The Great North Yorkshire Moors

from VM Spotlight from The British Display Society

Ada and Albert

The Great North Yorkshire Moors Nature does not stop – not even for Covid19!

I’m lucky enough to live in Yorkshire where there are so many wonderful towns and villages with beautiful, independent shops serving both locals and visitors alike. Many of these businesses are relied upon for everyday shopping and communal support, and Thomas the Baker is no exception - a local business with over thirty bakeries supplying not only fresh bread and bakes, but flour and yeast for customers during lockdown too. Their bakery in Helmsley has a delicatessen attached and understanding how to dress their windows had proved challenging, and quite alien to their usual layout of tray bakes. They approached Made You Look! and we taught them the basic principles of display, layout, grouping techniques, where to find inspiration and so on, and they have created some lovely displays which are now fuller, exciting, and creating more impact and of course attracting sales. However, during Covid19 Thomas’ was really pressed for time, so I was invited to help them with their summer windows, so working through the night to keep safe we were delighted to help. Many of you will appreciate how stunning the Moors are this time of year, and this needed representing in their displays especially for the Butcher’s window as the shooting season or ‘Glorious twelfth’ was about to start - part of the local heritage. You can see from my background photographs where the inspiration came from, and by using hessian to cover the panels, moss, rocks, grasses, heather, and bilberry - style props, crates, hampers, fake foods and some genuine shooting gear, we created four displays all with local produce – oils, jams, chutneys, biscuits, gins and vodkas, eggs and of course meats. These windows have proved especially popular and the comments have been pouring in – along with sales too, of course. Yet many of the props can be re-purposed and dressed differently as the seasons progress. We can teach you these basic skills in our new, forthcoming ‘Display Basics’ online course, so do please register your interest with admin if you’d like to find out more!