Visual Merchandising Tips For A Successful Christmas

Visual Merchandising Tips For A Successful Christmas

Visual Merchandising Tips For A Successful Christmas

Here are my top Visual Merchandising tips to help retailers achieve a successful Christmas period…..

Creating theatre and atmosphere within your Christmas shop will always help to engage your customer and create that Christmas experience all shoppers are looking for.

Take inspiration from some of London’s top department stores, who create magical theatre within their displays by using lighting, graphics and props.

Create a strong theme which your customer can follow/ engage with throughout their journey within your store, consider incorporating your theme consistently within your POS, windows, in store displays and digital content.

Please click on the full blog article to read more….

10th Nov 2024 | Visual Merchandising Consultancy and VM Training

UAL Summer School 2024 Visual Merchandising Courses

UAL Summer School 2024 Visual Merchandising Courses

For September’s blog post I wanted to share with you some of the highlights from this year’s Visual Merchandising Summer school, which I taught for The University of the Arts London – as part of their UAL Short Courses program 🤩

It was great to be back teaching at Central St Martins in Kings Cross Granary Square. The UAL short Visual Merchandising Courses featured a mix of theory and practical carried out in the classroom, as well as two days of retail visits for the students to see the Visual Merchandising techniques in practice.
Please click on the full blog article to find out more….

16th Sep 2024 | Visual Merchandising Consultancy and VM Training

Visual Merchandising Training For Ludlow Farmshop

Visual Merchandising Training For Ludlow Farmshop

This month I have had the pleasure of teaching a bespoke Visual Merchandising workshop for the Retail team at Ludlow Farmshop. They are in the process of opening up their new Gift Shop this Summer and required Visual Merchandising training prior to opening to support their team with merchandising and store layout techniques.

Creating an effective store layout is important to gain an improvement to your customer flow throughout your store and also create a more pleasurable, harmonious shopping experience for your customers. I wanted to share with you my top tips and techniques to being able to achieve a more effective store layout. Please click on the full blog article to find out more….

31st Jul 2024 | Visual Merchandising Consultancy and VM Training

Four Visual Merchandising Techniques For Retail Success

Four Visual Merchandising Techniques For Retail Success

For this month’s blog post I wanted to share with you all the most important techniques to always have in mind when creating window dressing or in store Visual Merchandising. In my experience, the four Visual Merchandising principles are my main toolbox of techniques that I refer to with all my Visual Merchandising consultancy work. I would recommend that retailers have these in mind before setting up the Visual Merchandising in their stores. These four principles are; Symmetrical, Asymmetrical, Repetition and Alternation.

30th Jun 2024 | Visual Merchandising Consultancy and VM Training and Window Dressing

Panel Leader for Assessing Trade Stands at RHS Chelsea Flower Show

Panel Leader for Assessing Trade Stands at RHS Chelsea Flower Show

This year I am celebrating my 10th year of working with the RHS at Chelsea Flower Show to help them with judging their trade stands at the event. It is always such an honour to be asked to be a panel leader on the  judging team. This year the show gardens and trade stands looked fantastic, there were so many beautiful gardens to share with you but these were my highlights ; The Newt in Somerset reconstructed a Roman garden filled with medicinal plants. The beautiful Bridgerton themed garden đź’— St James Piccadilly- Imagine the world to be different. In the photo below, I am standing in front of the inspiring garden, The freedom from torture garden – A sanctuary for survivors and not forgetting the amazing Japanese garden titled, Moroto no IE. 

31st May 2024 | Judging and Visual Merchandising Consultancy and VM Training

London Visual Merchandising Retail Safari

London Visual Merchandising Retail Safari

So grateful to have spent the day with Aso Lam and Mavis Chan who were visiting London from the Hong Kong Design Institute.

Aso and Mavis booked a Visual Merchandising Retail Safari with me, which included in person Visual Merchandising training in King’s Cross, then we spent the rest of the day visiting London’s best retail experiences. We started visiting the retailers in Coals Drop Yard, then travelled by tube to Harrods to look at the Prada Pop Up Space which is exclusive to Harrods dedicated to selection of women’s ready to wear, bags, shoes and accessories. We also got a selfie with the Harrods Bear at the Pop Up Concierge Space.

29th Apr 2024 | Visual Merchandising Consultancy and VM Training

UAL Visual Merchandising Short Course London College of Fashion

UAL Visual Merchandising Short Course London College of Fashion

This past week I have been teaching the weekly Visual Merchandising Short Course for The London College of Fashion, at their new campus in Stratford, East London. This course was part of the University of the Arts Short Course program running during the Spring break.
The short course focused upon an introduction into Window Dressing and Visual Merchandising. Where we explored current consumer trends within the retail industry and how retailers are creating the ultimate retail experience.

31st Mar 2024 | Visual Merchandising Consultancy and VM Training

Teaching Level 5 Fashion Branding & Visual Merchandising Module UWL London

Teaching Level 5 Fashion Branding & Visual Merchandising Module UWL London

This month I am back at The University of West London in Ealing to teach the 8 week Visual Merchandising module to the students enrolled on the Level 5 Fashion Branding & Visual Merchandising Course.
As part of the 8 week module we will be focusing upon an introduction in to the Visual Merchandising industry and looking at current consumer trends & behaviours within the retail industry.
The two part assessment is focused upon the students designing their own pop up shop for the Selfridges Corner Shop space.
Students will be designing the Oxford and Duke Street window spaces. Then focusing upon designing their in store floor space and creating VM planograms to assist with practical installation.
My theory classes are complimented by Photoshop lessons, which will assist the students in gaining further knowledge of using the design program which they will be using to design their assessment drawings.

It was important for us to visit the Corner Shop at Selfridges in person, to assist students with the understanding of the space and how this is used to create an experimental space for the customer.

26th Feb 2024 | Visual Merchandising Consultancy and VM Training

Teaching at Conde Nast College London

Teaching at Conde Nast College London

For my first blog post of 2024, I am excited to have been asked to teach the Visual Merchandising Module with fellow Lecturer and VM Specialist, Sarah Bailey at Conde Nast College in London.

It was great to meet the students last week at our first lesson together and I look forward to teaching them again in February. My lectures are focusing around the importance of applying the key Visual Merchandising principles both in store and via digital channels. Exploring new technologies which are assisting our customers to have the ultimate multi sensory experience in store and through interactive window displays.

31st Jan 2024 | Visual Merchandising Consultancy and VM Training

Installing Christmas at Fife Arms Braemar

Installing Christmas at Fife Arms Braemar

As 2023 draws to a close, I wanted to write my final VMC blog post of the year and where best to finish the year in Braemar, Scotland at the beautiful, Fife Arms Hotel. As I write this final post Fife Arms are in the full swing of the New Year’s celebrations with their Hogmanay celebrations !

It has been a fantastic festive period and I have been very grateful to have had the opportunity to work with so many brilliant retailers and customers this year.

My final job, just before Christmas week was working at the amazing, Fife Arms Hotel with a longtime colleague, Milly Talbot Dunn. Milly asked me to assist her with redressing the hotel’s collection of Christmas trees, to ensure these are ready and looking their very best before the Christmas festivities. Christmas tree’s were located in each of the hotel’s restaurants and decorated with dried fruit and textures from Scotland, taking inspiration from the hotel’s Victorian heritage.

Finally, as we enter 2024, I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for your support and custom this year, it is truly appreciated.
Wishing you a very Happy, Peaceful and Abundant New Year 2024

31st Dec 2023 | Visual Merchandising Consultancy and VM Training