Page 219 - DMGT552_VISUAL_MERCHANDISING

Visual Merchandising

Notes display into a grocery and swap out the necklace for a potato. Now it’s over the top. In any kind
of marketing, a playful approach is hard to beat. This grocery concept would work because
people notice the unexpected.

Notes Build-up Display

There is a vast difference between creating a one-item or line-of goods display and a mass
display of a variety of items “related” only in use, material, colour, or place of origin. To
display different dinnerware place settings, one is dealing with a group of objects that are
similar in material, construction, and use, but are decidedly different in appearance. It is
the difference in pattern, colour, shape, and size that will make one design of dinnerware
more attractive to a customer than another.
In doing a display of five, six, or more place settings or groupings of different patterns (or
pots and pans, luggage, toiletries and cosmetics, or other “related” types of merchandise),
certain methods of presentation are more effective than others. The overall display must
be balanced and easy to look at. There has to be a movement from grouping to grouping
or item to item. Each group or item should be able to be viewed as a separate entity,
somehow set apart from the others.
The display person is working with objects of the same general size or weight, he or she
might use assorted size cubes or cylinders clustered together to create a buildup display.
It is easy for the viewer’s eye to travel upward, making a stop at each level to absorb what
is being shown before moving on to the next level and the next showing. Thus, each group
is separate and apart in space. Each group can be dominant as the viewer’s eye climbs the
setup. The topmost group, by its position, could be assumed to be the best or the most
attractive-the most desirable. Therefore, if the display person wants to make all the items
equally “best” or “beautiful,” the top step could be reserved for a plant, a vase filled with
flowers, or any decorative or related item or prop.
The buildup itself can be a series of forms of different sizes, arranged in a straight line with
each cube or cylinder butting up to the next tallest one, but all flush in front. For the sake
of interest and effect, there can be a combination of bigger steps and smaller steps. In a
formal or traditional arrangement, however, each step would be exactly the same increment
of height (e.g., 6 inches, 9 inches) until the next plateau is reached.

Where there is sufficient depth in which to set up the display, the buildups can go from
front to back as well as from side to side. It would be like creating a pyramid with risers
or cubes building up from either end while, at the same time, building from a low point
out in front to the high point in the centre. When displaying merchandise that is related,
but of different sizes and shapes (e.g., handcrafted ceramics which includes boxes, plates,
bowls, decorative figures, and maybe even urns and vases), the step or pyramid buildup
will work, but it requires a very deft feel for balance, especially asymmetrical balance. It
is now a matter of building up one riser (or platform) with an object on it while balancing
it with another riser that has a different-sized object displayed on it. The overall height
and look of the riser plus the merchandise must be visually weighted against the other
riser and merchandise. It might, therefore require a lower platform or elevation to hold a
tall vase, for example, if it is to balance with a low, squat bowl on a taller riser. This
asymmetrical buildup must be arranged so that the viewer’s eye will still move
comfortably, through the various levels, to the top.
Contd...

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