Project Five - Visual Merchandising ... Research

I have been looking through the Internet and have struggled to find information on visual merchandising but to be honest I don't think I really need to find information as it all visual. It says it in the title! I think the best thing to do is just look at actual visual merchandising in the stores around the world and how its been seen by the public and from that take what I can. It should be fairly easy to tell what works and what doesn't.

I have however found this diagram from the 'Food Consultants Australia' website. It shows the factors of good visual merchandising.



It is from a food website so some of the factors don't make sense like the menu one for example but i think it gets across the basic factors. If most companies followed these steps then there would be some success in it.

There is not only visual merchandising but digital as well. Digital signage can show multiple images and messages, they can be displays from LCD or other formats. Digital Signage is found everywhere especially in places such as shopping centres or airports. They mainly display advertisements but occasional important notices.

Digital merchandising saves a lot of time and effort as some particular messages may only need to be displayed for a short period of time, by doing this digitally you only have to mess around on the computer to alter the screen rather then ripping things down which you would have to do with posters and such. Also you have the advantage of showing moving images on a digital screen which may get the message you are wishing to portray out there better.

Here are a few examples of digital signage ...










After looking at the benefits of using digital signage I think I will consider using this method on my three pieces. I will try to put them in convenient places that will be seen by all.

The Final 10 ...

Here are the final 10 photos we chose for our campaign ...





















Admittedly some are better then others but I think generally speaking they are all good. I think due the couple of hours we spent doing test shots in the studio getting the lighting right it paid off. We got the skin colours nearly a perfect tone and it was very complimentary.

I enjoyed doing this project as it was the most fashion related of allour projects so far.

Topshop Photoshoot ...

Here are a few photos from our Topshop campaign. The shoot went really well and I am extremly pleased with the results.

The jumping ones were a really good idea of ours and I think it would just jazz up a Topshop campaign without going over the top but the proble we had with these, and its a shame, was the faces. As the models had to jump in the air it was hard for them to pull an attractive face. It just wouldn't have looked right for a magazine campaign.









The posture of the model in these two photos I think we got perfect. She looks string and confident. The back archs in the right place and her legs are placed in just the righ position in the other.





Maybe these two photos look a bit too much like a New Look campaign. Out of the two the top one is the most professional. As a group we decided these two weren't that good but I thought I'd put them on here to demonstate our negociating skills when it came to choosing our final ones.





The models position in this photo is great. I think it's interesting and has just got something about it. The glasses add something to the photo aswell. It makes it stylish and fun.





I like the idea of a two model shot but maybe the positioning is wrong on this one. It does look good but I think the hands are in the wrong position on the right hand model.



I really like these two photos. I think my prefered angle style is just off the page. Not in the centre of the page but to the side or hanging off. I just think it makes things a lot more interesting.











I think out of these two above I prefer the closer one it just looks more professional. I took these two photos and I'm very proud of them as i haven't done a lot of photography before.





I think Antonia did a really good job modelling in this outfit above. She made the outfit look better then it actually was. Very professional finishes to all of her poses.



Out of all of the outfits we styled I'm not so sure about this one now I look back on it. I just don't think it shouts Topshop which is th key feature for our campaign.





I LOVE this outfit! It is extremely Topshop and has a summer feel to it. The bottom has a good feel to it as I like experimenting with the angles of the camera and its not just staright on in the middle.

All in all this was a sucess and I would be happy to do another project like this one :)

Behind The Scenes ..

We recorded our time in the studio to show the time we had and what went into the shoot.

The Studio ..
Here is the actual studio in which we worked in to shoot this campaign.





The Preparation ..
Here are a few photos from behind the scenes showing what we did to prepare the shots. You can how much of a mess we made doing the hair and the make-up but it was very fun :)









It wasn't all fun mind there were a few boring tasks that had to be done like ironing!







I don't know if you can see this next photo but it is just showing the amount of clothes and outfits we thought about and how hard it was to come to a decision on which ones to use in the final shoot.



The Shoot ..
I really enjoyed the shoot as i met some new people who I didn't really talk to much before this project. It was very fun but also quite tiring.
Here is the actual shoot ...









FINISH!!