about bigger the better and more the merrier. However, the most obvious example of excess in New York is definitely in the form of architecture. The busy skyline is only getting busier, and skryscrappers getting higher. I think that this is definitely something to watch as spots at the top of these amazing, eyecatching buildings could become fantastic retail spaces in the future.
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The image above shows a section of the existing New York skyline that includes the Empire State Building, which was once the tallest building in New York. The rest of the images were taken in the Skyscrapper museum in New York City; they show plans and models of future development plans for the city. The basis behind all of these models and ideas is oversize, luxury and excess. They’re all competing to be the tallest and most impressive skyscrapper. Once built, many of these designs would dominate the skyline of New York, towering over the Empire State building height.
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In Store Displays Visual merchandising in New York City is a step above and beyond the norm. Stores set the tone and brand essence with striking, statement displays that make shopping an experience. This area definitely also carries the underlying themes of luxury, excess and oversized. I think this works really well in New York as it helps to draw interest from tourists as well as regular customers and target consumers. However, I do also think that this is trasferable to areas with less tourists, as this style of in-store display and visual merchandising provides the costumer with a mermorable experience of the brand.
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The imges to the right are all taken from in store displays and visual merchandising for various brands. The first image, directly to the right, is taken from a Tom Ford perfume display in Bloomingdales, Soho, New York. This display shows the full range of perfumes, I think this an idea that works well and displays the brand handwriting through their use of repeated products and packaging. This is something done by several brands in New York stores, especially the department stores such as Macy’s and Bloomingdales. The second image, again directly to the right, is part of an in store installastion at the Converse store, also in Soho, NYC. This display feature loads of white Chuck Taylor Converse decorated and signed in marker pens by vsitors and customers to the store. I think this is a great idea for personalisation and interaction for customers as part of as in store experience. This also ties in really well with the Converse brand essence. The third image here, shows display units in the I Heart Perfume store in Williamsburgm, New York City. I Heart Perfume is a small perfume store that specialises in producing synthetic smells to represent memories. This display works really well with the stores products as each ‘box’ or section of the shelves is used for a memory and all the related products. On the oposite side of the store another identical shelving unit is used for ‘types’ of smell, eg food, flowers, trees etc. This idea helps to make everything clear. The large image to the far right is from an in store display for Illamasqua beauty products also in Bloomingdales, Soho, NYC. I really like how much of a statement this display made within the store, something that can be necessary within a department store when you are competing next to your direct competitors. Something loud and bold like this really helps to draw the consumer in to the brand and attract tourists.
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Excessive Advertisment New York City loves to make a statement when it comes to advertising. The more in loud, bold and in-your-face an advert is the better. The flashing lights and giant billboards of Times Square, NYC is the perfect example of this sort of advertising. Here, you can’t see for advertisements, brands and products. As overpowering and overdone as it is here, the concept of it is certainly transferrable. I believe that big billboard style adverts with lights and colours could work brilliantly for brands both on the streets and in stores.
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This Foever 21 advertisment, displayed in a New York Foever 21 store, was a huge wall-to-celling hanging. I thought that this was a really interesting advertisement that captured the essence of New York, and more specifically, Times Square advertising through the sheer oversizing of the image. In other retail areas this may seem very in-your-face and extravagent, but in New York it just enhances the overall brandenhanced feel and experience of the city. This idea really does take the outside inside, taking inspiration from the giant billboards and flashing lights of Times Square and downsizing it, with a touch of praticallity, to provide a retail space with their own equivilant.
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Street Art Graffiti and Instalations on the streets of New York are definitely a cut above the rest. Here, street art is definitely art; it’s all about colour and being eyecatching. I think that this culd be really valuable to a brand that could turn this grafiti and street art into controversial or loud advertising, as these works of art constantly catch the attention of passers-by and tourists. This would also be great for brands with youthful edge or younger target consumer.
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Jean-Paul Gaultier The Jean Paul Gaultier exhibition at Brooklyn Museun in New York City was an amazing experience in an inspirational setting. Here I have selected some elements of the exhibition space and diisplays that I think could also work really well at events and/or in retail spaces.
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Within the image to the left you can see illuminated letters. This was a feature that was used frequently through out the exhibition to marker and introduce certain sections and provide information. This is something that I believe would work really well within retail spaces and other exhibitions as it really stands out and catches the eye, linking in with the advertisment trends mentioned earlier in the booklet. Here, you can see an image of a couple of the manikuins used within the exhibition to display gaultier’s clothes. These were used throughout the exhibition, in the various sections. However, in the very first room as you entered, there was avery large group of these maniquins arranged in a semicircle in a ‘catwalk’ display style. All of this was fairly normal and generically used throughout all the rooms. Yet, here, at the beginning of the exhibition, several hologram effects had been used to project moving faces onto those of the manaquins. This idea gave the illussion that they were watching you and talking, some were also singing or providing information about the clothes. I though this was a really clever idea that could work extremely well within other fashion-related events, shows for collections and in retail spaced. A manaquin is a common object in all things fashion, but this really gave it a new lease of life, drawing in an audience.
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The image to the left also shows an element from the exhibition’s first room. This photograph shows a section of a long wall that displayed a large timeline of Jean Paul Gaultier’s life. The timeline was made up of different media elements such as spoken word, written word and video, as you can see here. This worked really well as an informative and interactive element, that again could work really well in retail or event spaces.
Alice Hoar N0501533
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