As large format design and print is part of what we do at Oxbow, I am in a habit of touching window and interior displays as well as photographing them and I can assure you, I get some very strange looks but thankfully, have not been carted off by security – yet!

Pretty pictures are one thing but what about the story behind the message we are sending to customers and how do the campaigns we run effect the motivation and moral of our employees and in turn their performance in customer facing roles? I was reminded of the BUPA campaign in the 90’s – ‘You’re amazing’- with the bill boards brandishing the latest amazing facts about the human body and inspirational television adverts  with the feel good factor (in recessionary times we need reminding of the incredible things we take for granted). Intended to attract new customers this campaign boosted staff moral too as the campaign was so popular and this in turn increased the company’s profitability enormously due to the pride felt by people within the organisation. In contrast to the warm and fuzzy feeling we got from the BUPA campaign, the United Colors of Benetton presented a harder hitting image to the world (a bloody new born baby still attached to the umbilical cord) a far cry from their previous campaigns of cosy colourful knits and an ethnic mix of beautiful people. It was confusing and certainly attracted much controversy and media attention. This was only the start for Benetton and what followed throughout the decade included stark images of Aids victims, a prisoner on Death Row and hard to stomach images relating to drug addiction. Such ‘Shock’ advertising is not popular with the public as a whole and organisations that believe they have an obligation to sell more than just stuff – take on a huge commercial risk when creating associations with hard to stomach subject matters.

I contacted Patrick Ballin a leading HR & training specialist within the retail sector who used to work for The Body Shop (known for its sales of beauty and healthcare products with a conscience) and asked him about his experience relating to the impact shop window displays has on customers and employees:

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“Anita always saw the shop window as a billboard to talk to the world about whatever we were doing; multiplied by 52 countries and that’s a reach that most PR people would be pretty envious of. Once or twice a year, there would be an overt Values related campaign message and that was always contentious: the retailers, who live and by each week’s like-for-like sales, would always want a product related, promotional message. Of course, quite rightly, Anita’s view won out and it’s a really good example of brand building versus direct promotional messaging. The most contentious example of all was when she took on Shell for their support of the notorious Abacha regime in Nigeria, which permitted terrible environmental damage and orchestrated the execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa, a writer friend of the Roddicks, who was a community leader in Rivers State. To their credit, individual shop managers and franchisees all over the world took on the campaign – a stark noose poster in the windows of nearly 2200 stores all over the world. It didn’t directly sell a lot of shampoo or body butter but it was incredibly powerful, memorable and it said everything that needed to be said about what The Body Shop stood for. And it still makes me come out in goose bumps to think of it. Nigeria was expelled from the Commonwealth following its actions and I am sure that our campaign had a huge amount to do with this.

Long after dozens of commercially successful promotions of tea tree and vitamin E cream had come and gone, I can find hundreds of colleagues from that period who remember the Nigeria campaign as a significant moment in their careers: a landmark that really engaged them with what our business was about. So if you want to look at how a shop window can really affect the feelings of the staff and their belief in the company they work for, it’s an exceptional example.

At their best, window displays tell the story of the organisation. They are instantly recognisable and wow you. You know exactly what to expect when you see the stylised white logo on the glass cube of the Apple store near Central Park in New York; and the store delivers 99.5% on that promise. I love Anthropologie for the same reason: the displays are eccentric, eye-catching and very true to what the company has to offer. The Disney Store experimented with really wacky video displays a year or two ago – it said more about what they were about, the theatrically of a business where the sales advisors talk about “being on stage” with their customers, than a thousand Hannah Montana posters would have done. On a very simple level, I passed the garden centre on Handcross Hill this morning and they had turned an HGV trailer into a billboard for their summer clearance: simple and effective – and a wonderfully creative use of the trailers that the end-of-season merchandise had been delivered in.

Part of the art and science of retailing is the most effective use of space: and that outside display space, whether the window or a makeshift temporary display like the trailers this morning, cuts through. So much window display is safe, samey and boring: a waste of

space. The best displays get the message out in a way you just can’t ignore and, on the way, provide something that the store, quite literally, can get behind. It shows that the retailer knows its customer and it invites you in.” Patrick Ballin, Director, Mile One Ltd www.mileone.co.uk

Mile One supports the Rework programme from Retail Trust, free help for people made redundant in retail www.retailtrust.org.uk.

So what does your window display say about you? If you get it right, your shop front can be an inspiration inside and out.

Oxbow will donate 10% of its profits on large format print of store banners & other display panels throughout November to the Retail Trust. Please contact aaron@oxbowmedia.co.uk for details.

I was reminded this week of the importance of having fun with design and even more importantly, creating designs that tell a story. When it comes to designing interiors using metal materials I wonder how conservative and grown up many of us play it in terms of shapes and textures? Do we allow ourselves to get conditioned by our clients because they choose the safer options from what we present to them? In the longer term this is a shame as it can mean that they then blend with the masses rather than standing out from the crowd.

If you are in the Sussex area any time soon, I strongly recommend that you pop in to a wonderful exhibition titled ‘Mr Watt, Grumpy Man of Metal’ by craft maker Jon Mills – a free exhibition at the Hove Museum & Art Gallery. If you have children they will especially love it but children are not essential to making this a personal treat. For designers it reminds us of just what a fantastic material metal is and highlights that we are never too grown up to appreciate a good story and playful design. Take your client along too as there is even a great tea room with tasty cakes – enjoy!

Source:http://www.brighton-hove-rpml.org.uk/WhatsOn/Pages/HMmrwatt18marto27sep11.aspx

British designers Edward Barber & Jay Osgerby who created the slim three-sided torch of perforated golden metal (with 8,000 symbolic holes punched on each), light enough for young torchbearers to carry, took the approach we understand so well to such a task with their initial attempts to weather test a flaming torch using a home-made torch of fused plumbers pipe, topped off with an Ikea cutlery drainer, the office fan and a watering can.

As our focus here at Oxbow at the moment is on chairs with an edge – these guys came to mind with their award winning Tip Ton chair. We would love to hear from someone at the Barber Osgerby stable on the early design components for this great chair but in the meantime if you have not seen it – this chair has a movie all of its own set to music that sets it ‘rockin’ – sit back and enjoy.
Source:Tip Ton Chair
Picture from Barber Osgerby

The names of five neighbourhoods which will be built on the site of London’s Olympic Park after the 2012 Games have been revealed. The homes will include modern versions of London’s traditional Georgian and Victorian squares and terraces, as well as riverside properties.

The new suburbs will be called Chobham Manor, East Wick, Marshgate Wharf, Sweetwater and Pudding Mill.
Almost 2,000 names were put forward in the competition to name the new neighbourhoods and suggested names for the neighbourhoods were judged by a panel including representatives from Newham, Tower Hamlets, Hackney and Waltham Forest councils.

Wessex Archaeology Historian Andy Crockitt said Chobham Manor would be built on site of the original manor of the same name. The manor house was originally built in 1329 and was then renamed when it was bought by John de Chobham in 1843.

Sweetwater will be built on an area where a sweet factory stood in the mid-20th Century. Pudding Mill is already an established area in east London and goes back to medieval milling on the River Lee. Pudding is a reference to flour mills.

It will be interesting to see if the new home owners in Pudding Mill name their homes after great British puddings such as Spotted Dick or Eton Mess.

What we will be watching out for is how the new builds fair up aesthetically; that they are designed for living and will stand the test of time.

An exhibition celebrating the work of Kenneth Grange – Britain’s leading product designer – in a career spanning over 50 years will showcase some of his most iconic and familiar products and appliances that shape our daily lives. Kodak cameras, the silhouette for the Intercity 125 train, Kenwood food mixers, Parker pens, and the re-design of the London black cab are just some of his well-known designs.

This exhibition at The Design Museum is Kenneth Grange’s first UK retrospective celebrating his work, design journey and the role he has played in making Britain modern. With unique access to the Grange archive, the exhibition includes over 150 products, prototypes, sketches as well as audio, photography and film.

Source:design exhibition London

Tesco have shown that they are on the leading edge of smart phone technology with the implementation of their new virtual stores in Korea.

Tesco aimed to become the no.1 supermarket in Korea (from no.2), an objective they have managed to achieve in other countries, the difference this time is that they wanted to reach their goal without building more stores. No easy challenge, but with the Koreans being the second hardest working population in the world, it was decided that a unique solution was needed that would make their shopping easier and give them more time in the day.

The solution? To create Home Plus virtual stores, that allow customers to shop outside of the supermarket, the example in the video shows a virtual store on the underground!

How does it work? The virtual stores consist of wall sized images of the supermarket shelves, with QR codes under each product, the customers use their smartphones to scan the items they want, which are then placed in their online basket. Once the order has been placed the delivery arrives at their home later that day. The new stores allow Koreans to productively use their time while waiting for trains and cuts out the trip to the supermarket.

The new stores increased registered users by 75% and online sales by 130% so clearly they were a huge success.

Yet another excellent use of QR codes, showing the real potential of this technology and how it can improve our lives. When will the UK get up to date with virtual stores?

We’re currently waiting on a reply from Tesco for more information.

The new printer allows us to print on a range of new medias as well as all the old ones.

We can now print up to 60″ wide on:

Banner Material
Photograde Paper
Poster Paper
Vinyl
Exterior Grade Banner Material
Wallpaper
Steel Paper
Foil Paper

Our post production team, are happy to trim your prints, mount to board, laminate, encapsulate, make into a popup banners, add eyelets, and much more.

If you require any print please feel free to contact us on 01243 788878