‘Leché Vitrines in a Phygital World’ licking the window

of the physical and digital Sue Robinson

Sue Robinson is a Lecturer at the School of Creative Industries at RMIT University in Melbourne where she teaches Visual Merchandising Interior Design and Fashion Styling. Sue was awarded an International Practitioner Fellowship in 2022. She is also Chief Judge Visual Merchandising WorldSkills Australia. Sue’s presentation gave us an overview of the VM skill in Education in Australia from 2017 onwards with the Diploma of Visual Merchandising. From then on, the Diploma has faced challenges of restructuring the length of the qualification, dwindling student applicants, and post pandemic recovery. Despite these challenges we have successfully continued to collaborate with local stores, shopping centres, design festivals and national brands to provide students with industry network experience across retail, events and styling.

Trends

• Activations where the physical and digital are brought together, offering new areas to explore for the skill.

• Post Covid, customers are more comfortable with digital.

• Upcycling: using recycled materials.

• VM is not just retail, but also events and styling. Suggest unpicking VM from Retail. A new name for the skill could help this happen.

• Initial thoughts for a new direction in my research are ‘Experiential Design’, ‘Sensory Design, ‘Experience Design’ and ‘Multi-Sensory Design’.

• What does Phytigal look like moving forward across these 3 sectors - events, retail and styling?

• How can we incorporate this into the skill?

There is an issue and perception of VM being ‘optional’. Fashion Styling courses attract far more applicants and cover some similar skills. Brand and retail marketing are not just about products anymore. Social media and video shopping are now a part of the skill set.