On Monday, our group met up for the first time after deciding to work together! We had agreed beforehand to do some research to bring to the meeting so that we could discuss ideas and try and refine some concepts. I brought my mood boards and idea generation with me, but looking back I wish I had brought my laptop as well because I was unable to do research when we were sat together. However I will be able to remember this for next time, and know what to expect now.
We all exchanged our research and we had actually brought up some similar ideas, and interest in past window displays. Some of the members in my group had made boards on Pinterest, which I rarely use, but after sitting with them and seeing how their inspiration starts off, I am motivated to start using it! We talked about how we want our display to really stand out, so maybe diverting from the obvious themes and ideas would be a good way to start branching our designs.
Together we looked at trends that are thought to be popular during the Autumn of 2016, which is when our display will be put up. We found this website, 'Premiere Vision New York' that made regular forecasts on the upcoming seasonal trends. The three they had forecasted were, 'The Protective Shield of Minimalism', 'Unique Roots' and 'Digital Surrealism'. Of course we were all instantly attracted to the digital surrealism, especially as the brief calls for looking at the digital age and consumerism habits. We also thought that it was interesting how the colour palette for this particular trend is a bit more obscure and doesn't fit the obvious autumnal colours, making our potential concept more unique and stand out.
We had trouble finding one specific concept that we could narrow our display down to, because the brief is so broad and it doesn't really give you any particular criteria to meet, it is all open to us. Therefore together we brainstormed three main things. Firstly we began to look at John Lewis, and what sort of emotion that brings out or what it's ethos is. We agreed that it is a very friendly brand that creates campaigns with deeper meaning to really connect with their customers. Therefore connection is something we are also going to incorporate into our display.
We then looked at autumn, because that is the time of the year the brief states the display will be put up in, so of course we wanted to consider the atmosphere of autumn and what could potentially be surrounding our display. Atmosphere was something we researched a lot in our meeting. Autumn is a time when the weather starts to get colder, the air is crisper and you can see you breath in the air. We though about trying to replicate this, so that the mannequins could have cold air coming out of their mouths. I really loved this idea and I think it would really make people stop and look into the window if they saw it.
The last idea/concept we brainstormed was dreams/having a dream like display. Dreams can be so extravagant and we could really play around with different techniques and processes so this really appealed to us. Holograms/light projection came up a lot in our discussions. We talked about perhaps projecting lights/having something constantly moving would be a great way to invite people into the store. Lights in general were a key idea for us because they would look even greater at night. Perhaps laser cutting 3D layers of paper and then having different coloured lights rotating behind would also be another exciting concept.
We also watched a few video examples of interactive window displays. I was shown this video that illustrates Nike window displays which have sensors and interact when you come near them. I especially loved the first one because of how colourful it is, but also because it is so unique. It looks as if the balls are floating in the air, and I would definitely stop and think twice if I saw this in real life. I thought this was such a clever idea, though I am not sure how we could make a mock up of this, I am keeping it on my inspiration list, as this technique could be something that we could incorporate into the digital surrealism theme.
Since there is not a John Lewis in Leeds or in the main city centre of where I live (Manchester), I went to the next best place where there is a John Lewis store, and this was the Trafford Centre. I was actually really disappointed with the window displays there because there really wasn't any, apart from on the side which you really could miss. I am not sure if this is because the display is inside, but even then it wasn't very thrilling.
I sent the picture to the group chat so they could see what I meant, and they agreed that we could do better than that. This gave us a bit of a confidence boost, knowing that the existing displays aren't too complicated to begin with. After the first meeting we were still unsure of a final concept, so all four of us agreed to go away and pick one concept, develop it a little bit with some designs and then come back and pick bits from each one and really start making way on the actual designs. So by our next meeting our goal is to really have a concept developed, and start working on it, as our deadline is very close (March). So far I am being pushed out of my comfort zone a lot, but I am enjoying working with new people and discussing concepts that are really exciting, so it is worth it!
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