Expert Advice how to perfect a window display – Paula Arkel

 

 

‘Windows of Opportunity’

 

Colour in Your Display

 

‘If we don’t take care of our customers, somebody else will’

 

In a week where if we are to believe the papers the High Street is really suffering & consumers are not spending as much, with fears of a housing market stagnation it’s all to easy to give up hope and start panicking.

 

But this is really the time now to show your customers who you really are and pull out all the stops to entice the customer to part with their hard earned cash.

 

 This is no time for sitting on your laurels, and in a slow market you need to think about what the customer wants, and how you can deliver it to them.

 

 

Colour Sells – it is one of the strongest forces in attracting shoppers and enticing them to buy.  People are so colour conscious; it is an invaluable selling tool in display.  For many customers, colour is the most important factor when deciding to buy – even more important then style or price.

 

Colour Psychology – Is very important in Visual Merchandising, many theories have evolved concerning the effects of colour on people and their moods while shopping.  Established brands have always had one dominant colour that represents them; Marks & Spencer had the green shopping bags, whilst Liberty has purple as their predominant colour, it represents who and what they are and is known throughout the world.

 

Colour can immediately create a mood, most of us have colours that tend to cheer us up when we are feeling down and colours can also calm the emotions to:

 

 

YELLOW

It is sunshine and gold, happy bright cheerful, it is optimism, suggestive of change.  Spring & summer when it turns gold it is autumn.

 

 

ORANGE

A friendly, sociable colour, agreeable.  It is fire & flames, tropics or the setting sun.  Halloween and autumn leaves.

 

 

RED

Exciting, stimulating, and loving powerful.  Valentines Day & Christmas, it conveys “sale” & clearance.

 

 

PINK

It may be regarded sweet, lovely, and girly, ribbons and rosebuds, for Mother Day and Easter.

 

 

GREEN

An alive, cool or “growing” colour.  It is spring time and summer – Lawns, vegetables, trees, and St Patrick’s Day.

 

 

BLUE

Cool, calm & comfortable, soft skies, it’s always right for spring and summer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                 

 

 

BLUE-GREEN

The happy ‘marriage’ of blue & green, it is cool tasteful colour – sensitive & restful, a great summer colour to complement white.

 

 

PEACH

Suggests the warmth and happy excitement of orange (toned down), a new “neutral”, a friendly colour that will go with almost anything.

 

 

RUST

Rich deep earthy, it is the “earth” colour that goes with other colours, it is autumn.

 

 

VIOLET/PURPLE

Regal colour, favourite with children, lavender may convey “old – fashioned charm”, expensive jewellery and fine goods.

 

 

GREY

The neutral that makes separations, can be elegant and sophisticated or clinical with fine lines.

 

 

BROWN

The earth, the simple things, wood, clay and natural materials, It is the deep colour of autumn.

 

 

WHITE

The blankest of the blank, but a strong and able supporting player that makes every other colour can be a sparkling accent or sterile.

 

 

BLACK

Night, mystery, sex and death, ultra – chic or ultra depressing, black is a neutral, but a neutral that requires careful handling.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

COLOUR APPRECIATION:

 

 

 

• “Atmosphere” in displays can be given by the use of the appropriate colour scheme when creating seasonal types such as “Christmas”, “Holidays”.

 

 

 

• A tasteful colour scheme in display work is usually one in which the background colours have been selected for the enhancement of the articles which are to form the display.

 

 

 

• Light colours give a sense of space and darker colours tend to enclose or reduce it, a point which needs to be considered when selecting background colours.

 

 

 

• Merchandise hung on the rails in the shop in the order of the colour circle looks more attractive, from yellow through to green then neutrals browns, warm colours then greys black and white.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Written by Paula Arkell M.A Retail Consultant